DENVER _ There are so many other places Mac Williamson could have been instead of Coors Field on Tuesday.
Williamson could have been at Raley Field in Sacramento, Calif., giving an encore performance after launching three home runs for the Triple-A River Cats on Monday. He could have been in another major league stadium, playing for a different team after being designated for assignment by the Giants this spring. Williamson could be out of baseball altogether, too, as it took him more than five months to become symptom-free after suffering a career-altering concussion last April.
Instead, Williamson was starting in left field, hitting sixth and leading the Giants to a 14-4 win over the Colorado Rockies.
His teammates were thrilled to see him.
After receiving a call to the big leagues late Monday night, Williamson announced his arrival at Coors Field on Tuesday with a go-ahead three-run home run in the top of the fourth. It marked his fourth home run in a 24-hour span and first in the majors since he hit a solo shot on June 14, 2018 against the Marlins.
At that point in time, Williamson's vision was still blurred from a concussion he suffered while tumbling over the bullpen mounds at Oracle Park and into the side wall. That home run was also the last extra base hit Williamson recorded with the Giants, as he went 2-for-his-next-22 before being sent down to Triple-A.
In early August, concussion symptoms forced Williamson to cut his season short.
Williamson had every opportunity to earn an Opening Day roster spot this spring, but early struggles convinced the Giants they were better off acquiring inexperienced utility players Connor Joe and Michael Reed to fortify a lineup in dire need of power.
Neither Joe nor Reed lasted more than two weeks with the club, and after six different players received opportunities to start in left field for the Giants this season, Williamson became the seventh on Tuesday. With his fourth-inning homer and a fifth-inning RBI single, Williamson set a new career-high with four RBIs and doubled the home run and RBI output the Giants received from all of their left fielders through the club's first 35 games.
"I would expect him to get a real extended look," president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said pregame. "I think a lot of that comes from what he's earned and what he's done at the beginning of the season."
Williamson's three-run homer came two innings after Evan Longoria hit an opposite-field solo shot to tie the game in his first at-bat back after missing the previous three games with left shoulder inflammation. It also preceded a two-run blast from center fielder Kevin Pillar, who is the only other Giants player aside from Williamson to finish with four RBIs in the same game.
The Giants scored 13 of their season-high 14 runs Tuesday with two outs, including five in the ninth as Brandon Crawford and Tyler Austin each drove in a pair. Half of the team's offensive output came in the first five innings as the Giants provided ace Madison Bumgarner with plenty of support inside the hitter-friendly confines of Coors Field.
After Bumgarner allowed a leadoff home run to Rockies right fielder Charlie Blackmon in the bottom of the first, the left-hander settled in and produced a quality start. Over six innings of work, Bumgarner allowed three runs _ two of which scored on solo homers _ and struck out eight while walking just one.
Bumgarner's fastball averaged 92 miles per hour and his cutter topped out at 88.4 miles per hour, proving that a velocity spike he saw in his previous outing against the Dodgers could be here to stay.
The Giants needed Bumgarner to work deep into Tuesday's game after their starters combined to allow 27 runs in a four-game series against the Reds over the weekend.
After going 1-8 in each of their previous two seasons at Coors Field, the Giants secured a series-opening victory Tuesday to improve to 3-2 on their road trip and give the club ample opportunities to win multiple games in Denver in 2019.
