Kyle Harrison hasn’t even pitched a complete season at the major league level, yet he’s already done what no other visiting pitcher in history has – tame the altitude at Coors Field in Colorado.
Harrison spun five stellar shutout innings in his latest trip to Rockies’ home Thursday, becoming the first pitcher to ever have two scoreless starts of five innings or more in the same season there.
Since its inception in 1999, Coors Field has been a bandbox for hitters. Balls hit there historically travel further, making it a hitter’s paradise no matter who is on the bump.
Although it’s a hitter’s paradise, it has also proved to be a pitcher’s worst nightmare.
Unless your name is Kyle Harrison.
The 22-year-old phenom has handcuffed the Rockies’ offense both times that he’s pitched in the Mile High city
Harrison is unbeaten in four overall career starts and has a 2.45 overall ERA against the Rockies, but he’s been spotless and especially stingy and at Coors Field where he’s piled up an ERA of zilch.
Harrison boasts the lowest all-time career ERA at Coors Field of any visiting pitcher who has made multiple starts in the Rockies’ home stadium.
Former Giants pitcher John Brebbia and Max Fried of the Atlanta Braves also have 0.00 ERAs at Coors Field, matching Harrison for the best mark by an opposing pitcher.
Compare that to what some of baseball’s greats did at Coors Field over the years. Among pitchers with at least four starts there, Los Angeles Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw has a 4.82 ERA, Pedro Martinez checks in with a 4.97 ERA, Roger Clemens had a 4.71 mark, while Greg Maddux owned a whopping 5.19 ERA there.
“Would have been better to get a win today obviously but definitely a cool feat,” Harrison told reporters at Coors Field when asked about his remarkable streak. “Just another day at the yard.
“I feel like I had a lot of (minor league) outings last year in these high-altitude places like Reno and (Las) Vegas. So I kind of had a feel for how my ball was going to move and where to land it. Just mixing it up.”
Harrison definitely did that against Colorado on Thursday, although he got a little wild at times. While he did a much better job getting ahead of hitters, the young lefty threw 93 pitches – only 56 for strikes – which helped drive his pitch count up.
When he was on, however, Harrison was dealing. He was very effective pitching inside and had a lot of success pitching high in the zone.
Harrison relied mainly on his fastball, generating seven swing-and-misses from the four-seamer. He also mixed in his slurve and tried to get his change-up back on track after having sporadic success with that pitch in some of his recent starts.
“Little better life on the fastball,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said. “They made him work the last couple innings as far as pitches go, but breaking ball was better today, too, whether he was back-dooring it or throwing it for strikes. Kept them off his fastball a little bit.”
Like any good pitcher, Harrison was more focused on what he wasn’t able to do rather than what he did. He is driven to continue to improve and blamed himself for not putting hitters away when he had the advantage.
“First-pitch strikes were better today and that’s something I stress,” Harrison said. “But the 0-1s, I kind of let them back into counts, led to four walks and some long ABs that (without) I could have stayed in the game longer.”
No doubt, the Rockies thought he was out there long enough in his home away from home.
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