Announcing the birth of Babe Haase

Giants 6, Dodgers 2

One of the joys in a six-month season is the out-of-nowhere game from the out-of-nowhere guy.

Eric Haase had no place on the Giants roster a few weeks ago. The club had one catcher with two Gold Gloves and another with Rule 5 protection. Now Patrick Bailey plays in Cleveland and Daniel Susac in Sacramento, rehabbing an elbow injury.

And Haase? Well, he’s the most important bat in the Giants lineup. At least on Tuesday.

He became the first player to hit two home runs in a game against Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

A multi-home run game in only his fifth start with the Giants is impressive enough—even more so when you consider Patrick Bailey never had one. To push the comparison a smidge further, Haase hit three balls harder than 102 mph on Tuesday night. Bailey did that only seven times all season. Half the hard hit balls in (much less than) half the time.

Even after the power surge, Haase is about to get bumped off the roster or at least down the totem pole. But if only for a night he got to be Babe Haase, the unforgettable star of a game even he couldn’t have seen coming.

Up next: Shohei Ohtani (2-2, 0.97 ERA) has done a lot in his life, but he hasn’t won a Cy Young. Maybe that changes this year. Robbie Ray (3-4, 2.76 ERA) and the Giants will try to stand in his way. First pitch at 7:10 p.m.