Assuming they’re playing the Colorado Rockies, the San Francisco Giants are unstoppable.
That’s been literally true for the last 12 contests, all of which the Giants have won including Tuesday night’s 10-7 offensive slugfest at Coors Field.
The bats in particular come alive when SF sees the purple and black. In those 12 wins, the Giants have scored at least 7 runs in 11 of them and scored 6 runs in the other contest.
It’s not just the thin air that makes the offense come alive, either. In their series at Oracle Park last week, the Giants scored 24 runs in the three games.
From the second pitch of Tuesday’s game, the Giants had the Rockies’ number. It was a dominant performance from SF’s offense, who matched their season high of six extra base hits…four innings in.
They even left some runs on the table. La Stella hit what looked like a sure home run in the fifth inning that turned into a double off the wall likely due to some swirling winds in right field. Brandon Belt also hit a long out in the ninth that would have been a home run in 28 ballparks.
This was a game the Rockies could have won too, with Alex Cobb allowing seven earned runs in arguably his biggest dud of the season. Cobb was undone by an implosion in the fifth inning that began with four consecutive singles and was broken open by a 3-run homer off the bat of Randal Grichuk. Cobb gave up five runs in the frame and allowed Colorado to cut the lead to 10-7.
But the Giants knocked out Rockies starter Chad Kuhl with a big inning of their own in the third, tagging the right hander for four runs and five hits. Adding insult to injury, the inning started with a fielding error on second baseman Brenden Rodgers (his second of the game), allowing Brandon Belt to reach first base. Kuhl gave up a run in all three innings he pitched, six in total and five earned.
The implementation of the universal DH had many detractors among Giants fans, but it was extremely beneficial for SF on Monday, again allowing both Tommy La Stella and Thairo Estrada to be included in the lineup. The two second basemen — La Stella was the DH — combined for 5 hits and 3 RBI.
La Stella started the game off with a towering, 464-foot home run that reached the second deck on the game’s second pitch. It was an encouraging moment for La Stella in just his second game since returning from the injured list following Achilles surgery. The home run was the eighth longest homer by any player this season, and the longest of La Stella’s career.
While La Stella got the Giants on the board early, Estrada added two RBI of his own and was excellent with the glove all game. His most impressive pick coming on a put out to end the sixth inning, one that tipped off Cobb’s glove.
La Stella’s return to the lineup begged questions about what the future would hold for the Giants at second, but both are making a case that a decision doesn’t need to be made anytime soon.
La Stella’s lead off home run might have been the most eye-catching, but it was the game’s second run that was the most entertaining.
Typically, Brandon Crawford wouldn’t be on the shortlist of Giants players you’d want to see stretching a double into a triple. Yet the decision to do so bore fruit in the second inning, when Crawford’s hard turn around second forced a rushed throw to third base from Rockies cutoff man Brendan Rodgers.
The errant throw went into the Colorado dugout, turning what looked like a double off Crawford’s bat into a round tripper.
It was the type of play that would make his old speed-challenged teammate Buster Posey smile.
The Giants’ bullpen held onto the 10-7 lead for the game’s final three innings, with Camilo Doval earning his seventh save after issuing two, two-out walks, then getting C.J. Cron to fly out to Austin Slater. Slater had to sprint to make the catch.
San Francisco will go for their ninth win in 11 games when they face the Rockies in the final game of the series on Wednesday afternoon.