SF Giants prospects rundown 5/8: Kyle Harrison’s anticipated debut

SF Giants Prospects Rundown 5/8: Low-A

Fresno Grizzlies 1 at San Jose Giants 3
Performance of the Game: Luis Matos (2-4, 2 2B, R, RBI, K)

The best pitching prospect in the Giants system, 2020 third-round selection Kyle Harrison, made his much-anticipated professional debut for quite a bit of fanfare in San Jose, where presumably plenty of friends and family were in attendance (he graduated from nearby De La Salle High School last spring). He showed off an impressive pitch arsenal over three shutout innings and showed some serious struggles with control. He walked three and hit two batters but only allowed one hit and struck out seven. Harrison’s pre-draft scouting report suggested a strong feel for his arsenal with a lack of swing-and-miss stuff.

Ty Weber bounced back from a tough first outing, taking over for Harrison and throwing three shutout innings of his own. Weber had to work around a decent amount of traffic on the basepaths, allowing four hits, but he issued no free passes and struck out four. Another nondrafted free agent from last summer, Wil Jensen, followed Weber with a pair of shutout innings of his own. Chris Wright surrendered a run in the top of the ninth on back-to-back singles but finished the inning otherwise unscathed and recorded his first save of the year.

It was another relatively quiet offensive day for the young prospect-heavy lineup in San Jose. Luis Matos has seemed to adjust to full-season pitching rather quickly, building off a good performance on Friday with another multi-hit game, this time adding a pair of doubles. He is still incredibly aggressive at the plate, swinging at almost every early-count strike he sees and probably chasing more than would be ideal, but he’s showing off his impressive bat-to-ball skills.

We’ll be back with looks at the SF Giants farm system throughout the minor-league season with daily rundowns on the entire organization’s minor-league affiliates.