The Giants didn’t sock three home runs in a single July or August game. But now, the league’s most disappointing second-half offense has done so in three of their past five contests.
Thairo Estrada, Mitch Haniger and Joc Pederson each homered in a Giants win that was closer than it felt. They supported Keaton Winn, who earned his first MLB win by mowing down nine Rockies while walking none for a quality start.
It’s the Colorado Rockies. That fact can’t be forgotten.
But the Giants (73-70) handled business like they needed to in a three-game sweep, redirecting their offense back on track in the process. By defeating the Rockies 6-3 on Sunday Night Baseball, the Giants have now won 16 of their last 17 matchups with Colorado.
“Obviously crucial stretch coming down, last 20 games or so, we all know this,” Haniger said postgame. “We’re meeting the challenge head-on. Offense has been looking good, and I think it’s just about showing up every day and preparing to win that night. Taking it one game at a time.”
Like in the series opener, the Giants fell behind early. All three of the Rockies’ second-inning runs came after Winn got drilled in the left calf by a comebacker with an exit velocity of 108.4 mph. The rookie required medical attention behind the mound and threw a few warm-up pitches before resuming play.
Nolan Jones bunted Winn’s first pitch after the injury down the third base line, testing the pitcher’s mobility (Winn barely moved off the rubber). Then on the very next pitch after that, Hunter Goodman drilled a triple to put the Rockies up 2-0. A sacrifice fly — which would’ve been worse had Mike Yastrzesmki not made a leaping grab at the wall — added another run.
Winn struck out two and touched 99.1 mph on the radar gun in a perfect first inning. At least immediately, Winn wasn’t quite the same after taking the comebacker.
But the Giants didn’t need perfection from their starter. Not against the Rockies, and not with what apparently is a reenergized lineup.
San Francisco immediately got two runs back when LaMonte Wade Jr. led off the second with a lined single, Mitch Haniger followed him up with an opposite-field double off the Levi’s Landing bricks, and a scalding Luis Matos added a two-out single.
Matos, who has been particularly effective against lefties this year, extended his hitting streak to five and has 13 hits over his past 33 at-bats.
The Giants took the lead in the third with a power surge. Estrada, who got stranded at third after tripling in the first inning, launched a solo shot to tie the game in the third. Then Haniger roped a two-run shot to left field for his second homer of the series.
Haniger had never homered at Oracle Park before this weekend series against the Rockies. The Giants made him their biggest free agent signing this winter with the expectation that he’d provide middle-of-the-order power. The first of his three-year deal hasn’t gone how anyone planned, but he has the chance to reverse all of that with a strong September.
“That’s the goal, I’d like to hit a lot of them here,” Haniger said of his second Oracle Park dinger.
Joc Pederson, who had hit just one home run since Aug. 1, joined Estrada and Haniger in the HR category with a solo shot to right in the fifth. That gave SF a 6-3 advantage.
All the while, any residual discomfort from Winn’s comebacker evidently evaporated — with the help of a heating pad — as the rookie retired nine straight Rockies. Winn fanned Nolan Jones swinging on a splitter to end the sixth inning for his fourth straight scoreless frame.
That gave Winn nine strikeouts on the night; his previous career-high was four. His splitter was particularly lethal, generating 18 whiffs on 26 swings.
Winn’s splitter is different from Kevin Gausman or Alex Cobb’s. Winn said his best ones have “pop,” which means it breaks later than an average pitch and tunnels well with his fastball.
SF didn’t need any more out of Winn after the sixth, and he departed with a true, rock-solid quality start. On the night, he threw 62 of his 80 pitches for strikes.
“He settled in nicely,” manager Gabe Kapler said postgame. “The strike-throwing was very impressive. We don’t see that ratio of strikes to balls very often, period. He was just filling it up on the first pitch, getting ahead, was in count leverage all day.”
The Giants wanted to see more out of Winn after he tossed five scoreless innings in a down game in San Diego last week. As Ross Stripling remains in limbo on the injured list, Winn has built a compelling case to remain on the roster.
And even though the Rockies are far less talented, the Giants will keep getting to make their case that they’re a playoff-caliber team. They’ll even have the pleasure of doing so in Denver next weekend.