Giants Baseball Corner

On the eighth pitch of this one, Rockies starter Kyle Freeland, ahead 0 – 2 to Rafael Devers, was taken yard by Rafa on an 83 mph sweeper, that was well in the zone. Devers watched it for a little too long, holding his bat and leaning his body as he watched the ball, though it wasn’t anywhere near foul territory. He lingered on the first base line.

Freeland, who had given up a single to Heliot Ramos on the third pitch of the game, and is a (3 – 10) starter on a team with 99 losses, just snapped. The frustration of the whole Rockies season was embodied by Devers in that moment. Freeland stalked towards Devers and jawed at him to take his bases.

Devers yelled back to shut the fuck up as he side-skipped to first.

Freeland stepped further toward Devers and had to be restrained by a Rockies pitching coach. Matt Chapman then ran up to Freeland  and shoved him and it started chaos as the benches cleared, bullpens ran on the field and a scrum of shoving, shouting and cursing interrupted the game. Willy Adames was jawing throughout and had to be restrained.

Freeland, Adames and Chapman were ejected. Devers took his two-run homer and the Giants led 2 -0 after definitively the longest home run trot by anyone in the majors this season and maybe ever.

Devers had hit his 30th home run, the first person to hit 30 in a Giants uniform since Barry Bonds. (Though 15 of Devers’s came in a Red Sox uni before the trade to SF).

Casey Schmitt came in for Adames and Dominic Smith for Matt Chapman. This meant the starting lineup for the infield was effectively scratched before they ever took the field.

Devers would play third, which was his original position with Boston, Dom Smith took first and Christian Koss would move from second to short to allow Schmitt to play second. It was a crazy start to this one.

But it was the 16th straight game with a homer, a team record, and the energy of the team was jacked from the get.

Logan Webb gave up two earned runs, but back-to-back solo shots from Casey Schmitt and Wilmer Flores in the top of the fifth kept him in line for the win.

The Giants were resilient against a bad team. BoMel was cool under pressure. Casey Schmitt performed though injured. The ‘pen held.

Kyle Freeland threw eight pitches and registered his 14th loss. It was the Rockies’ 100th loss of the season.

The Reds lost, the Padres lost to the  Orioles again. Though the Cards and Diamondbacks won, they remain game and a half back. The Giants look like one of four teams making a legitimate push for the second NL Wildcard.

The Pads, Mets, Reds and Giants have the best shot at that second WC. It all depends on who gets hot.

Giants need to win 13 of the next 18.

Let’s Go!