The Giants didn’t get quite the offensive eruption they were hoping the Denver altitude might provide, but they scratched across plenty of runs for their precocious southpaw.
Kyle Harrison, the 22-year-old rookie, became the first Giant since Barry Zito in 2012 to toss at least seven shutout innings in Coors Field.
Harrison struck out just two, but worked efficiently in seven scoreless frames. He gave up just six baserunners — two walks and four hits — and has now allowed just one earned run in his past 18 innings pitched.
LaMonte Wade Jr., by far the Giants’ most productive hitter this year, drove in two runs with a single and walked three more times, reaching base in all of his plate appearances. He’s now hitting .351 and leads Major League Baseball with a .485 on-base percentage.
Behind Harrison and Wade, the Giants (16-21) snapped their four-game losing streak with a 5-0 victory.
The Giants broke out with four runs in the fourth inning — not by hitting the ball hard, but by placing hits where the Colorado defense. Finally, San Francisco caught some breaks.
Consecutive swinging bunts from Nick Ahmed and Jung Hoo Lee (exit velocities of 82.7 and 36 mph) put the Giants on the board and then loaded the bases. A chopper up the middle from Thairo Estrada plated another, before LaMonte Wade Jr. drove in two more with a line drive.
Bob Melvin elected to keep Wade in the game in a left-on-left matchup against former Giant Ty Blach. Wade hasn’t gotten many opportunities to prove himself against southpaws in the past few years, but certainly hasn’t looked overmatched in a limited sample. Last year, he posted a .709 OPS in 81 plate appearances against lefties.
Wade’s single gave the Giants a 4-0 lead. It wasn’t exactly an offensive breakout, but their four runs in the fourth inning were as many as the Giants have had in any entire game since April 23.
Earlier in the night, the Giants couldn’t find the big hit to break open the game. They put six runners on in the first three innings, but stranded them all.
Harrison bought San Francisco’s offense time. He filled up the strike zone and worked efficiently, cruising through an overmatched Rockies lineup. He relied on his four-seam fastball, often at the rail, more than half the time.
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In the seventh inning, Wade walked for a third time and Michael Conforto singled to give the Giants a 5-0 lead. After their offensive ineptitude in Philadelphia led to a team meeting and a visibly peeved manager, a five-run performance was much-needed.
Harrison needed just 71 pitches to get through six scoreless innings in the hitter-friendly environment. He got some oxygen in the dugout before heading out for the bottom of the seventh, which he finished in 15 deliveries.
The shutout lowered Harrison’s ERA to 3.20 on the season — a mark that closely resembles the Giants’ runs per game average over the past few weeks. Two more games in altitude could make a big difference there.