The Giants visited the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park with an opportunity to get back to .500 for the first time since June 1.
And having lost their last seven attempts at breaking out of the sub-.500 team category, it was going to take more than a solid outing from ace Logan Webb.
Perhaps some magic from none other than Tyler Fitzgerald?
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Fitzgerald did just that in the nation’s capital, starting with a 416-foot leadoff blast on the second pitch of the game, taking his home run count to 11 in the last 17 games.
With 11 homers in less than a month, the 26-year-old managed to etch his name yet again in the record books – two, to be exact.
Fitzgerald joined Alex Rodriguez, Trea Turner and Troy Tulowitzki as the only shortstops to homer 11 times in 17 games.
On the Giants end, Fitzgerald joined Mel Ott, Walker Cooper, Willie Mays, Jim Ray Hart, Willie McCovey and Barry Bonds as the only players to accomplish the feat, according to MLB's Sarah Langs.
San Francisco Giants
“Nothing goes on forever like this, but, yes, I think he can be a productive big-league hitter and he’s settling at shortstop too,” Giants manager Bob Melvin told reporters on Monday. "He’s a lot calmer in his plays. The speed of the runner now. His internal clock is better now. He’s just playing with a lot of confidence. Like I said, there’s a ton of ability there.
“I don’t know if he’s going to go to the Hall of Fame if he continues at this pace, but we like what we see. And after a little bit of a spurt where he wasn’t swinging great maybe for four, five games, he picked it up again. That’s what you want to see.”
Two days removed from being named the NL Rookie of the Month, Fitzgerald’s name, deservingly so, was mentioned yet again in the same breath as some of the game’s greats.
That’s certainly a major compliment for Fitzgerald, who is saving his best baseball in time when San Francisco is vying to stay alive.
“I hope he passes me,” Matt Chapman, who hit his 18th homer of the season Monday, told NBC Sports Bay Area's "Giants Postgame Live" after the win. “That means he keeps swinging the bat well, and the runs that we get we need. It’s fun to see [Fitzgerald] get comfortable.
“It seems like everyday he’s getting better. He’s getting more comfortable at shortstop. He just seems to be hitting balls everywhere. The homers are coming in bunches right now, so it’s fun to watch. We’re definitely excited he’s swinging the bat, and we’re picking each other up for sure.”
Throughout the 17-game stretch, Fitzgerald is hitting .359 with a .423 OBP and slugging a ridiculous .953, while scoring 17 runs.
And believe it or not, the rookie is doing nothing different to continue a legendary streak that he will likely remember for the rest of his career.
The work is constant and the results remain the same.
“Nothing different, to be completely honest,” Fitzgerald told reporters. “[I’m] just working hard everyday coming in with a clean slate each day. Whatever happened good or bad the day before, wipe it. Just come in ready to work.
“I’ve had power in the minors. It’s just one of these weird things when it’s all happening real close together. Baseball is weird and it can be good sometimes [but] sometimes you can get in little slumps. I'm just trying to ride this out for as long as possible.”
The Giants now have won eight of their last 10 games and are in prime position to climb above .500 with three games left against Washington.
Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi’s bet on the “best rotation in baseball” and the young position players to turn San Francisco's fortunes around looks to be paying off.
But surely no one in San Francisco wants Fitzgerald to wake up from this dream.