SAN DIEGO — As the San Francisco Giants batted in the top of the seventh inning Friday night, a towel hung around Kyle Harrison’s neck as he sat on the bench inside the third base dugout. Logan Webb walked over, put his arm around Harrison’s shoulder and smiled.
There was a lot to be proud of in Harrison’s first start of his sophomore season.
Limiting a star-studded Padres lineup to two runs in six innings, Harrison led the way to the Giants’ first win of the season, 8-3, over the Padres.
Even more impressive, he needed just 76 pitches to do it, displaying an efficiency rarely seen from the crushing left-hander as he rose through the minor league ranks and made his first seven starts in the major leagues last season. He was on track to beat the previous longest start of his career, 6⅓ innings, but gave the bullpen a comfortable lead to finish the final three frames.
In his seven starts last season, Harrison averaged 16.9 pitches per inning, which would have ranked him 38th out of 44 qualified starters. Against the Padres on Friday, he used 16 pitches in his hardest inning, averaging 12.3 per frame, which would have led the league. (Webb placed second, behind Zach Eflin, with 14.73 per round, while Blake Snell was third from bottom with 17.6.)
Hitting fastballs on 70 percent of his pitches, Harrison threw 54 of his 76 pitches for strikes, inducing plenty of soft, early contact. But he also racked up five strikeouts, painting the inside of the plate to Fernando Tatis Jr. looking to end third and the outside corner for Jake Cronenworth looking to start the fourth, and did not issue a walk .
Even the runs Harrison allowed were economical, with two solo homers from Tatis and Manny Machado.
Machado punished a hit into the second deck in left field to get San Diego on the board in the fourth. That ball traveled about 398 feet, which seemed pedestrian compared to Tatis’ solo shot, which left the bat at 114.9 mph and cleared the second level of the Western Metal Supply Co. building, estimated at 441 feet.
Along with a couple of 100 mph flyouts and a potential triple from Eguy Rosario that was thwarted by a powerful throw from Thairo Estrada, this contact was hard enough for the Giants to end their day – and a very productive one. — for their young left-hander.
From the moment he took the mound, Harrison never pitched without leading, enjoying a 3-0 advantage thanks to the Giants’ lineup in the top of the first against Padres starter Joe Musgrove.
Matt Chapman threw a fastball and sent it over the 396′ sign in center field, bringing home LaMonte Wade Jr., to open a 2-0 lead and that was just the beginning of ‘a big day for the newly signed third baseman in his second game with the Giants.
Chapman scored the victory in the top of the ninth, blasting his second homer of the night, a towering shot off the top of the 407-foot Western Metal Supply Co. building, and finished the game 3-for-5 with five runs. products, also doubling Jorge Soler in the fourth.
Estrada hit Wilmer Flores on a single to make it 3-0, and Jung Hoo Lee hit Patrick Bailey on a single in the fourth for the Giants’ fourth run. Lee recorded two hits, including a 109 mph single up the middle to start the game, but was twice erased by double-play ground balls from Soler.
Estrada’s biggest impact, however, came on defense, where he threw a throw on the money to Chapman at third to catch Rosario who was trying to stretch out a double to start the fifth inning. The ball bounced off Wade’s glove in right field, but he recovered and fired to Estrada, who
The Padres looked threatening in the eighth against Tyler Rogers, cutting the Giants’ lead to three runs with Tatis’ second solo shot of the night, a line drive down the left field line. Jake Cronenworth followed with a base hit, putting the potential tying run in the on-deck circle with Machado at the plate, but Estrada fielded a hard grounder right off Machado that set up an inning-ending double play.
Following
The Giants continue their four-game series against the Padres, with Jordan Hicks set to make his first start in orange and black against San Diego newcomer Dylan Cease. The 4:15 p.m. game is scheduled to be televised nationally on FOX, but a steady stream of rain is forecast all day.
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