Kyle Harrison’s SF Giants home debut was somehow better than the hype

That’s the only word that truly captures how Kyle Harrison looked in his first home start Monday night against the Reds. He was utterly dominant from the get-go, striking out the first five batters he faced. He had command of all his pitches and toyed with a very good Reds lineup, making them look completely overmatched in the process, and cut them up like he was prime Randy Johnson. Scientifically speaking, he flat-out shoved.

This was the Harrison that Giants fans have been salivating over since he was drafted out of De La Salle in 2020, the continuation of the Cain-Lincecum-Bumgarner bloodline. He was so good Monday that Gabe Kapler embraced the hype, calling it a “historic performance” and saying, “It was about as electric a performance by a pitcher as we’ve seen since I’ve been here in San Francisco.”

He was unhittable, racking up 11 strikeouts (nine of them swinging) against only 2 walks in 6.1 innings. He showed signs of what he could do in his first start against the Phillies, but Monday was special. That was the kind of start that turns heads around the league and, with respect to Logan Webb, the kind of start the Giants have been needing for a long time.

At 68-63, the Giants are a half-game out of the last wild card and something like a coin flip to make it to the playoffs. As I wrote a few weeks ago, Harrison may end up being the key to saving the Giants’ suddenly tenuous playoff hopes. Monday night showed why. The Giants have managed to squeeze all they can out of the opener concept, and for the most part, it’s served them well. But it just has to help — tangibly and mentally — to have starting pitchers you know give you a chance to win whenever they take the mound. The Giants have that in Webb, and sometimes Alex Cobb, but aside from that, nothing. Until Monday night.

Harrison also gives the Giants something else they’ve been lacking: appointment viewing, the likes of which they haven’t seen since Lincecum’s peak. Not to compare Harrison to Lincecum already, but the hype for both of their debuts reached a fever pitch. Lincecum was a sensation, and Harrison is giving glimpses that he could be one, too. Like Lincecum, his starts are going to be can’t-miss for fans. His jersey is going to fly out of the Giants Dugout stores as fast as they can stock them. Of all the young players the Giants have brought along this year, Harrison stands out as the one fans may rally around the most.

Am I making too much out of just one start? Probably, but you know what? Who cares! For the past six weeks or so, the Giants have resembled a lifeless blob floating under the Lefty O’Doul Bridge. At times, they’ve looked like a 90-loss team playing out the string instead of one fighting for a playoff spot. They couldn’t hit, and they didn’t have enough pitching; the playoff odds were dropping by the day. They were flatlining and needed help.

Monday was the most alive this team has felt since before the All-Star break, and it’s all because of Harrison. He set the tone, and the rest of the team followed. They hit, played sound defense, made smart plays — basically everything they’d been doing before this awful stretch. It’s asking a lot of a rookie to put a team on his back, but Harrison did just that, at least for one start. It was beyond impressive, better than anything a Giants fan could have dreamed up in the past three years. It was exciting. It was tantalizing. It was just plain fun.

Can he keep it up? We’ll know for sure in about a month, but today, it’s OK to bask in the glow. Harrison gave the team and the fan base exactly what both needed: optimism. Not only for the stretch run but for the future as well. Coming into this year, MLB.com ranked him as the top left-handed pitching prospect in the game. The hype was enormous, and he exceeded it. He gave the Giants hope that they’ve found their long-term solution at the top of the rotation. And he may be just good enough to secure them a wild-card spot.

Just one start, yes. But what a damn start it was.

Dave Tobener (@gggiants on Twitter) is a lifelong Giants fan whose family has had season tickets for over 30 years. He’s been lucky enough to never miss a World Series game in The City in his lifetime, still isn’t completely over 2002, and lives and dies with the Giants every year.