© Sergio Estrada-USA TODAY Sports
The San Francisco Giants (75-41) scored five runs in the first two innings against the Colorado Rockies (51-65) on Friday night. Like most of America during quarantine, they did most of their work early on Friday – and it was good enough to take care of business.
The Giants won their sixth game in a row, defeating the Rockies 5-2 in front of a healthy crowd of 36,126 fans. They kept pace with the Dodgers, who won earlier in the night, and retained their five game lead in the NL West.
The orange-clad Giants used a familiar equation to dispatch the Rockies: Quality outing from a starter and timely hitting that moved baserunners across home plate. It’s a combo that has Giants fans starting to imagine crazy things about October 2021.
The quality outing came from Anthony DeSclafani who was activated from the 10-day injured list before the game, right-shoulder fatigue the cause for the time off.
DeSclafani went five innings, only allowing two earned runs on five hits. He picked up the win, his first since a July 10 start against the Washington Nationals.
Wilmer Flores was the man at the plate who accounted for a large portion of the timely hitting, smashing a three-run dinger to left field in the first inning.
#SFGiants home run leaderboard
1. Brandon Crawford (19)
2. Mike Yastrzemski (18)
T3. Buster Posey (15)
T3. Brandon Belt (15)
T3. LaMonte Wade Jr. (15)
T3. Wilmer Flores (15)— Kerry Crowley (@KO_Crowley) August 14, 2021
Austin Slater also had himself a productive night at the plate collecting three hits, two of which were doubles.
The bullpen pitched three lights out innings for San Francisco before some hand wringing in the ninth. Kapler went Jackson – Watson – Rodgers, who were all stellar, before handing the ball to Jake McGee in the 9th.
McGee allowed a 9th inning home run to Forever Giant Connor Joe, then gave up two more hits before getting pulled with one out to go.
Zack Littell came on in damage control and was able to retire CJ Cron to save the game.
Never. A. Doubt.
San Francisco’s six-game win streak is the longest of the year for the club. First pitch for Game 3 of the four-game series is scheduled for 6:05 p.m. on Saturday.