Chris Szagola/Associated Press
Emilee Chinn/Getty Images
Chris Szagola/Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA — During last week’s home stand, Barry Bonds stopped by Tyler Fitzgerald’s locker near the home clubhouse door and asked the San Francisco Giants’ second baseman to meet him behind the batting cage.
It’s something Bonds — a special adviser with the team who often hangs out at the cages before games — had never done with Fitzgerald. But the home run king had sage hitting advice for the second baseman in the throes of a frustrating slump. As his teammates took their swings, Bonds took Fitzgerald aside. To help break the bad habit of dropping his barrel, Bonds told Fitzgerald to practice hitting the ball straight down.
Since then, Fitzgerald has been taking practice swings off a high tee to get in the habit of swinging downward, hoping it would help him stay on top of the ball and shorten his swing to his liking. Bonds’ advice and all those hacks off a tee paid off big on Monday, when Fitzgerald’s bat propelled the Giants to a 10-4 win against the Philadelphia Phillies.
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Perhaps it was Bonds’ guidance that made everything click for Fitzgerald, who finished a single shy of hitting for the cycle. But the second-year player, who had a breakout 2024 season, was most grateful that he had the space to improve. That the front office doesn’t have him on a tight leash.
“It gives me more peace of mind. But at the same time, I guess it’s the big leagues and I have to produce,” Fitzgerald said. “There will be weeks at a time where I’m struggling or someone else is struggling and the coaching staff has stuck with me. It’s really awesome to see. I think last year I would have been gone.”
Confidence and peace of mind with Buster Posey at the helm is at the nucleus of the Giants’ 12-4 start. For most of this opening stretch, Mike Yastrzemski, Wilmer Flores and Jung Hoo Lee have been at the center of the Giants success at the plate with most everyone else, including Fitzgerald, unable to find their footing.
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Monday, the Giants trailed by three runs after the first inning in hostile Citizens Bank Park. A deficit like that, at this time last year, might’ve made for an ugly evening — but this year it inspires the dugout. Having already scored twice in the second, and capitalizing on Phillies starter Taijuan Walker’s errant rally-extending throw to second on Patrick Bailey’s chopper, the Giants had two aboard for Fitzgerald. Walker sent him a gift cutter up in the zone that he launched it to left field for a go-ahead, three-run home run.
“We have a super balanced lineup,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s about time the bottom of the lineup stepped up for the top of the lineup. I’m happy to participate in the runs.”
Said manager Bob Melvin: “Today was, by far, his best game of the year. Certainly the three-run homer takes a lot of pressure off because we know he has the ability to hit the ball out of the ballpark.”
Even colder at the plate was shortstop Willy Adames, who entered Monday 11-for-59 (.186) with 18 strikeouts in his first 15 games as a Giant. A middle-middle fastball was just the medicine to break the cold stretch at the plate as Adames hit it the other way for a solo home run shortly after Fitzgerald’s heroics — he’d doubled in his first at-bat, too.
“I was kind of worried,” Adames said with a smile. “I thought I lost my power. I was like, man, I can’t even get a homer anymore. I can’t even get a hit.”
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Fitzgerald’s triple in the seventh got Yastrzemski in on the action, who took lefty Tanner Banks’ hanging curveball deep to right field for a two-run home run. It was Yastrzemski’s first home run off a lefty since his walk-off against San Diego Padres’ Ray Kerr June 19, 2023, when Melvin managed in San Diego. The textbook move might’ve been to get a righty in to pinch hit for Yastrzemski, but his new approach — not trying to pull every pitch and carving space to see pitches longer — suggested to Melvin that he can have a good year against left-handed pitching.
“Some guys are going to get opportunities, especially when we are ahead,” Melvin said. “With Yaz’s defense, he’s going to have a chance to stay in the game. … I felt comfortable about him pulling the ball in that situation.”
In the ninth, Fitzgerald and Yastrzemski paired up again as each doubled to make it 9-4. Matt Chapman then got into the action, snapping an 0-for-26 skid with an infield single to score the game’s 10th run.
The offensive outburst gave new life to starter Landen Roupp. The Phillies had him laboring through a 36-pitch first inning in which he allowed three runs and prompted Melvin to get reliever Spencer Bivens warming in the bullpen.
But ramping up usage of his trusty curveball, Roupp rebounded to keep Philadelphia scoreless until Nick Castellanos’ solo home run in the fifth. The Phillies’ biggest threat came in the fourth when they had two in scoring position with no outs. But Roupp struck out Johan Rojas, got Bryson Stott to fly out on a ball that didn’t travel deep enough to score the runner, and retired Trea Turner on a grounder to strand the runners.
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Roupp threw a career-high 101 pitches, 56 of them curveballs. With that offspeed pitch, he got 15 swings-and-misses out of 20 total whiffs and collected eight strikeouts through five innings.
“The guys hit their tails off tonight. I owe this whole start to them,” Roupp said. “The win, at least. Hats off to them for backing me up there and keeping me in the game.”
Reach Shayna Rubin: [email protected]
