San Francisco Giants keep making history in NL West rivalry
By Kevin Henry
DENVER — Dominant. It’s the word that best describes how the San Francisco Giants have lorded over the Colorado Rockies over the last 12 games in which the two National League West rivals have faced off.
Whether it’s Denver or San Francisco, Mountain or Pacific Time Zone, at altitude or at sea level, one thing remains the same: The San Francisco Giants have not only been beating the Colorado Rockies, but they have been doing it at a historic rate on numerous levels.
How the dominance by the San Francisco Giants over the Colorado Rockies is making MLB history
With San Francisco’s 10-7 victory at Coors Field on Tuesday night, the Giants won their 12th consecutive game against the Rockies, including their fifth straight in 2022. That overall 12-game run is the longest Giants winning streak against the Rockies since Colorado came into the National League in 1993. It’s also the longest winning streak against a single Giants opponent since the New York Giants earned 12 straight wins over the Philadelphia Phillies from July 28, 1945 through April 22, 1946.
During that 12-game streak, San Francisco has outscored Colorado, 95-41. The Giants have also recorded at least nine hits in each of the 12 wins.
San Francisco’s winning streak has also resulted in Coors Field becoming Oracle Park East for the orange and black. Tuesday night’s win was the eighth straight in Denver, a streak started on September 6, 2021, and is tied for second all-time in opponent consecutive wins at Coors Field. Only the nine straight wins posted by the Arizona Diamondbacks from June 21, 2017 until July 10, 2018, is longer.
After the victory, Giants manager Gabe Kapler, however, wasn’t ready to take joy in his team’s 12th straight win over the Rockies.
“I’m just not wanting to celebrate that sort of thing,” Kapler said. “We have a baseball game tomorrow and I’m trying to think about winning that one.
“Not that I’m not reflecting, but I’m not reflecting right now.”
Part of the dominance in Denver for the Giants has come via the long ball. Since the start of the 2019 campaign through Tuesday’s win, San Francisco has hit 52 homers at Coors Field, easily the most of any opposing team. The Los Angeles Dodgers are a distant second at 39.
One of those home runs came off the bat of Tommy La Stella on the game’s second pitch on Tuesday. Still, La Stella doesn’t buy too much into the dominance the Giants currently have over the Rockies.
“I think it’s just that things run the right way for a number of games,” said La Stella, who saw his first home of the season go 464 feet. “It’s a good team on the other side and, in a place like this (Coors Field), the game is never over.”
Alex Cobb, who earned the win on Tuesday night, is in his first season with the Giants and was surprised to hear about the winning streak.
“I didn’t know that is what the numbers were,” Cobb said. “The Rockies are a good team and this is a tough place to play. They put together some good at-bats. I just feel sorry for their pitchers who have to go through this every time they pitch here.”
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This isn’t the first time the Rockies have suffered this kind of losing streak to a division foe. Colorado dropped 12 straight to the Los Angeles Dodgers between September 9, 2018 and June 27, 2019. The franchise record, however, belongs to the Atlanta Braves, who beat the Rockies 16 straight times over the course of the 1993 and 1994 seasons.