Giants Fall Victim to Phillies’ Ninth-Inning Comeback Amid Kyle Harrison’s MLB Debut
Watching the Philadelphia Phillies rally with a two-run ninth inning to earn a 4-3 comeback victory likely wasn’t the outcome Kyle Harrison had envisioned for his first career MLB start. Nor should it have been.
The 22-year-old, promoted by the San Francisco Giants ahead of Tuesday’s contest at Citizens Bank Park, has been heralded as the most talented arm to emerge from the organization’s farm system since Madison Bumgarner. And there’s a good reason for it.
After being selected in the third round of the 2020 draft, Harrison had to wait to make his professional debut until the following season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But he wasted little time in his inaugural campaign, posting a 3.19 ERA with 157 strikeouts in 98.2 innings at low-A.
That started his accession through the Giants’ system, making stops at high-A and double-A in 2022 before arriving to triple-A earlier this season. A consistent trait he demonstrated at every level was his ability to rack up swings and misses.
If not for a right hamstring strain that sidelined Harrison for most of July, the Giants’ No. 1 ranked prospect – who is also MLB Pipeline’s No. 20 top prospect – may have been able to debut in the majors even sooner. Still, his highly-anticipated arrival was well worth the wait.
The young lefty threw 65 pitches over 3.1 innings, holding Philadelphia’s lineup to two runs on five hits, one walk and one hit-by-pitch while striking out five.
Four of those five punchouts almost certainly won’t be as memorable as Harrison’s first, which came in the first inning against one of baseball’s most elite hitters, Trea Turner.
Harrison’s outing ended with one out in the fourth, although the plan was always to keep his start brief as he’s still regaining his stamina from last month’s IL stint. But he put on quite the display before handing things over to the bullpen.
The 6-foot-2 hurler showcased his explosive fastball, which averaged 94.5 mph on the radar gun and maxed out at 97.6. It was also responsible for all five strikeouts, inducing 11 whiffs on 23 swings.
San Francisco’s promising young star occasionally mixed in his secondary weapons (slurve, changeup, cutter) but leaned heavily on his four-seamer – which drew comparison to San Diego’s Josh Hader from catcher Patrick Bailey.
That’s a pretty high honour, especially for someone with just one big-league start under his belt. Both lefties, however, share a common feature: a deceptive three-quarter arm slot, making it difficult to identify each pitch.
If Tuesday night was any indication, Harrison should be able to help a Giants squad that, following Camilo Doval’s sixth blown save of 2023, sit a half game back of the final NL wild-card seed.
“It was a cool experience, for sure,” Harrison said post-game. “Nerves were there, but once I threw the first pitch, it was the same game. … Not obviously your ideal debut, but we’ll definitely build on it.”
Next up for Harrison – who had his parents, brother, girlfriend and a few friends in Philadelphia – will be his home debut at Oracle Park, where he expects to host a much larger crowd as it’ll only be a short drive from his hometown of Concord, California.
As such, he may have to scramble to find as many tickets as possible to meet the high demand that’s likely on the horizon.
-Thomas Hall
Twitter: @ThomasHall85
Photo: Newyorkadam. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.