SI

Tyler Fitzgerald Catches Barry Bonds' Attention for Matching His Slugging Run

Fitzgerald has been on a pace not seen since Bonds for the San Francisco Giants.

Josh Wilson

Tyler Fitzgerald after hitting a home run
Tyler Fitzgerald after hitting a home run / Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports
In this story:

Tyler Fitzgerald is on an incredible run for the San Francisco Giants that started before the All-Star break and picked back up right where he left off.

July 9, against the Toronto Blue Jays, Fitzgerald hit a home run. When he next saw the field again, he homered on July 20. Then, for good measure, he added three consecutive games with home runs after that. He went two games without a home run to follow, but put up a two-homer game—the first of his career—on Friday night, making it seven home runs in eight games, a pace not seen for the Giants since Barry Bonds, as many astute statisticians pointed out.

It's not as if this stat is cherry-picked: It's been since 2004 since Bonds pulled this off for San Francisco.

It caught the attention of Bonds, with the slugger liking an Instagram post about the feat on Friday.

Fitzgerald was not projected to be a star coming into this season. He's a rookie, and has spent this season bouncing up and down between the big-league team and the Sacramento River Cats. Mind the fact that his first and second games on this streak were 11 games apart. He's had to stay ready despite not finding a firm spot in the lineup just yet.

Now, it'll be tough for the Giants to deny him a starting spot.

Published |Modified
Josh Wilson

JOSH WILSON

Josh Wilson is the news director of the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in 2024, he worked for FanSided in a variety of roles, most recently as senior managing editor of the brand’s flagship site. He has also served as a general manager of Sportscasting, the sports arm of a start-up sports media company, where he oversaw the site’s editorial and business strategy. Wilson has a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from SUNY Cortland and a master’s in accountancy from the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois. He loves a good nonfiction book and enjoys learning and practicing Polish. Wilson lives in Chicago but was raised in upstate New York. He spent most of his life in the Northeast and briefly lived in Poland, where he ate an unhealthy amount of pastries for six months.

Home/MLB