Harrison, bullpen snap SF Giants’ losing streak with win over Marlins

Kyle Harrison has created quite the conundrum for the Giants Harrison turned in a fine start as San Francisco beat the Miami Marlins at LoanDepot Park - tossing five scoreless innings with five strikeouts and allowing one lone hit The command was a tad shaky evidenced by three walks but his four-seam fastball exhibited great life Camilo Doval pitching in front of his mother Rosa for the first time as a professional recorded his first save as San Francisco s re-minted closer The Giants envision that Harrison will be a starter for years to come His last two starts validated that he is plenty capable But with Justin Verlander on the mend Harrison appears headed right back to the bullpen Verlander who was placed on the -day injured list with right pectoral soreness on May retroactive to May threw a bullpen around pitches when the Giants played the Detroit Tigers If Verlander is healthy he would be eligible to be activated when San Francisco returns home to play the San Diego Padres Harrison cannot control his role What he can control is how he performs when his name is called So far he s performed well in both roles As a reliever he s allowed two runs over innings ERA As a starter he has a crisp Against the Marlins he affirmed why he s deserving of more starts As he is wont to do Harrison heavily relied on his four-seam fastball Harrison generated whiffs with his heater one shy of his career-high of Those whiffs were likely a product of his rediscovered velocity Harrison s average four-seam fastball clocked in at mph against the Marlins the highest average velocity he s ever had with his heater in a start in his major-league career This comes after Harrison averaged mph with his four-seam fastball against the Washington Nationals which becomes the second-highest average velocity in a single start Harrison departed with a - lead thanks to Wilmer Flores RBI single one that capped off an -pitch plate appearance against Cal Quantrill and Matt Chapman s solo homer That left the bullpen with four innings to cover and San Francisco s relievers got themselves into and out of trouble In the bottom of the sixth the Marlins put runners on first and second with two outs against Tristan Beck but recently-demoted closer Ryan Walker put on the fire by generating a first-pitch groundout off the bat of Dane Meyers The following inning Miami put runners on second and third with two outs against left-hander Erik Miller prompting manager Bob Melvin to summon Tyler Rogers The submariner maintained the Giants lead by striking out August n Ram rez looking with a perfectly-placed sinker on the outside corner Related Articles Kurtenbach The SF Giants desperately need offense Buster Posey should look at these four trade-deadline targets SF Giants take - lead but can t hold it and are swept by Tigers Bob Melvin ejected Logan Webb hit around in SF Giants loss to Tigers SF Giants Willy Adames kills rallies in - series-opening loss in Detroit SF Giants take series in D C as Ray continues excellent stretch The eighth inning featured yet another fire that needed to be put out With Miller Rogers and Walker already having been used Melvin gave the eighth inning to Spencer Bivens who typically pitches in lower leverage situations Bivens like Beck and Miller before him got two outs but departed with runners on first and second Doval back in the closer role bailed out Bivens by getting Connor Norby to fly out and end the eighth inning then recorded his sixth save of the season with a scoreless ninth inning Doval whose ERA on the season is now has now gone consecutive appearances without allowing an earned run