Ford Proctor smacked a grand slam for his first major league home run and the San Francisco Giants completed their season-long dominance of the visiting Colorado Rockies by holding on for a 6-4 victory on Thursday.
Carlos Rodon struck out 10 in six shutout innings for the Giants, who earned their ninth win in 10 games. By completing a three-game sweep, San Francisco (78-78) climbed back to .500 for the first time since Aug. 23.
Rodon (14-8) and Giants reliever Jharel Cotton combined to take a two-hit shutout in the ninth inning before the Rockies used a sacrifice fly from C.J. Cron, a two-run homer from Sean Bouchard and an RBI triple from Elehuris Montero to make things interesting.
San Francisco closer Camilo Doval had to be summoned to retire Ezequiel Tovar on a grounder to third as the potential tying run, resulting in his 27th save.
Proctor, a rookie playing in just his fourth big-league game, came to bat with the bases loaded in the bottom of the second after the Giants had gone ahead 1-0 on an Austin Wynns single off Rockies starter Ryan Feltner (3-9).
The grand slam came in his 11th career plate appearance. The last Giant to hit a grand slam for his first homer was Brandon Crawford, who accomplished the feat in the third at-bat of his major league debut on May 27, 2011, against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Staked to an early 5-0 lead, Rodon coasted through his six innings, allowing two hits and no walks. The hits were a double leading off the game by Yonathan Daza and a double leading off the sixth by Tovar.
The 14th win gave him a career high after he recorded 13 victories for the Chicago White Sox last season. Rodon registered double-digit strikeouts for the 11th time this season.
In beating the Rockies for an eighth straight time to cap a 14-5 season-series blitz, the Giants added an insurance run in the seventh on a sacrifice fly by Wilmer Flores, scoring Austin Slater, who had doubled.
Wynns had two hits for the Giants, who had fallen as many as eight games under .500 since sitting at 61-61 on Aug. 23.
Daza had two hits for the Rockies (65-91), who dropped their fifth straight. Bouchard’s homer was his second of the season.
Feltner recovered from his shaky second inning to complete six, during which he was charged with five runs on six hits. He walked three and struck out five.
–Field Level Media
