Schmitt, Adames Bury Colorado as SF Rolls 8-2

San Francisco sent four different players deep and piled on six unanswered runs across the fifth and eighth innings to dismantle Colorado 8-2 on Friday. The story of the night was Casey Schmitt, who bookended the game with a 420-foot leadoff homer and a clutch eighth-inning double that kept the rally alive.

Schmitt set the tone immediately, launching a 420-foot shot to center in the first to put SF up 1-0. Colorado answered hard in the fourth — Willi Castro's 391-foot two-run homer to left center flipped the game, swinging SF's win probability from 65% down to 42%, a 23-point drop that briefly made this look like Colorado's night. Bryce Eldridge answered right back in the same inning, going the other way for a 394-foot solo shot to right to tie it at 2. That exchange of punches in the fourth looks, in hindsight, like the last gasp Colorado would get.

San Francisco took control for good in the fifth. Luis Arraez doubled to right, scoring Cavanaugh and moving Ramos to third. Rafael Devers followed with a single to right, scoring Ramos and pushing the lead to 4-2. Colorado starter Ryan Feltner was done by then — he lasted just 4.1 innings, allowing 6 hits, 4 earned runs, and 4 walks. Victor Vodnik came on and kept things quiet for 1.2 innings, but the damage was already done.

The eighth inning was where SF buried it. Schmitt doubled to center to score Arraez, making it 5-2. Devers then hit a ground rule double to score Schmitt and push it to 6-2. Then Willy Adames put the game away with a 407-foot two-run homer to left, scoring Devers and capping the scoring at 8-2. On the mound, Carson Whisenhunt gave SF 5.2 innings of work, allowing just 3 hits and 2 earned runs while striking out 4. Erik Miller closed things out with a clean inning — no hits, no walks, two strikeouts. With the All-Star break arriving next week, this appears to be exactly the kind of performance SF wanted heading into the pause. Colorado, meanwhile, heads into the break looking for answers — and with an organization already dealing with off-field noise after Domingo Acevedo's 80-game PED suspension earlier this week, the timing of a lopsided loss like this one stings a little more.