Drew Gilbert (62) is congratulated by teammate Heliot Ramos (right) after hitting a two run home run in the top of the third inning for the San Francisco Giants against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field in Denver on Mon Sep 1, 2025 (AP News photo)

By Barbara Mason

After winning their last two series which included a sweep of the Chicago Cubs, the San Francisco Giants won game one of their series with the Colorado Rockies 8-2. They hit three home runs in the game. The first one off the bat of Rafael Devers, the second a two run shot from Drew Gilbert and the third.

The 26th of the year a two-run homer from Willie Adames. Gilbert had an outstanding game with four hits, two RBIs, three runs in four at-bats.

The Giants got ahead of it from the get go scoring the first run of the game in the first inning. Devers gave his team an early 1-0 lead with a solo home run to right and San Francisco had a great start to this game.

The Giants added to their lead in the third inning scoring two more runs. San Francisco’s Gilbert hit the Giant’s second home run of the game , his second career homer, with Patrick Bailey on base and a 3-0 lead.

San Francisco broke this game wide open in the fifth inning loading the bases a couple of times and when the dust had settled were cruising with a 6-0 lead going into the sixth inning. Christian Koss scored the first run in the fifth inning for a 4-0 lead. A Dominic Smith single allowed both Devers and Gilbert to score giving the Giants a 6-0 lead.

It was a rough fifth inning for Colorado starting pitcher Chase Dollander. After five innings he was relieved by Anthony Monlina. Molina had a very good sixth inning allowing a single hit and no runs.

Kai-Wei Teng had a very good game going 5 1/3 innings. He was relieved by Joel Peguero when he put runners on second and third. He had given up a lot of hits with nine but no runs and had eight strikeouts and no walks. It was an excellent outing for Teng.

The Rockies finally got up on the scoreboard scoring twice in the bottom of the sixth inning. Kyle Karros grounded out to third for Colorado’s second out but allowed Brenton Doyle to score for their first run of the game. Colorado would score a second run when Yanquiel Fernandez doubled and Ezequiel Tovar scored and that would finish off the sixth inning.

The Giants would get those two runs right back in the top of the seventh inning. Willy Adames hit his 26 th home run of the season and it was “bye bye baby” with Drew Gilbert aboard and San Francisco pushed their lead back out to 8-2.

San Francisco took the 8-2 lead into the top of the ninth inning. An Adames single in the inning loaded the bases with one out. Matt Chapman came to the plate with the bases loaded now with 2 outs. Chapman has struggled latley against lefties and he did strike out for the third out.

The Rockies were three outs away from losing game one of this series. Colorado did not make much noise in the bottom of the ninth inning and went down one, two, three and that was the ball game 8-2 in favor of San Francisco. The Giants are now back at .500 getting a great start to this current road trip. This was San Francisco pitcher Teng’s best start of the season and a great start to this series.

Game notes : After blasting their way through the Baltimore Orioles in games one and three taking the series this past weekend, the Giants roared into Coors Field kicking off Labor Day starting another successful series against the Colorado Rockies.

The Giants did get soundly beaten in game two of their last series by the O’s 11-1 but did come back with a vengeance in game three with a 13-2 win and took alot of confidence into Coors Field playing much better ball.

Prior to their series with the Orioles they swept a playoff bound Chicago Cubs at Oracle Park. Monday the Giants starter Kai-Wei Teng went 5.1 innings, allowed nine hits, two earned runs, and struck out eight batters.

Rockie starter Chase Dollander pitched five innings, allowed five hits, six earned runs, three walks, and two strike outs. The Giants are running out of season with only 25 games left. They remain in third place in the National League West.

The Giants are still in a good spot five games behind for the last Wild Card spot as the season winds down with four teams ahead of them and virtually tied with the Diamondbacks for a spot with the St. Louis Cardinals still in the mix.

The wild card race in the National League is extremely crowded but the Giants are trying to stay in the fight. San Francisco has to continue to the kind of baseball they have recently enjoyed and cannot suffer any more lapses that they’ve seen not too long ago.

San Francisco will start Logan Webb in Tuesday’s game two. He has a 12-9 win/loss record and a 3.16 ERA. The Rockies will sent Kyle Freelander to the mound with a 3-13 win/loss record and a 5.28 ERA. First pitch for game two is scheduled for 5:40 PM.