Inside the San Francisco Giants clubhouse, things overheard from Patrick Bailey, Alex Cobb, and Brandon Crawford after sweeping the Colorado Rockies.
DENVER — Thanks to a three-game sweep at Coors Field over the Colorado Rockies, the San Francisco Giants moved above .500 for the season and solidified their spot in the middle of the NL West standings.
In Thursday's 6-4 victory in the series finale, San Francisco came from behind for the second time in as many games, not only securing the sweep but also changing their trajectory in the late innings as well this season. The Giants entered Denver dropping 25 of 26 games in which they trailed after seven innings. On Wednesday and Thursday, they won two straight against Colorado's late-inning relievers.
San Francisco Giants: Brandon Crawford's big hit
The magic on Thursday was partially provided by veteran shortstop Brandon Crawford, who made his first pinch-hit appearance of the season count, tying the game at 4-4 in the ninth inning with an RBI double after he fell behind 0-2 to Colorado closer Pierce Johnson.
Crawford has more than 400 plate appearances at Coors Field, the most of any stadium outside of San Francisco, and I asked him after the game if there was a comfort level with playing in Colorado.
"I don't know about a comfort level necessarily. There are a lot of good pitchers that I've faced here every year," Crawford said. "But you know that if you make decent contact, it has a chance to carry at least over the outfielders' heads. There's also a lot of grass out there to cover so even something that you may not square up, it still has a chance to drop for a hit. So I guess there's a little comfort in that."
San Francisco Giants: Brandon Crawford's changing role
While Crawford is one of the faces of the team, his role has also changed this season as well. The 36-year-old came into Thursday's game hitting just .188 on the season. However, his teammates, including Thursday's starting pitcher Alex Cobb, said that Crawford has adjusted to less playing time and working through his struggles at the plate like a true professional.
"You're just happy because you see guys go through changes in their career and struggles and they have one of two ways to go about it. They can either be a tough teammate to be around or they can be the same guy and maybe you're not contributing as much as you'd like on the field, but you can still contribute in the clubhouse and be the guy that we expect him to be," Cobb said. "He's been that throughout this whole season. When those guys get rewarded with big moments like that, I ran up and just gave him a big hug after that because I've been there. I've been through struggles and I know how good it feels to make an impact and to contribute to a win."
Cobb also contributed as well, of course, to Thursday's win. Colorado scored four runs on Cobb in the first inning had him and the Giants on the ropes. However, Cobb, while he battled tightness in his left hip, powered through the next four innings without allowing a run.
"Obviously I had a very difficult first inning where stuff wasn't completely sharp and I felt a little bit underwater throwing the ball," Cobb said. "Then I got into a groove and, once you get into that groove, you want to stay in that groove and keep pitching."
San Francisco Giants: Patrick Bailey gets his first taste of Coors Field
Bailey, San Francisco's 24-year-old rookie catcher who has been getting playing time with Joey Bart on the injured list with a right groin strain, got his first at-bats at Coors Field and made them count in the series opener on Tuesday night.
He opened the series with a flourish, going 3-for-3 with two doubles, one triple and one RBI, marking his first career triple and first career game with at least three extra-base hits. It continued a hot stretch at the plate for Bailey, who became the first Giants' player since Joe Strain in 1979 to have at least three games of three or more hits through the first 15 games of his career, and also the first catcher in Giants history to do so.
"I was out of breath a lot of the game, a lot of the time on the bases, but they have those cool little oxygen things, so that was fun. That was the first time I've ever used them and they were good," Bailey said of his running at altitude.
Bailey also got his first taste of catching at a mile high, working with his pitchers who were adjusting to the different ways the baseball spins at altitude.
"The most interesting thing is just the different shapes, the guys' sliders and sinkers aren't doing as much here, so it's navigating through that," Bailey said. "You have a different game plan than you do at Oracle or just a normal stadium."
