DENVER—Rookie left-hander Kyle Harrison pitched seven scoreless innings and the San Francisco Giants scored four runs in a decisive fourth inning despite getting only two balls out of the infield in a 5–0 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday night.
Harrison (3–1) gave up four hits, all singles, and struck out two in an efficient 86-pitch performance in his first career appearance in the mile-high air at Coors Field. He has surrendered just one run in his past 18 innings, although this was his first decision in that stretch. He walked two.
“Talk about pounding the zone,“ Giants Manager Bob Melvin said. ”Throwing strikes, getting early-count contact. It was fantastic.
“When you haven’t pitched here before, there are some unknowns when you go out there. Is your breaking ball going to break like it normally does? Am I going to get winded? All those things there is some uncertainty about didn’t seem to bother him at all.”
The Giants, who snapped a four-game skid, ended an 11-game streak of scoring no more than four runs in a game, a day after Mr. Melvin held a post-game meeting following a 6–1 loss that capped a four-game sweep at Philadelphia.
“It was well-timed,” said Nick Ahmed, who had two hits. “We didn’t play well in Philly. We got embarrassed. They are a good team, but we didn’t play our best baseball. If you just come out and do the little things right, you’re not always going to win a game, but you give yourself a better chance.”
LaMonte Wade Jr. had a two-run single to cap the Giants’ four-run fourth inning and walked three times, improving his on-base percentage to .485.
The Rockies got only two runners as far as second base, and have lost three in a row and eight of their past nine. Colorado fell to 8–27, extending the worst start in franchise history.
San Francisco’s Jung Hoo Lee extended his hitting streak to five games with his first career three-hit game, one out of the infield.
Harrison is the sixth Giants starter to throw at least seven shutout innings at Coors Field, the first since Barry Zito on April 9, 2012.
“I felt great out there,” Harrison said. “The shapes of pitches were fine. Any time you have two strikeouts, you had a hell of a defense behind you. They made some great plays.”
Jacob Stallings walked and Elehuris Montero singled with two outs in the second off Harrison, who got out of that inning on a groundout and retired 10 of the next 11 batters.
“We couldn’t square up the fastball,” Colorado Manager Bud Black said, “and he threw enough changeups and sliders in certain counts, and he got us. He pitched well. He didn’t throw. He pitched.”
Ahmed had two hits and an RBI to raise his career batting average at Coors Field to .335.
Michael Conforto drove in the Giants’ final run with a single in the seventh.
After Matt Chapman walked and Blake Sabol singled to right off Dakota Hudson (0–6) with one out in the fourth inning, Ahmed hit a slow roller that third baseman Ryan McMahon could not handle. Chapman scored from third on the play.
