Fitzgerald’s historic performance powers Giants back to .500 originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
The Giants visited the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park with an opportunity to get back to .500 for the first time since June 1.
And having lost their last seven attempts at breaking out of the sub-.500 team category, it was going to take more than a solid outing from ace Logan Webb.
Perhaps some magic from none other than Tyler Fitzgerald?
Fitzgerald did just that in the nation’s capital, starting with a 416-foot leadoff blast on the second pitch of the game, taking his home run count to 11 in the last 17 games.
With 11 homers in less than a month, the 26-year-old managed to etch his name yet again in the record books – two, to be exact.
Fitzgerald joined Alex Rodriguez, Trea Turner and Troy Tulowitzki as the only shortstops to homer 11 times in 17 games.
On the Giants end, Fitzgerald joined Mel Ott, Walker Cooper, Willie Mays, Jim Ray Hart, Willie McCovey and Barry Bonds as the only players to accomplish the feat, according to MLB’s Sarah Langs.
“Nothing goes on forever like this, but, yes, I think he can be a productive big-league hitter and he’s settling at shortstop too,” Giants manager Bob Melvin told reporters on Monday. “He’s a lot calmer in his plays. The speed of the runner now. His internal clock is better now. He’s just playing with a lot of confidence. Like I said, there’s a ton of ability there.
“I don’t know if he’s going to go to the Hall of Fame if he continues at this pace, but we like what we see. And after a little bit of a spurt where he wasn’t swinging great maybe for four, five games, he picked it up again. That’s what you want to see.”
Two days removed from being named the NL Rookie of the Month, Fitzgerald’s name, deservingly so, was mentioned yet again in the same breath as some of the game’s greats.
That’s certainly a major compliment for Fitzgerald, who is saving his best baseball in time when San Francisco is vying to stay alive.
“I hope he passes me,” Matt Chapman, who hit his 18th homer of the season Monday, told NBC Sports Bay Area’s “Giants Postgame Live” after the win. “That means he keeps swinging the bat well, and the runs that we get we need. It’s fun to see [Fitzgerald] get comfortable.
“It seems like everyday he’s getting better. He’s getting more comfortable at shortstop. He just seems to be hitting balls everywhere. The homers are coming in bunches right now, so it’s…