DENVER — The Giants crept within one home run of the single-season franchise record on Friday by sending four out of Coors Field.
Tommy La Stella’s set the tone. Brandon Crawford’s set a career-high. Brandon Belt’s was the most impressive. Mike Yastrzemski’s broke the 7-2 win open.
Rockies fans enjoyed Coors Field fireworks after the game, but the Giants were the ones who sent them off during it.
Tommy La Stella starts it off
La Stella’s seventh home run on the season gave the Giants a 1-0 lead before most of the Rockies’ 41,613 fans filed into Coors Field. He launched the second pitch of the game, a Peter Lambert fasetball up and in, into the first row of the right field seats.
That high and inside pitch is one La Stella has driven with success in 2021. His expected slugging percentage in that zone, per Baseball Savant, is .725 — higher than any other pitch location. He struggles more on pitches in the lower half and outside of the plate.
It was his third leadoff home run of the season and fifth of his career. La Stella’s blast was the 37th first-inning longball of the Giants’ year.
Lambert hadn’t pitched in 735 days after undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2020. La Stella welcomed him back to The Show.
Crawford ties it up
Lambert left another fastball high and inside, this time after falling behind 3-0. Lambert’s 3-0 offering was in a worse location than the one Crawford sent to the right field second deck, a fastball right down the middle. Crawford popped it up foul.
Crawford said popping up the 3-0 fastball may have helped him with his timing on the next pitch, which he crushed 106.9 mph off his bat.
Crawford’s plate discipline, like that of most of the Giants’ lineup, has been outstanding this year. When he gets ahead in counts, he puts aggressive swings on pitches he can barrel while laying off those out of the zone. In 3-1 counts, he has four home runs in 15 plate appearances to go along with eight RBI and 16 walks — good for an outrageous 2.009 OPS.
Belt captains the ship
Crawford tied the game with a home run in a hitter’s count, and Belt gave SF the lead from a pitcher’s count.
Manager Gabe Kapler said Belt’s was particularly impressive because of the nature of the count and location of the pitch.
Getting under a fastball so high it registers above the zone is tough. Pitchers throw pitches there because most hitters can’t; an elevated 0-2 fastball is often a waste pitch. Belt, though, may have saw that coming.
Throwing his hands to the ball above the letters on his jersey and firing his hips around allowed him to pull the pitch into the second deck — near where Crawford’s landed.
The homer was The Captain’s first on an 0-2 count on the year. It was just his third hit from an 0-2 count overall in 20 at-bats.
Yastrzemski blows the game open
Yastrzemski, facing reliever Ashton Goudeau with two runners on base, took an aggressive approach. He swung on every pitch in the zone, laying off the only junk pitch — an uncompetitive high fastball. Yastrzesmki swung through a first pitch curveball, then fouled off a changeup and another curve.
The curveball Yastrzemski fouled off was 77.6 mph. Goudeau tried to change speeds and blow a fastball by Yastrzemski, but he was ready for it. Yastrzemski lofted the 94.1 mph fastball high through the low-altitude air at a 36-degree launch angle. His exit velocity was slower than the pitch, a rarity for home run swings.
Yastrzemski’s always been a terrific fastball hitter. One of the reasons his batting average has dipped this year is because pitchers are throwing him more junk. Twenty of his 25 homers this year have come off fastballs, and 42 of his 63 career long balls started as heaters.
All three of SF’s homers Friday came from left-handed hitters, and all three were pulled over the right field fence. Kapler noted that much of SF’s power has come on elevating balls to the pull side.
Mike Yastrzemski’s 25th homer made he and Belt the first duo since Barry Bonds and Ray Durham in 2006 to hit 25 or more. It also inched the 2021 Giants within one more long ball of the franchise record of 235 set in 2001. By the time the team charters back to San Francisco after this weekend series in Denver, the record will be theirs.