One night after windy, rainy conditions made Oracle Park just about the hardest place on earth to hit a home run, the Giants arrived in Coors Field’s sandbox.
Hits got sprayed all over the park throughout the night, up until Thairo Estrada’s go-ahead home run in the 10th.
Estrada, down to his last strike with two outs in the 10th, lifted a three-run shot to left field to give San Francisco a three-run lead. At one point, the Giants trailed 6-2. But Estrada, one of the club’s MVPs, stamped the comeback in a 10-7 San Francisco (70-77) victory.
There were only two 1-2-3 innings all night. The teams combined for 31 hits. The Giants matched their season-high with four errors, but still got rescued by Estrada, who finished 3-for-6 with three runs and three RBI. Yunior Marte, Cole Waites, Camilo Doval and Scott Alexander each provided key scoreless innings.
The Rockies scored at least a run in each of Jakob Junis’ four full innings he took the mound. Junis’ best pitch, his slider, generated three whiffs in 36 offerings.
He allowed two doubles, two triples, and 12 hits overall in 4.1 innings. But it wasn’t all his fault.
Rookie third baseman David Villar made a fielding and throwing error on the same play, leading to a run in the third. Then in the fourth, he slid and knocked a C.J. Cron chopper into shallow left field when he probably should have let it trickle to Brandon Crawford behind him. That misjudgement was ruled an RBI single.
But as the Rockies circled the bases, the Giants stayed in it. A normal lead is fun-sized in Denver.
Mike Yastrzemski snapped a 33-game homerless streak with a solo shot to center field. Three runs in the fifth, including three two-out singles, cut Colorado’s lead to 6-5.
During their three-game sweep to the Dodgers, the Giants went 2-for-15 with runners in scoring position. In five innings against the Rockies, they were 4-for-8 in such situations.
The Rockies finally put up a zero in the fifth inning, when Alex Young relieved Junis with one out and runners on the corners. On his second delivery, Young induced a double play — one started with wizardry from Crawford.
But Crawford was the only bright spot defensively. Outfielders took either poor or slow routes to balls in the alleys and bobbled when they finally tracked them down. Thairo Estrada coughed up a grounder, and LaMonte Wade Jr. threw a pickoff attempt into the outfield.
The Giants’ four errors matched a season-high. Combined with two walks and a hit-by-pitch, the Rockies had plenty of free baserunners to go with their 16 hits. Colorado scored again in the sixth, but then went scoreless the next three frames against SF relievers.
Facing a two-run deficit in the ninth, San Francisco’s two most consistent hitters, Estrada and Wilmer Flores, tag-teamed to start a rally. Then Villar atoned for his defensive miscues with a game-tying double.
Then in the 10th, down to their last strike, the Giants got more magic from Estrada. The infielder has been clutch all year, hitting .386 with a 1.084 OPS in situations deemed “late and close” by Baseball Reference. He walked off the Pirates in August with a home run, then set up another walk-off two days later with a ninth-inning triple.
Estrada’s latest heroics shouldn’t come as a surprise. But they were a welcome shock for a team that had lost nine of its last 13 games.