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Coors Field, the Colorado Rockies’ home in Denver, has long been a graveyard for pitchers. At roughly 1,600 meters (about 5,250 feet) above sea level, the thin air helps balls carry farther and faster. On the 1st, Lee Jung-hoo of the San Francisco Giants delivered one of those nights hitters dream about.
Lee finished the game with five hits against the Rockies — a new single-game career high. He had never recorded more than four hits in a game in his career, a mark no Korean major leaguer had previously surpassed and one Lee himself had not reached even while playing in Korea. He accomplished it just three days after coming off the injured list with a back injury. The Giants rolled to a 19-6 victory, snapping a six-game losing skid.
MLB.com led its game recap with “Adames’ grand slam and Lee Jung-hoo’s five hits power Giants’ offensive outburst.” The AP noted Lee drove two of his career-high five hits in the fifth inning. NBC Sports Bay Area spotlighted his performance on the postgame show, saying he showed no rust after returning from the injured list.
There was a clear change in Lee’s swing after his IL stint. On May 30, his first game back, he went 4-for-5 with two runs scored, and he followed that with another multi-hit game on May 31. In this outing he went 5-for-6 with two RBIs and a run. Over the three games since his return he is 11-for-15, lifting his average to .304 — his first stretch back at .300 since April 28.
Manager Tony Vitello, speaking after Lee’s four-hit game against the Marlins at the end of April, summed up the approach: “I’ve kept saying the same thing — let Lee be Lee.” This was one of those days when that advice paid off in a big way.
Lee was sharp from the start. With one out and runners at the corners in the first, he ripped a 92 mph (148.1 km/h) four-seam fastball from Rockies starter Tanner Gordon into left-center for the game’s first RBI. He popped out to left in the third — the only other out he recorded all day.
The biggest moment came in the fifth. Leading off the inning, Lee squared up a 94 mph (151.3 km/h) four-seam fastball from reliever Jack Agnos. The ball off the bat registered 102.5 mph with a 26-degree launch angle and carried an estimated 429 feet. It would have cleared the fences in 28 of MLB’s 30 parks, but it hit the highest part of the Coors Field wall and fell back into play. Lee jogged to first, giving a light wave toward the dugout.
That fifth inning exploded into a big frame for San Francisco. After two outs, six straight batters reached base and Willie Adames capped the rally with a grand slam, turning the inning into a seven-run outburst. MLB.com pointed out the Giants scored more in that one inning than the Rockies did all day. The slam was Adames’ sixth career grand slam, and the Giants recorded their fourth grand slam in May — the most the club has hit in a month since 1970.
Lee reached base twice during that same big inning, adding a single into center in his second plate appearance of the frame. In the seventh, with one out and a runner on second, he delivered an RBI single to center that brought in Luis Arraez and gave him his fourth hit. He tacked on a fifth hit in the eighth off Brett Sullivan, setting a new personal single-game mark, and was immediately replaced by a pinch-runner.
The Giants’ offense was in full force beyond Lee. Rafael Devers went 4-for-6 with three triples and scored four times, while Bryce Eldridge also finished 4-for-6 with a homer. The AP reported San Francisco set season highs with 25 hits, 19 runs and 13 extra-base hits in the game. Five players had at least three hits. Jona Cox, called up from Double-A and making his major-league debut, doubled in the ninth.
Starter Robbie Ray threw 96 pitches and managed only four innings. He had been chasing his first win since May 8 but fell short; the victory went to Caleb Kilian, who recorded one inning of work.
Across the Coors Field series, Lee finished 11-for-15 over three games. The Giants leave Colorado having dropped the series, 1-2.
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