SF Giants sweep Rockies in 3-0 win led by bullpen & Mike Yastrzemski's bat
Coors Field has hosted plenty of crazy baseball over its history. Known as the most hitter-friendly environment in the major leagues, any team throwing a bullpen game in Coors seems like playing with fire. This week, though, the SF Giants avoided getting burned against the Rockies in a pair of bullpen games this week. The Giants capped off their four-game series sweep with a 3-0 shutout in a bullpen game on Thursday.
Giants outfielder Mike Yastrzemski continued his hot hitting in Denver with a double off Rockies starter José Ureña in the first inning. A two-out single from Joc Pederson drove Yastrzemski in and gave San Francisco a 1-0 lead.
John Brebbia started his second game of the series on Thursday, throwing a shutout inning to get the Giants bullpen rolling. After the Giants pitching staff allowed just one run in Wednesday's 6-1 win, the bullpen completed a rare shutout at Coors.
The first relay in the Giants bullpen got off to a bumpy start when Tyler Rogers faced a bases-loaded jam in the second inning. However, the submariner was able to escape with a groundball double play. Rogers has usually been trusted to throw two innings in the Giants recent bullpen games, but manager Gabe Kapler decided to bring in Jarlin García in the third inning after Rogers' high-stress second.
García picked up the slack, striking out a pair over 2.1 innings pitched. Then, Kapler called upon recently acquired pitcher Jharel Cotton, who was added to the big-league roster on Wednesday and became the 63rd player to appear in a game for the Giants this season, one away from tying the franchise's single-season record.
Cotton allowed a lead-off double to Charlie Blackmon in the bottom of the sixth inning, but Yastrzemski was able to capitalize on a baserunning mistake by Blackmon to end the inning. Rockies slugger Elehuris Montero lined a pitch from Cotton into center field, Blackmon headed for home, hoping to score on a single, but Yaz made an excellent catch and doubled Blackmon off second base. Cotton allowed just two hits over 2.2 shutout innings.
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Yastrzemski extended the Giants lead to 2-0 in the sixth inning with a solo home run off Ureña. Even amidst his down season, Yaz is still putting up MVP numbers in the Rockies' home ballpark. After his performance on Thursday, Yastrzemski has a .330/.402/.718 triple-slash with eight doubles and 10 home runs in 25 career games at Coors Field.
In the seventh inning, Luis González singled off Rockies reliever Justin Lawrence to spark a one-run rally. González advanced to second on a fielder's choice by Joey Bart before scoring on a single by LaMonte Wade Jr.
Southpaw Scott Alexander reliever Cotton in the eighth inning and continued looking like a viable late-inning reliever. Alexander is slated to be a free agent this offseason, but he has clearly been the Giants best left-handed reliever over the past month. It's hard to envision president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi letting Alexander sign elsewhere this offseason.
Finally, Kapler handed the ball to closer Camilo Doval to cap off the bullpen's excellent day. Doval painted the outside corner with a 99 mph sinker to start the inning, and that set the tone for his electric inning. Doval struck out one over a calm ninth inning en route to recording his 24th save of the season.
The SF Giants will now travel to Phoenix, Arizona to being a three-game series against the Diamondbacks tomorrow. The Giants are scheduled to have ace Carlos Rodón on the hill after delaying his start earlier this week. First pitch is scheduled for 6:40 PM Pacific.
