The San Francisco Giants may have fallen off the pace in the National League playoff race, but there is a ton of fanfare surrounding the team and its future amid the emergence of rookie shortstop Tyler Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald, the 26-year-old versatile middle infielder/outfielder, has done nothing but rake since the Giants called him up for good on June 28. In fact, he has been on a historic home run hot streak after he hit another long ball in their 5-2 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday night.
Fitzgerald has now gone yard in five consecutive games, which is tied for the longest home run streak for any rookie in MLB history, according to Sarah Langs of MLB.com. The 26-year-old is also now the proud owner of the longest long ball streak for any Giants rookie in the franchise's 142 years of existence, which is no mean feat.
Tyler Fitzgerald also became just the eighth player in Giants history to go deep in five consecutive games, joining the best of the best in Barry Bonds, Willie Mays, and Mel Ott in that exclusive club. The other players in this elite company are Robby Thompson, Jack Clark, Walker Cooper, and George Kelly. They may not be as great as the three that were mentioned, but they all had long big-league careers and they all tallied at least 28 WAR (per Fangraphs), which only bodes well for Fitzgerald's potential as a long-term keeper for the Giants.
Will Fitzgerald make MLB history and become the first-ever rookie to homer in six straight games? The Dodgers will have their work cut out for them as the 26-year-old shortstop looks to make history later tonight.
Tyler Fitzgerald-mania sweeps the Giants fanbase
It's not too often that a fourth-round pick in the MLB becomes an everyday player in the big leagues, let alone a star-caliber one. But Tyler Fitzgerald's torrid start to his MLB career has Giants fans hoping that he can be the team's long-term solution at shortstop.
Fitzgerald, the 116th overall pick in the 2019 MLB Draft, has displayed power production at every minor-league level since 2021. He hit 62 home runs across High-A to Triple-A from 2021 to 2023, and in a cup of coffee with the Giants big league team last season, he hit two home runs, showing indeed that he can get some good wood on the baseball. He has been improving his walk rate steadily as well, which helps compensate for his strikeout issues.
But 2024 has been an entirely different story for Tyler Fitzgerald. He proved that he is too good for the minors after hitting eight home runs to go along with a slash line of in just 87 plate appearances .310/.402./718 in Triple-A, and now, he has been launching home runs left and right for the big-league team and at a historic rate at that.
The catch, of course, is that Fitzgerald hit three of those home runs in Coors Field, the park that rates as the most hitter-friendly park in the majors, per Baseball Savant's Park Factor metric. Nonetheless, long balls count all the same regardless of the field, and he proved that he's no fluke by hitting two of his dingers in Dodger Stadium, the 10th least hitter-friendly ballpark in the majors. His power production, indeed, may be here to stay, health permitting, and the Giants need every bit of it moving forward.
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