Dandy dozen: Giants continue dominance of Rockies

May 18th, 2022

DENVER -- The Giants continued their domination over the Rockies, rolling to a 10-7 victory to secure their 12th straight win over their National League West foes on Tuesday night at Coors Field.

Veteran surrendered a season-high seven runs over 5 1/3 innings, but San Francisco’s bats picked him up by pounding out 14 hits, eight of which went for extra bases. , and collected three hits apiece, while reached base in four plate appearances and drove in three runs.

The Giants have outscored the Rockies by a 95-41 margin over their 12-game winning streak, which is their longest against a single opponent since they rattled off a dozen straight against the Phillies from July 28, 1945, to April 22, 1946, and the most against any single opponent since moving to San Francisco.

Here are three takeaways as San Francisco improved to 22-14:

1. Leading off with a bang
La Stella was activated off the injured list on Monday after missing the first 33 games of the season with an Achilles injury, but his season debut didn’t last long. La Stella started at designated hitter, but he got only one at-bat before the Giants sent Ruf to pinch-hit for him against lefty Ty Blach, who took over in the third inning after Antonio Senzatela was forced to depart with a lower back strain.

La Stella got a much longer look on Tuesday against right-hander Chad Kuhl, and he made an instant impact, hammering a towering leadoff home run on the game's second pitch into the upper deck in right field to give the Giants a 1-0 lead in the first inning. La Stella’s sixth career leadoff homer -- and fourth as a Giant -- traveled an estimated 464 feet, making it his longest home run since Statcast began tracking in 2015.

“His pop is sometimes really surprising,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “He’s really strong, and he’s really compact. His body is moving well in the batter’s box. Whenever those things are aligned for him and he sees pitches and he lays off pitches he can’t drive, he’s dangerous.”

La Stella, 33, continued to set the tone for the offense for the rest of the night, doubling in the fifth and narrowly missing a second homer in the seventh, when he smoked a drive off the top of the right-field wall that fell for another double.

“I didn’t know anything about Tommy, and then every single player in the lineup was like, ‘Wait until you see his at-bats, wait until you see his at-bats,’” Cobb said. “He just grinds at-bats out. He’s come up here and immediately done that. Grind at-bats out and do damage.”

2. Flying high
Coors Field is known as a hitter-friendly ballpark, but the venue has been especially welcoming to Yastrzemski. After hitting a go-ahead shot in the ninth inning on Monday, Yastrzemski doubled in each of his first two at-bats against Kuhl, knocking in a pair of runs to kick off a four-run rally in the third.

Yastrzemski, who added a single to cap his three-hit night, is now batting .356 (26-for-73) with six doubles, one triple, eight home runs and 27 RBIs over 20 career games at Colorado. His eight homers at Coors are his most at any stadium outside of Oracle Park, where he’s hit 23.

“I know from experience that it’s a big outfield and there’s a lot of ground to cover,” Yastrzemski said. “That just gives you confidence going in, knowing that bleeders can fall through, balls that normally get caught because there’s a smaller gap. It’s just a little bit more comfortable sometimes standing at the plate.”

3. Casali gets back-to-back starts
After homering twice on Monday, backup catcher Curt Casali found himself back in the starting lineup on Tuesday. It was the first time Casali had started consecutive games this year, a sign of a shifting catching dynamic for the Giants, who have watched rookie Joey Bart stumble to a .185 start at the plate.

The surging Casali was batting .529 (9-for-17) with three homers and eight RBIs over his previous seven games, though he cooled slightly with an 0-for-5 showing on Tuesday.

“It definitely means that Curt is going to play two out of three in this series, and I think that’s different,” Kapler said before the game. “It’s notable because we believe that Curt can bounce back and play back-to-back games for us. That’s important. I don’t think it’s sensible to not have his bat in the lineup today with the way he’s swinging the bat. We do say that we want to be responsive to what we’re seeing in the games. This is an indication that we’re doing that.”

Bart is expected to catch Logan Webb in Wednesday’s series finale since it’s a day game after a night game. Despite Bart’s offensive struggles, Giants catchers have an MLB-high seven homers and a .777 OPS that ranks fifth in the Majors.