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DENVER – Mike Yastrzemski hit a three-run homerun, one of San Francisco’s four long balls, to help the NL West Giants beat the Colorado Rockies 7-2 on Friday night and become the first team in 100 wins of the season.
154 games are the fastest the Giants have reached 100 wins in the live ball era (since 1920). It’s the first time they’ve been the first MLB team with 100 wins since arriving in San Francisco in 1958.
San Francisco started the night by leading the Los Angeles Dodgers with a game, Los Angeles later playing against Arizona. The Giants won 16 of 20.
Kervin Castro (1-0) pitched two innings for his first major-league win, and the Giants reached 100 wins for the first time since their 100-62 in 2003.
“It’s a great accomplishment, but we’re looking for more,” said San Francisco pitcher Alex Wood.
The Giants haven’t won the NL West since 2012, when they won the second of three World Series titles in five years. At the start of the season they were lightly regarded, with the San Diego Dodgers and Padres gaining attention, but they surprised many.
“It’s a big deal,” manager Gabe Kapler said of the 100-game win. “We know our division is extraordinarily talented, but we also know we are talented. Our goal was to win the division and not just sneak into the playoffs.”
San Francisco blew him up in seventh. Yastrzemski followed the singles of Brandon Crawford and Evan Longoria with his 25th home run on reliever Ashton Goudeau (1-1). The Giants added another on Buster Posey’s RBI single.
Tommy La Stella, Crawford and Brandon Belt hit solo homers to give San Francisco a 3-2 lead after six. La Stella and Crawford had three hits apiece and Belt finished with two.
San Francisco has 234 home runs, one short of the club’s 2001 record set when Barry Bonds hit 73. The Giants lead the National League in home runs and are second in majors behind Toronto’s 241 despite the fact that no player has touched more than 27 this season.
Three players – Belt, Crawford and Yastrzemski – have 22 or more, and seven other players have hit double digits in the homesteads.
“So many home runs have been meaningful,” Kapler said. “I can’t help but think of those who changed a game for us. We get contributions from everyone on our list.”
The Associated Press and ESPN Statistics and News contributed to this story.
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