Kyle Harrison made his MLB debut last week in Philly, but it was a whole ‘nother level on Monday night at Oracle Park, as the Bay Area native made his home debut in front of hundreds of family and friends.
The top-ranked southpaw prospect in baseball cut his teeth in Danville before starring at De La Salle high school before the Giants drafted him with a third-round pick in 2020.
On Monday night, Harrison got multiple standing ovations throughout his evening en route to tossing 6.1 innings of scoreless baseball with 11 strikeouts. In the process, he joined some elite company, per ESPN Stats & Info.
Christy Mathewson. Madison Bumgarner. Kyle Harrison. That’s a nice short list to be on.
After the game, though, Harrison was pretty ho-hum about his historic night.
"I just went out there and the game plan with Patty was just to attack these guys," Harrison said, via NBC Sports Bay Area. "I stuck to the game plan and had some great plays behind me. Yeah, it was a great day."
As low-key as Harrison was about his performance, manager Gabe Kapler heaped praise on the 22-year-old.
"It was about as electric a performance by a pitcher as we've seen since I've been here in San Francisco," Kapler said. "It was right up there with any pitching performance."
Most importantly, Harrison’s night helped the Giants pull within a half-game of the Arizona Diamondbacks for the third and final Wild Card spot in the National League. If San Francisco sneaks into the playoffs this year, it’ll be because of young guys like Harrison, Patrick Bailey and Casey Schmitt helping keep the franchise afloat with an injection of young energy.
