Photo courtesy of San Francisco Giants Twitter. J.D. Davis and Mitch Haniger celebrate Haniger’s home run against the Rockies on 9/8/23

By Titus Wilkinson (@TitusWisme)

SAN FRANCISCO- The orange-and-black played a wild game against the Rockies that ended with SF on top by a final of 9-8.

First pitch was thrown at 7:17 p.m. with the game having an attendance of 33,448.

The best left-handed pitching prospect in the MLB Kyle Harrison was on the mound tonight for the Giants. While for the Rockies they went with veteran left-hander Ty Blach to start.

Harrison was coming off a rough outing against the Padres when he gave up six runs in a 6-1 loss.

When an offense is cold it can be important to get off to a good start and get runners on base. The Giants did just that getting five on base in just the first three innings. None of them reached home. Though they got close as Luis Matos was caught trying to make it all the way on a single by Wilmer Flores.

On the other side of the coin the Rockies got three runners home in the second with Hunter Goodman knocking two of those home on a triple.

The young ace for the orange-and-black despite the rough start was able to calm the waters and strike out five. In the sixth Harrison threw a slurve to Nolan Jones that ended up being crushed to center field making it 4-0 and ending the young pitchers night. Coming in to replace Harrison would be Jakob Junis who ended the sixth giving up no more runs.

Then in the bottom of the sixth the bats came alive. It started off with Luis Matos drawing a walk and then on a sinker Flores took Blach deep to center field giving San Francisco some life. With the game now 4-2 and the fans starting to make some noise Mitch Haniger stepped up to the plate. Blach then on a 2-2 pitch threw a changeup that caught the bottom of the zone that Haniger somehow managed to poke over the center field wall making it back-to-back home runs.

Just when the moment couldn’t seem to get any bigger J.D.Davis delivered by launching another one over the center field wall sending the crowd into a frenzy. The Giants had just hit back-to-back-to-back home runs which San Francisco hadn’t done since April 4th, 2016. With the game now tied Blach was pulled from the game and in his place came Matt Koch. Koch was able to get the next three batters out but the damage had already been done.

The seventh felt like a crash back down to earth as after two singles Elias Diaz smacked one to left field and over the wall making it 7-4. The culprit was Taylor Rogers who threw a sweeper that Diaz dug out and launched.

Looking for another spark in the seventh Mike Yastrzemski pinch hit for Joey Bart and delivered with a single. The home run derby then continued when Blake Sabol roped one to center field notching his 12th homer of the season and making it 7-6. That homer got Koch yannked from the game and replaced by Jake Bird who finished the inning only giving up a double to Matos.

Momentum continued to go the Giants way as in the eighth after Brandon Crawford and DeJong got on base Yastrzemski got Crawford home tying the game up at seven.

Camilo Doval came in to try and close the game and did not get off to a great start as he gave up a lead off single to Charlie Blackmon. Nolan Jones then got a double knocking in a run with two outs. After that Doval closed the game on a ground out giving the Giants the victory.

John Brebbia was given the win while Jake Bird took the loss.

The second game of this series will be tomorrow at 6:05 p.m.