Lee's two-homer day leads Giants to series win over Yankees

Justice delos Santos, The Mercury News on Apr 13, 2025

Published in Baseball

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NEW YORK — Compared to the first two games of the San Francisco Giants’ three-game series with the New York Yankees, Sunday afternoon in the Bronx may as well been the Bahamas. The temperature was up, the sun was shining and the sky featured smatterings of bright blue instead of a uniform drab gray. With playing conditions tenable for baseball, fans in pinstripes flocked to Yankee Stadium and filled out the ballpark.

With two home-run swings, Jung Hoo Lee turned the Bronx Zoo into the Bronx Library.

Lee enjoyed the first multi-homer game of his career, driving in four runs as the Giants (11-4) beat the New York Yankees, 5-4, and won the deciding game of the three-game series.

Lee hit his first home run of the afternoon in the top of the fourth inning off Yankees (8-7) starter Carlos Rodón, sitting on a hanging slider and launching a 406-foot no-doubter over the right field fence. The solo shot not only cut the Giants’ deficit to 3-1, but gave San Francisco its first hit of the game. When Lee stepped to the plate two innings later, he’d have an opportunity to do true damage.

Rookie Christian Koss began the inning by legging out an infield single for the first hit of his career. Willy Adames drew a walk two batters later, putting runners on first and second for Lee with one out. Lee fell behind in the count, 1-2, but when Rodón left a curveball at the top of the zone, Lee cleared the fences with a three-run shot to give San Francisco a 4-3 lead that it would never lose.

Lee’s offense was needed on an afternoon when ace Logan Webb didn’t have his best command. Webb needed 97 pitches to grind through five innings, allowing three earned runs and walking four batters.

Lee, who had never visited New York City prior to this series, embraced the bright lights of Yankee Stadium all series long. The 26-year-old set the tone for his time in the Bronx with a home run in his very first at-bat of the three-game set. In total, Lee racked up three homers, four hits, four walks, and seven RBIs against the Yankees.

With the caveat that he only played 37 games last season, Lee has already eclipsed last year’s totals in runs (16), homers (three), steals (three), RBIs (11) and doubles (8).

Following a disappointing rookie season that ended last May with a shoulder injury, Lee is looking like the player the Giants hoped to acquire when he signed a six-year, $113 million deal. The National League is stacked with elite outfielders — Juan Soto, Kyle Tucker, Corbin Carroll, Fernando Tatis Jr. to name a few — but Lee is making an early All-Star bid.

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