SF Giants rookie Tyler Fitzgerald makes history

Jul 24, 2024, 8:02 AM

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JULY 23: Tyler Fitzgerald #49 San Francisco Giants celebrates on the base...

(Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

Lead Editor & Kings Beat Writer

Amid a tough stretch of play for the San Francisco Giants, an unlikely contributor has emerged for a stumbling offense: Rookie shortstop Tyler Fitzgerald.

The Giants (48-54) might have dropped four of their first five games out of the All-Star break, but Fitzgerald has more than carried his weight for an offense that has collectively hit .180 and failed to score more than three runs in a game since July 12th.

Fitzgerald has been a force for San Francisco, batting .571 with five home runs, seven RBI, and having scored six runs over the past five games.

That’s right–five home runs in five games for Fitzgerald, who made Giants history on Tuesday by becoming the first rookie in franchise history to homer in five-straight contests. The last player to hit a home run in five consecutive games for San Francisco was Barry Bonds, who had eight homers in a seven-game span in 2004.

More on SF Giants rookie Tyler Fitzgerald

While Fitzgerald might have made history with another long ball on Tuesday, the 26-year-old didn’t take a victory lap following another loss to the Giants’ NL West rival Los Angeles Dodgers.

“At the end of the day, we come here to win,” Fitzgerald said to reporters. “Everything that I do is cool and all, and at the end of the year I’ll look back on this and smile about it. It will be cool. But we lost the game, so not a whole lot of good came from it. Hope to get a win tomorrow.”

When asked about the home run streak, the fourth-round pick in the 2019 MLB Draft said that he’s trying not to think about it.

“I try not to think about it, to be honest with you,” Fitzgerald said of his homer streak. “I’m seeing it well and swinging at good pitches and doing damage when I get the pitch I want. It’s cool and all, but I’m just trying to keep my head down, keep working and not really think about everything that is kind of going on.”

While Fitzgerald said the home run streak isn’t at the front of his mind, he did acknowledge the fact that placing his name next to Bonds in the record books is “pretty cool.”

“We have [to go up against Dodgers pitcher Tyler] Glasnow tomorrow, so I’m not going to get ahead of myself here. But just to get to five is pretty cool. I’ve had similar stretches like this in the Minor Leagues, but to finally just do it here is a sigh of relief. It feels pretty good.”