SAN FRANCISCO -- The first night without Matt Chapman looked a lot like the last three weeks, but in the top of the ninth, the Giants finally came alive.
Helped along by three walks, the Giants scored four runs in the ninth at Coors Field to steal the first game of the series. After eight disappointing innings, they found another wild way to get a one-run win, extending their winning streak to six with a 6-5 victory over the Colorado Rockies, who showed why they're 12-54. The sixth straight one-run win set a franchise record, which is saying something given how many close games the Giants have played in the last 15 years.
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SIGN UP HERE The ninth-inning dramatics started when Casey Schmitt blasted the first pitch of the inning into the seats in left, cutting into what had been a three-run deficit. Tyler Fitzgerald and Andrew Knizner worked tough walks against right-hander Zach Agnos, and a wild pitch two batters later put the tying run on second. When Agnos walked Willy Adames to load the bases, the Rockies turned to fellow right-hander Viktor Vodnik.
Heliot Ramos hit a liner to center, but right at Brenton Doyle. The sacrifice fly set the stage for Wilmer Flores, the team RBI leader, and he hit a 49 mph grounder that was perfectly placed. The ball rolled slowly toward third and the Rockies had no play as the tying run scored.
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Mike Yastrzemski followed with a single that gave the Giants the lead, and Camilo Doval got old friend Thairo Estrada to pop up with the tying run on third in the bottom of the inning, picking up his 10th save.
That's More Like It
There's no way for the Giants to fully make up for the loss of Chapman. He was their best position player a year ago and pretty easily leads them in fWAR at the moment. Schmitt will try and make up for the defense, and he's well-equipped to do so, but the offense might have to come from the other infielder on the left side.
The easiest way for the Giants to survive the next fews weeks would be for Adames to finally look like the player who signed the largest deal in franchise history. On Tuesday, he was closer to his 2024 form.
Adames hit a sacrifice fly to center in the first to bring Jung Hoo Lee home after a leadoff triple, and he hit a long homer in the fifth to tie the game. The 439-foot blast was his sixth of the season and longest by 40 feet. Coors Field helped with that, but it was still a bomb, and at 108.9 mph, it was his fourth-hardest batted ball of the season. The homer was the first time since May 25 that Adames hit a ball more than 105 mph. It seemed like the 48-hour reset helped.
Kyle at Coors
Kyle Harrison's best start of 2024 came against the Rockies, but his first matchup with them this season was a mixed bag. Harrison struck out six and showed good velocity after suffering an elbow contusion in his last start, but he also gave up three runs in five innings, two of them on solo homers. A 26-pitch first inning kept him from getting too deep on the first night of the road trip.
Harrison now has made four starts and allowed 10 runs over 18 1/3 innings. He seems likely to pitch on "Sunday Night Baseball" at Dodger Stadium later this week, since Justin Verlander isn't quite ready. Verlander will throw his second simulated game on Wednesday, but that wouldn't give him enough time to recover for the end of the Dodgers series.
The New Look
Without Chapman in the heart of the order, the Giants made some big changes. Lee is back in the leadoff spot for the first time this year, with Ramos -- who had been leading off against lefties -- hitting third. Adames started the year in the two-hole but has been down in the bottom half of the lineup since the middle of May. He was moved back up to second after getting Sunday's game off to physically and mentally reset.
Early on, the changes worked. Lee led off with a 415-foot triple and scored the game's first run when Adames drove one deep enough to center.
Schmitt is back at his natural position, and the Giants believe he has a Gold Glove-caliber glove at third. He entered the night with a .180 average but had two hits, including a leadoff homer in the ninth that was his first of the year. In his first start at third, Schmitt raised his OPS about 90 points.