Giants win their 100th game, blast 4 home runs as they close in on franchise records

DENVER — In the midst of one of the most compelling division races Major League Baseball has seen in years, it’s difficult for the participants to pause and reflect on the remarkable accomplishments taking place on a daily basis.

With pressure to stay ahead of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West race and avoid a one-game wild-card playoff against a surging St. Louis Cardinals team, the Giants can’t be content with simply reaching 100 regular-season wins. The Giants know it will take six, seven and potentially even eight more victories to win their first division crown since 2012, but the daunting road ahead shouldn’t take away from the sense of achievement that comes with passing a new mile marker on Friday.

With a 7-2 victory over the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field, the 2021 Giants became the fourth club in the franchise’s San Francisco-era history to win 100 regular-season games.

The 2021 Giants (100-54) joined the 103-win clubs from 1962 and 1993 and the 100-win squad from 2003 to become the fourth team to hit the century mark since the franchise moved west from New York in 1958.

Gabe Kapler’s club etched its way into the Giants’ record books in familiar fashion as the lineup blasted four home runs while 22-year-old rookie Kervin Castro became the 23rd different pitcher to earn a win for San Francisco this season. Left-handed hitters Tommy La Stella, Brandon Belt, Brandon Crawford and Mike Yastrzemski all powered another strong offensive output with homers while Castro fired two scoreless frames in the middle innings that bridged the gap from starter Alex Wood to the Giants’ most reliable arms at the back end of the bullpen.

For the third time in a two-week span, La Stella hit a leadoff home run, as he started Friday’s game by yanking the second pitch from Rockies starter Peter Lambert into the right field seats at Coors Field.

Colorado’s lineup answered immediately against Wood with two runs in the first inning, including one that scored after La Stella bobbled a catchable ball while trying to make a sliding catch in shallow right field. Wood rebounded by tossing three scoreless innings while showcasing the type of command that should inspire confidence in his ability to help the Giants in the postseason after the southpaw missed more than three weeks after contracting COVID-19.

Crawford’s game-tying homer in the second gave the Giants shortstop a new single-season career high as his 22nd home run of the season surpassed his previous best set back in 2015, when he won the National League Silver Slugger Award at his position.

Belt’s go-ahead home run in the sixth inning marked his 27th of the year, moving him into a tie with Hunter Pence (2013) for the most home runs hit by a Giants player in a single season since Barry Bonds hit 28 in 2007, his final year in the majors.

The homer that broke the game open came courtesy of Yastrzemski, who finally gave the Giants breathing room with a three-run home run over the right field wall in the seventh for his 25th of the season. Yastrzemski and Belt became the first set of Giants teammates with at least 25 home runs in the same season since Bonds and Ray Durham each hit 26 homers in 2006.

The Giants’ 17th four-homer game of the season moved the club within one home run of matching the all-time franchise record of 235 homers set back in 2001, when Bonds set the single-season MLB record with 73.

The Giants are certain to set a new home run record and potentially as soon as Saturday, but to achieve their goal of winning the NL West, they may need to set a new franchise record for wins, too. The 1904 New York Giants won the pennant with 106 wins, and with eight games left in the 2021 season, that may be the minimum number of victories required to wrap up this year’s division title.