Early trouble sours Harrison's return from the injured list

CLEVELAND -- Kyle Harrison’s outing for the Giants on Saturday came with a mixed bag.

The good was his mere presence on the mound, as the 22-year-old rookie missed nearly a month with an ankle injury.

The not so good came once he took the mound, as the Guardians tagged Harrison for four earned runs on four hits in just 3 1/3 innings in the Giants’ 5-4 loss to the Guardians at Progressive Field.

Harrison ran into trouble right from the start, as he was welcomed back by facing Cleveland's leadoff hitter and MLB batting average leader Steven Kwan. He worked the count full and, on the sixth pitch of the at-bat, singled on a fastball to right field, setting the tone for the rest of the inning.

The first three Guardians reached base before Josh Naylor plated Kwan with groundout, Jhonkensy Noel hit a Statcast-projected 408-foot sacrifice fly and Tyler Freeman hit an RBI single.

By the time Harrison was able to get Bo Naylor to fly out to the end the inning, he had thrown 37 pitches and Randy Rodríguez was warming in the bullpen.

“Tough first inning,” Harrison said. “I was working a little too fast, and didn’t have my legs under me. I was pretty [ticked off] when I got to the dugout.”

Manager Bob Melvin let Harrison go out in the second inning, where the Guardians tacked on another run when he surrendered a solo homer to Kwan. Harrison was able to get through the third inning, and got Bo Naylor to pop out to start the fourth inning before Melvin pulled him for Rodríguez.

Harrison threw 72 pitches, and was able to generate eight called strikes with his fastball and nine with his slurve. He didn’t go on a rehab assignment, meaning Saturday’s start was his first game action since he allowed one run in 6 1/3 innings against the Astros on June 10.

“He’s been out of it, and hasn’t been in a game for awhile. So once he got into it, he looked better,” Melvin said. “He’ll be much better command-wise next time out.”

The Giants' offense was able to generate traffic on the basepaths against Guardians pitching but wasn’t able to do much with it outside of a three-run fifth inning that was keyed by a two-run single from Tyler Fitzgerald and an impromptu double- steal that allowed Matt Chapman to score from third.

Chapman initially wasn’t supposed to go home on the play, but felt he had a good enough jump and tested the arm of Angel Martínez, who ended up throwing wide of the plate.

“If they make a good throw, I might be out there, but they have some good guys on the mound so sometimes, you’ve got to take a chance,” Chapman said.

“Chapman has good instincts on the basepaths,” Melvin added.

While Harrison wished his start could have been better, the fact he’s back in the rotation is a positive for a Giants team that’s doing everything it can to scrape together 27 outs. While his start went sideways almost immediately, he’s excited to build on how it ended.

"It was a rough first inning, but I was able to get back out there and give it my all,” Harrison said. “I felt good. I’m ready for my next one for sure.”

Earlier in the day, San Francisco recalled Kolton Ingram -- who is on his sixth MLB organization this year, including two in Spring Training and four during the season -- from Double-A in large part because of his potential to work multiple innings. On Friday, it was journeyman Spencer Bivens (who was optioned to Triple-A in a corresponding move for Harrison's activation and Ingram’s callup) who led the charge with three innings.

While Harrison’s start on Saturday lacked the depth the Giants desperately needed, it was still a sign of things potentially beginning to turn for a San Francisco team that’s been standing tall against some of the best teams in baseball.

After splitting the first two games of their series against the Guardians, the Giants will look to win their fourth series in a row with a win on Sunday.

“We’ve been playing good baseball, but we’ve been on a tough stretch playing against some really good teams,” Chapman said.

“We all feel good about where we’re at. We’re grinding against good teams. Even if we haven’t won, we’ve been able to stay in games. We’ve been competitive every day.”