In seven May games entering Monday, as rookie Joey Bart has struggled with strikeouts, Curt Casali went 6-for-13 with a home run, four RBI and five walks.
The Giants’ mustachioed backup catcher was slashing .462/.611/.692. His last game against the Rockies, he went 3-for-3. His next start after that, he smacked his first home run of the year in St. Louis. Giving Casali the nod to catch the first tilt of a three-game series in Coors Field wasn’t an indictment on Bart, who had caught the previous two games, but it was an endorsement of the veteran.
Casali took it and powered the Giants (21-14) to their 11th straight victory over the Rockies. He crushed the longest tracked home run of the season and then gave the Giants a lead with a three-run shot. The Rockies never went away in the back-and-forth affair, until Mike Yastrzemski’s go-ahead home run in the ninth inning finally buried them.
After the Rockies took an early 1-0 lead, the Giants caught a break when starter Antonio Senzatela left the game with a lower back strain before the top of the third inning. Ty Blach, who replaced him, promptly allowed the Giants to tie the game 1-1.
Casali was the first Giant to dig in against Blach. The veteran fell behind 1-2 before fouling off three straight pitches. The seventh Blach offering Casali saw — a curveball up and over the plate — landed 438 feet from home.
Casali’s solo shot was the furthest ball he’s hit in the Statcast era (since 2015). But it wasn’t even his biggest of the night.
Blach retired the next six Giants he faced, but none of those hitters were named Curt Casali.
With two runners on in the fifth inning, Casali crushed a 2-2 sinker into the same left field bleachers as his first shot. Casali’s second home run left his bat at 102.3 mph — a single tick slower than his first — but the result was the same.
It was a no-doubter. Gone in all 30 ballparks. On impact, Jon Miller let out a “That ball is gone!” call from the booth.
The Rockies chased Alex Wood out of the game in the bottom half of the inning with two runs, but the Giants still clung to a 4-3 lead thanks to Casali’s home runs.
That lead wouldn’t last. One-run leads rarely do in Denver. Ryan McMahon went after Dominic Leone’s first pitch of the sixth inning and sent it the other way for a game-tying home run.
The Giants responded with a two-run seventh inning. In the middle of that rally, of course, was Casali’s third hit of the game — a sharp single up the middle. He came around to score.
Casali isn’t known as a power hitter. His career-high for a season is 10 home runs. But the Giants have internally believed Casali was capable of more from the plate, and he’s proving them right — earning a more regular role while doing it.
Despite Casali’s 3-for-4 night, Colorado always had an answer. The Rockies rallied to tie the game for a fourth time in the seventh. San Francisco was down to its last out of the top of the ninth in a 6-6 game.
Then Yastrzemski pulled a Daniel Bard slider 420 feet and into the second deck of the right field seats. The Giants finally had an edge they could hold on to.
