The Giants' cure of Coors Field prevails.
One day after snapping a four-game losing streak with a 5-0 win against the Rockies on the road, the Giants used a six-run second inning Wednesday to take down Colorado 8-6. Sometimes, playing an eight-win in-division opponent is exactly what a team needs.
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The Giants batted around the order – plus more – in the second inning, giving them all the cushion they needed. Those six runs proved to be more important as the game went on.
Jordan Hicks for the second straight start didn’t exactly have his best stuff. Hicks only made it through four innings in his last outing and was fortunate to make it through five innings this time. The Rockies scored two runs in the bottom of the fifth while sending seven batters to the plate.
But Hicks also induced an inning-ending double play as Brendan Rodgers left the bases loaded. Again, that second inning made all the difference. Hicks in five innings gave up three earned runs on seven hits, two walks and struck out five.
San Francisco Giants
Thairo Estrada (0-for-4, two walks) and Nick Ahmed (0-for-3, one run, one RBI) were the only Giants who didn’t record a hit. Four Giants had a multi-hit game.
Wednesday's win gave the Giants their first series win of this 10-game road trip, and marked their first back-to-back wins since April 22 and 23.
Here are three takeaways from the Giants improving to 17-21 on the season.
An Inning To Remember
The Giants hadn’t scored six or more runs in a game since April 20, and had done so five times the entire 2024 MLB season. Then the second inning happened Wednesday at Coors Field.
In the second inning alone, the Giants scored six runs. They recorded seven hits and 11 batters came to the plate before starting pitcher Peter Lambert could record three outs. Lambert needed only 11 pitches to get through a 1-2-3 first inning, and then threw 36 pitching in the second.
Michael Conforto was the MVP of the inning, leading it off with a solo shot 387 feet over the right-field wall, and also singling later in the inning too.
From slugging to small ball, the Giants scored in an array of ways during the second inning. Ahmed and Jung Hoo Lee were perfect examples of how. First, Ahmed squared around for a perfect bunt to score Mike Yastrzemski on a head-first Superman slide.
Next up, Lee crushed a liner 104.6 mph off the right-field wall for a double to score Heliot Ramos.
Welcome Back
Ramos has done everything right in Triple-A Sacramento this season after struggling in spring training. A logjam in the outfield and at DH has kept him from the big leagues in 2024, until Wednesday when Jorge Soler was placed on the 10-day injured list with a strained right shoulder. The first ball Ramos put in play had a 62.7-mph exit velocity, and his process was as important as the result.
The 24-year-old fouled off a 95-mph sinker inside on a 1-2 count, the fourth pitch of his first at-bat. Lambert then tried to throw another sinker inside on Ramos, this time out of the strike zone. But Ramos was able to stay inside and bloop an RBI single into right field.
Though Ramos struck out swinging his next at-bat, he worked a 3-2 count and made Lambert work for eight pitches. Ramos then swung at the first pitch his third time up and was the victim of some bad luck, scorching a grounder 104.7 mph to shortstop for the third out of the fifth inning.
He struck out looking in his fourth and final at-bat of the night, ending 1-for-4 with one RBI and two strikeouts.
Saved By Sabol
Manager Bob Melvin found himself in the worst possible situation the last time Hicks took the mound five days ago, but not because of the right-hander’s up-and-down performance. The nightmare was from catcher Patrick Bailey sustaining a concussion from a foul ball off his mask early in the game. His backup, Tom Murphy, then was on the wrong side of a wet field, sustaining a knee injury that will keep him out multiple weeks.
Enter Blake Sabol.
The versatile 26-year-old played 110 games for the Giants last season, but was another name stuck in Sacramento early this season. Next man up, right? That appears to be Sabol’s mindset, taking advantage of his latest opportunity.
Sabol enjoyed his second career three-hit game Wednesday, going 3-for-4 with an RBI double and two singles. In four games since being called up due to injuries, Sabol now is batting .500 (6-for-12). Sabol sprayed the ball all over Coors Field and has to feel confident entering the final game of a three-game series in Colorado before coming home for nine games.
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