San Francisco – The Giants adjusted, climbed the standings, and won 10 of their last 12 games to rise above .500 with a 29-28 record. After defeating the team with the best record in baseball, the Philadelphia Phillies. San Francisco records its first winning month (May) of the 2024 campaign season.
Since May, the Giants are averaging 5.00 runs per game, tied for the third best in the Majors with the Cleveland Guardians. Only the Phillies (5.84) and the Kansas City Royals (5.12) have averaged more runs per game this month.
San Francisco’s bullpen has also been a huge factor this month. They struck out 138 batters, a franchise record for a single month besting the previous mark of 134 last June. The MLB record for strikeouts by a bullpen in a single month is 165 by the Milwaukee Brewers bullpen in September 2019 according to Elias.
Today the Giants lost 6-1 to Philadelphia to avoid the sweep but winning the series is a good start to welcoming another good team to Oracle Park. San Francisco will host the New York Yankees this weekend for a three-game series starting on Friday. As for today, Kyle Harrison struggled on the mound from the start.
“It’s rare for him, giving up that many hits,” said Giants manager Bob Melvin. “We needed innings from him today, but not his best stuff. His command wasn’t great, at times. It’s a good-hitting team. When you get behind in the count have to throw some balls over the plate, typically they take advantage of that.”
Harrison lasted five frames giving up a career high 12 hits and one walk. He struck out five, gave up four runs and two home runs. Harrison’s biggest blunder came in the first inning when he allowed leadoff hitter, Kyle Schwarber a solo blast to left field. By the second he gave up three singles, balked and a RBI to Cristian Pache.
“I feel like my command was pretty good today,” Harrison said. “I feel like I was able to kind of put it in spots that I wanted. But you know, I think too many strikes that I kind of stressed. Especially when I was ahead and just kind of let them back in. Any time you look up and see 12 hits, it’s not a good day.”
Bryce Harper 12-year veteran lost his cool and cleared the benches. During the fourth frame, Harrison threw to fastballs to Harper in which one pitch hit (the second) hit the bottom of his bat. He felt the pitch was a direct hit and reacted with aggression, that led to the benches clearing while Harrison kept his cool.
After the replay it showed the ball hit his bat and play resumed with him at the plate. Harper grounded out to end the frame. Fun fact, on this same day back in 2017, Harper lost his cool at the plate after he was hit by a pitch thrown by Hunter Strickland. Harper rushed Strickland and threw a couple of punches and Strickland returned a few punches which cleared the benches that led to a brawl on the field.
“Maybe they should just not let Bryce play here on this day,” said a joking, Matt Chapman.
San Francisco heads into a much needed doff day before they host the Yankees Friday night at 7:15pm.
