DENVER — Matt Chapman didn’t get to take an at-bat before he was ejected for shoving Rockies left-hander Kyle Freeland during the benches-clearing incident in the top of the first inning on Tuesday night.
Chapman technically wasn’t supposed to take an at-bat on Wednesday, either, as he ended up being hit with a one-game suspension and an undisclosed fine for his role in the fracas. The Giants’ third baseman elected to appeal, which allowed him to remain active for the club’s series finale at Coors Field.
That decision certainly ended up working out well for the Giants.
Chapman homered twice to power a 10-8 win that capped a three-game sweep of the Rockies, giving the red-hot Giants their 10th victory in their last 11 games.
“When I talked to Matt, he wanted to play today,” manager Bob Melvin said. “It was an easy call. Thank goodness he played.”
At 71-69, the Giants are now four games behind the Mets (75-65) for the third National League Wild Card spot and five behind the Padres (76-64) for the second. Both teams hold tiebreakers over the Giants, but it’s not outside the realm of possibility that they could continue to sneak back into the playoff picture over the final 22 games of the season.
With the Giants suddenly looking like contenders again, Chapman felt it was important to play, especially after missing virtually all of Tuesday’s game.
“It’s obviously unfortunate that I have to get suspended, probably, but we wanted to appeal it and see what we can do,” Chapman said. “I wanted to be out there and help this team no matter what. Every game is super important for us. The fact that I was able to be out there and make an impact was huge.”
Chapman put San Francisco on the board in the second, when he walloped the first pitch he saw from Colorado right-hander Germán Márquez out to center field for his 19th home run of the year. The Rockies rallied to take a 5-4 lead after scoring four runs off Robbie Ray in the fifth, but the Giants managed to pull away for good behind a five-run sixth that featured Chapman’s second homer of the game, a three-run shot off reliever Juan Mejia.
“It was huge,” Ray said. “He definitely was the sparkplug behind all of it. It’s great to have him out there.”
Rookie outfielder Drew Gilbert also went deep for the Giants, who have now set a San Francisco-era record by homering in 17 consecutive games. The Giants have clubbed 36 homers over that span, which is the second-longest streak in franchise history behind a 19-game stretch from a Johnny Mize-led club in 1947.
“It’s better late than never, I guess,” Chapman said of the power binge. “It’s been a lot of fun. We obviously hit a rough patch. But I feel like we’re really coming into our own right now and playing good baseball. We’re really just trying to keep it rolling.”
Melvin wasn’t around to watch the Giants come back late, as he was ejected by home-plate umpire Dan Bellino for arguing balls and strikes in the bottom of the fifth. Ray thought he was out of that inning after he threw a 2-2 fastball to Tyler Freeman that appeared to be in the strike zone, but the pitch was called a ball instead of strike three. Freeman ended up lining the next pitch to center field for a two-out RBI single, cutting the Giants’ lead to 4-2.
“I made my pitch,” Ray said. “I threw a ball in the zone and it didn’t get called. That’s what I was thinking. I was out there. It was a big inning. It was a big situation. It was unfortunate.”
Ray proceeded to walk Ezequiel Tovar and then allowed the Rockies to go ahead on back-to-back singles from Hunter Goodman and Jordan Beck before departing after throwing 99 pitches in 4 2/3 innings.
“I stuck with him one hitter too long,” Melvin said of Ray. “I’m trying to get him through that inning. Here, you try to be a little bit more patient with your starters, but there was more to it than that. I felt like he was out of that inning, and he deserved one more hitter. Obviously, it didn’t work out, but it’s too bad because the inning is over there [if he gets the called third strike], and he can go out the next inning and do what he’s been doing for the entire game.”
The bottom of the fifth also featured an injury scare, as catcher Patrick Bailey was involved in a scary-looking collision at the plate with Freeman, who raced home to score from second on Goodman’s single. Both players were down for a while, but they ended up remaining in the game.
