Harrison makes MLB history with dominant performance against Rockies Originally appeared in NBC Bay Area Sports
Kyle Harrison hasn’t even pitched a full season in the major leagues yet, but he’s already accomplished what no other visiting pitcher in history has: mastered the altitude at Colorado’s Coors Field.
Harrison pitched five stellar scoreless innings in his final trip to the Rockies’ home on Thursday, becoming the first pitcher to have two scoreless starts of five innings or more in the same season there.
Kyle Harrison of the @San Francisco Giants He is the first visiting pitcher to have 2 scoreless starts of 5.0+ innings at Coors Field in the same season.
He did it as a 22-year-old rookie. image.twitter.com/Zd6nDdjnVs
— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) July 20, 2024
Since its inception in 1999, Coors Field has been a hitter’s paradise. Historically, balls hit there travel farther, making it a hitter’s paradise no matter who is on the field.
While it is a hitters’ paradise, it has also proven to be a pitchers’ worst nightmare.
Unless your name is Kyle Harrison.
The 22-year-old phenom has held the Rockies’ offense to account both times he has pitched in the Mile High City.
Harrison is undefeated in four career starts and has a 2.45 overall ERA against the Rockies, but he has been flawless and especially stingy at Coors Field, where he has compiled a zero ERA.
Harrison has the all-time lowest career ERA at Coors Field of any visiting pitcher who has made multiple starts at the Rockies’ home park.
Former Giants pitcher John Brebbia and Max Fried of the Atlanta Braves also have 0.00 ERAs at Coors Field, tying Harrison for the best mark by an opposing pitcher.
Compare that to what some of baseball’s greats did at Coors Field over the years. Among pitchers with at least four starts there, Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers has a 4.82 ERA, Pedro Martinez has a 4.97 ERA, Roger Clemens had a 4.71 mark, while Greg Maddux had a whopping 5.19 ERA there.
“Obviously, it would have been better to get a win today, but it was certainly a great feat,” Harrison told reporters at Coors Field when asked about his remarkable run. “Just another day on the field.
“I feel like I played a lot of minor league competition last year at high altitudes like Reno and Las Vegas. So I had an idea of how my ball would move and where it would land. I just mixed things up.”
Harrison definitely did that against Colorado on Thursday, though he got a little crazy at times. While he did a much better job of getting ahead of hitters, the young lefty threw 93 pitches (only 56 were strikes), which helped boost his pitch count.
However, when he was at the plate, Harrison was up to par. He was very effective pitching inside and had great success throwing high in the zone.
Harrison relied primarily on his fastball, generating seven missed swings with the four-seam. He also mixed up his slurve and tried to get his changeup back on track after having sporadic success with that pitch in some of his recent starts.
“The fastball has gotten a little better,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said. “They made him work the last couple innings pitch-wise, but the breaking ball was better today, too, whether he threw it backward or for strikes. He kept them off his fastball a little bit.”
Like any good pitcher, Harrison focused more on what he couldn’t do than on what he did do. He’s motivated to keep improving and blames himself for not striking out batters when he had the advantage.
“The first-pitch strikes were better today and that’s something I emphasize,” Harrison said. “But the 0-1s, I kind of let them back into the count, led to four walks and some long at-bats that I might have stayed in the game longer without.”
No doubt the Rockies thought he had been there long enough in his home away from home.
