DENVER — In two career starts here, Kyle Harrison looks to be the exception to the rule. With five more scoreless frames to begin the Giants’ second half schedule Friday night against the Rockies, the 22-year-old left-hander now hasn’t allowed a run in 12 career innings in the league’s least friendly pitching confines.
To the Giants’ detriment, however, Harrison’s success wasn’t contagious and their bullpen returned to Coors Field’s regularly scheduled programming.
It took a team effort for the bullpen to blow the three-run lead handed to them in a 7-3 loss that started the second half on a sour note.
Randy Rodríguez surrendered a two-run home run that pulled the Rockies within one run in the sixth, Ryan Walker allowed them to plate the tying run in the seventh after a leadoff double and a throwing error by Matt Chapman, and Tyler Rogers served up a towering go-ahead homer in the eighth.
“Every loss stings, but when you have a lead when (Harrison) comes out, it hurts a little bit,” manager Bob Melvin said. “Very uncharacteristic of them giving up some runs. Give (the Rockies) credit. They put together some good at-bats and scored some runs off some good relievers.”
The bottom two teams in the National League West standings will meet six more times over the Giants’ next 12 games. The loss dropped them four games below .500, at 47-51, and further toward the back of the pack competing for the final NL wild card spot, three games out of playoff position and behind five other teams.
The Giants had one bounce go their way, when left fielder Sean Bouchard whiffed on a diving attempt that led to a two-run triple from Thairo Estrada, but were also dealt a bout of bad luck, when Brett Wisely’s surefire extra-base hit ricocheted off the first-base umpire and into the glove of Colorado’s first baseman.
Wisely’s would-be knock almost assuredly would have scored two runs, extending the Giants’ advantage to 5-0, but the shortstop pushed back on the idea that it stunted their momentum. In fact, when he saw what was transpiring in front of him, he said his reaction was “a slight chuckle.”
“Because if something like that were going to happen, it’s going to be to me,” he said. “I mean, we get those runs there, maybe the ball rolls a different way. But we just come back tomorrow and just keep trying. Maybe just don’t hit it at the umpire tomorrow.”
More misfortune struck in the sixth, when umpires ruled that Rodríguez hit the leadoff man, Elias Diaz, with a pitch. After an unsuccessful challenge, Díaz was awarded first base and the next batter, Brenton Doyle, launched a two-run homer to get the Rockies on the board.
Melvin described it as a “phantom” hit-by-pitch and said umpires never informed the Giants bench where exactly Díaz was struck.
But mostly they were left kicking themselves over their own missed opportunities, going 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position and stranding eight men on base.
“It adds up,” Melvin said. “Very frustrating. But look, we didn’t add on, and we gave up too many runs at the end.”
With the bases loaded and two outs in the eighth, Melvin stuck with Michael Conforto when Rockies manager Bud Black called on left-handed reliever Jalen Beeks despite having Luis Matos and Wilmer Flores at his disposal, and Conforto struck out to end the inning.
“Michael’s been good against lefties this year,” Melvin said. “If I could sit here and do it over again knowing he struck out, I’d do it differently. But a lot of times we play Michael against left-handers and he’s done a pretty good job against them, especially when we have a lead at the time.”
Harrison departed after five innings holding a 3-0 lead, courtesy of Estrada’s second-inning triple and an RBI groundout the following inning from Patrick Bailey, but the bullpen proceeded to let it wilt away over the ensuing three innings.
Despite only entering the game as a pinch-hitter in the seventh inning, Jake Cave doubled and scored off Walker in the seventh and slugged the go-ahead, three-run home run off Rogers in the eighth.
Harrison struggled to find the strike zone at times, issuing four walks and hitting a batter, and the Rockies ran his pitch count up to 93 force him from the game. But he struck out six and surrendered just one hit while becoming the third Giants pitcher since 2016 to complete five or more scoreless innings in the league’s least friendly pitching confines.
Striking out the side to strand two base runners in the fourth and punching out a pair to get out of another jam in the fifth, Harrison’s six strikeouts were his most in a start since May 24, which he attributed to better life on his fastball at the top of the strike zone.
Harrison himself was actually the last Giants pitcher to accomplish the feat, extending his streak of scoreless innings at Coors Field to 12 after also blanking the Rockies in this setting earlier this season, when he tossed seven shutout frames on May 7.
“I think for me it was really the same plan and approach,” Harrison said of pitching at altitude. “Something I haven’t been doing was the first-pitch strike, so we really wanted to stress that today. I had a lot of outings last year in these high-altitude places — (Triple-A venues) Reno, Las Vegas — so I kind of had a feel for how my ball was going to move, where to land it and not land it in that honeyhole to righties.”
Fresh off his first All-Star appearance, RHP Logan Webb (7-7, 3.47) makes his first start of the second half against LHP Kyle Freeland (1-3, 6.00). First pitch is scheduled for 5:10 p.m. PT.
