Fitzgerald back on track thanks to help from Giants legend

PHILADELPHIA -- Last week, Tyler Fitzgerald got to receive a major perk of playing for the Giants: hitting tips from Barry Bonds.

During the club’s most recent homestand, Bonds pulled Fitzgerald aside and asked him to meet him in the batting cage, where the legendary slugger instructed the slumping second baseman to focus on hitting the ball straight down to snap him out of his tendency to drop his barrel.

It didn’t take long for Bonds’ advice to resonate for Fitzgerald, who continued to break out of his slow start by going 3-for-5 with a double and an RBI in the Giants’ 11-4 rout of the Phillies on Wednesday night at Citizens Bank Park.

Mike Yastrzemski, Jung Hoo Lee and Matt Chapman also delivered multihit efforts for the Giants (13-5), who took an early lead after scoring four runs off Aaron Nola in the top of the first inning and then kept adding on with the help of some sloppy defense from the Phillies. Every hitter in San Francisco’s starting lineup reached base at least twice, resulting in a season-high 11 runs on 13 hits and nine walks, two of which came with the bases loaded.

Fitzgerald batted only .179 with no home runs and no RBIs over his first nine games, but he’s turned it around in a major way over the past week, going 11-for-23 (.478) with five runs, three doubles, a triple and a homer over his past six games to raise his batting average to .314 with an .842 OPS on the season.

“It’s been fantastic here recently,” manager Bob Melvin said. “He went from really having a tough time to start -- he’s a little bit of a slow starter to begin with -- but you look up now, and he’s hitting over .300. It’s been fantastic. He’s really kind of settling down in the bottom part of the order, knocking in some runs and scoring some runs, too.”

The Giants expected Fitzgerald to be an offensive contributor after he batted .280 with an .831 OPS, 15 home runs and 17 stolen bases during his breakout rookie campaign in 2024, but the 27-year-old infielder struggled to get back into a groove after he missed the beginning of Spring Training with a back injury. His recent chat with Bonds, though, put him back on track and helped him heat up during the club’s current road trip through New York and Philadelphia.

“I just felt like I had some really bad habits from when I hurt my back in Spring Training,” Fitzgerald said. “I just never really got over that. My swing felt super long. I’ve always had real quick hands and real short swings. So the last few days, really ever since we’ve gone to New York, I’ve been doing a lot of high tee and stuff to kind of try to swing downward.

“Barry actually helped me with that a little bit the last homestand. Just trying to get on top of the ball. As you can see, just with that thought, I’m able to backspin balls a little better. I’m trying to stay with it and get rid of some of those bad habits that I had and a lot of swing-and-miss that I had before.”

Fitzgerald’s recent production out of the nine-spot should only further lengthen a Giants lineup that has largely relied on contributions from Yastrzemski, Lee and Wilmer Flores, who now leads the Majors with 23 RBIs after knocking in two more runs on Wednesday.

Fitzgerald is also looking more comfortable at second base, where he’s getting an extended look now that Willy Adames is locked in to play shortstop for the foreseeable future. He made an impressive play there in the fifth inning, when he raced into shallow center field to make an amazing overhead catch on a fly ball from Edmundo Sosa.

“There’s a ton of ability there,” Melvin said. “He should be confident. He’s got power, he’s got speed. He’s settling in and playing defense well. It’s all good for him right now.”

Relievers Lou Trivino, Camilo Doval and Spencer Bivens combined to deliver five scoreless innings to pick up left-hander Robbie Ray, who struck out eight but lasted only four innings after giving up four runs on six hits and a season-high-tying five walks.

Trivino pitched a scoreless fifth and sixth to earn his first MLB win since Aug. 21, 2022. It was a special milestone for the 33-year-old right-hander, who missed the entire 2023 and ‘24 campaigns while rehabbing from Tommy John surgery.

“I didn’t think it would mean a lot to me, and then I found out that I was the winning pitcher, and I was like, ‘OK, that’s kind of meaningful,’” Trivino said. “It’s been a while, and it’s nice to be able to contribute with such a good team.”