DENVER -- The Giants looked like they would be buoyed by the long ball on Sunday afternoon. Instead, they found themselves downed by it.
Despite crushing four home runs -- including two by Rafael Devers -- the Giants came away with a stinging 7-6 loss to the Rockies after Dylan Smith surrendered a go-ahead, three-run blast to Kyle Karros in the bottom of the eighth inning of Sunday’s series finale at Coors Field.
Smith took the mound in the eighth with a two-run lead, but he fell into trouble after giving up a one-out double to TJ Rumfield and hitting Troy Johnston with a first-pitch splitter. That put a pair of runners on for Karros, who subsequently hammered a 3-1 fastball from Smith over the left-field bleachers to flip a 6-4 deficit into a 7-6 lead for the Rockies.
“You kind of feel like six [runs] will get it done if we can really pitch it and play defense,” manager Tony Vitello said. “[Smith’s] greatest attribute is how confident, and, I think, how tough he is. But he kind of gator-armed a couple of pitches there. A couple more down, but one of them was up.”
Jung Hoo Lee reached on a two-out single to put the tying run aboard in the top of the ninth, but Rockies right-hander Jordan Romano struck out the next batter in Willy Adames to end the game.
The painful defeat clinched a second consecutive series loss for the Giants, who went 2-4 over their final road trip of the first half through Arizona and Colorado. They’ll aim to reset as they head back to San Francisco to host the Blue Jays and Rockies in their last homestand before the All-Star break.
“It’s pretty bittersweet because you could flip the script pretty much with just one game if you’re talking about the second half of the season or this road trip in particular,” Vitello said. “But ultimately, that scoreboard dictates a lot in your life when you’re doing this.”
The late implosion squandered Devers’ 23rd career multihomer game, which gave him a team-high 18 homers through 89 games this year. The Giants also got round-trippers from Drew Gilbert and Casey Schmitt, who ranks second on the club with 17 blasts this year.
Devers and Schmitt are the first pair of Giants teammates to have at least 17 homers before the team’s 90th game of the season since Barry Bonds (30) and Jeff Kent (23) in 2000.
“That’s pretty cool, I didn’t know that,” Schmitt said. “I’m not really trying to go out there and hit homers. I’m just trying to go out and hit line drives. If I catch it, I catch it. But my main focus is just to get on base any way I can.”
The Rockies jumped out to an early 2-0 lead against Tyler Mahle in the bottom of the first, but the Giants quickly tied the game behind Gilbert’s two-run homer off Tanner Gordon in the top of the second.
Colorado pushed across two more runs off Mahle to go up 4-2, but the Giants once again used their power to answer back.
Devers joined the slugfest by leading off the fourth with a Statcast-projected 420-foot blast out to right-center field, bringing San Francisco within one. Schmitt then tied the game with another solo shot to left field in the fifth before Devers put the Giants ahead, 5-4, with his second mammoth home run of the game two batters later.
Devers unloaded on an inside fastball from Gordon, launching it into the third deck in right-center field for a majestic 463-foot shot. It was the second-longest home run of Devers’ career, trailing only the 467-foot dinger he hit against former Giants right-hander Kevin Gausman on June 25, 2024.
It was also the longest by a Giants player since Jorge Soler’s 478-foot tank on July 21, 2024, which also came at Coors Field.
“It was monstrous,” Vitello said.
“That was probably the furthest ball I’ve ever seen hit,” Schmitt said. “Anytime he’s up, he’s always in scoring position.”
While it was a disappointing road trip for the Giants overall, Devers’ power surge could bode well for the club moving forward, as he’s now gone deep six times in his last eight games.
“I think he’s just really dialed in to every pitch,” Vitello said. “He looks like he sees every pitch well, even on the foul balls or the takes. He looks like he’s in a really good spot to hit at all times. He’s being aggressive. He always cuts it loose. But he looks like he’s really under control and seeing it well. He doesn’t seem to be taking a pitch off anywhere. Not that he did before, but he looks locked in.”