After all that has gone down in September, Game 161 was always going to be for the rookies.
Seven starters, including pitcher Tristan Beck, took the field for the Giants with nothing but pride to play for. They saw curveballs bestowed out of Clayton Kershaw’s Hall of Fame left hand and tried to get Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman out.
The young Giants held their own, denying the Dodgers their 100th win of the season with a 2-1 win. The Giants (79-82) are bound to finish with a losing season and in fourth place of the National League West, but they competed on Saturday, which is all they can ask for in Kai Correa’s first win as interim manager.
After the game, the Giants wheeled Correa into the manager’s office in a laundry cart before dousing him with beer to celebrate.
“It means a lot,” Correa said postgame. “The circumstances are unusual, or suboptimal, but I think the longer time passes, the more I can have separation from it, the more I can be more excited about it. More than anything else, it meant a lot for me how excited the players were in that handshake line. Because we spent a lot of time, in some cases four years, side-by-side. So to have those guys be excited for me and for us in that moment meant the world to me.”
Beck set the tone, filling up the strike zone with his diverse arsenal, including a fastball that touched 97 mph.
To retire Freddie Freeman for his third scoreless inning, Beck induced a routine grounder to third. Casey Schmitt snared it, flung it to Marco Luciano at second for a smooth double play.
Either Luciano, Schmitt or both will have to take a major leap in the infield next season. Both showed flashes, but also blemishes this year. With Brandon Crawford likely playing his last game as a Giant in Sunday’s finale, the shortstop position could be in their hands.
Moments later, Kershaw left one of his patented breaking balls in the middle of the plate for Tyler Fitzgerald. The rookie sent it 414 feet for his second home run.
“Seeing him get to take Kershaw deep, that was pretty cool,” Beck said postgame. “Not going to lie.”
Fitzgerald has drawn comparisons to Dodgers super utility player Chris Taylor, a take Fitzgerald himself appreciates. If Fitzgerald’s impressive September — and rapid improvement in the minors — isn’t a fluke, he’d be an extremely valuable piece as a versatile athlete with pop.
When the Giants needed a center fielder in August, they rushed up Wade Meckler while Fitzgerald was raking at Triple-A. Choosing Fitzgerald instead of the 2022 draftee probably wouldn’t have prevented their September collapse, but Fitzgerald’s strong play in his first taste of MLB makes that decision look even rougher.
On Saturday, almost each of the Giants’ rookies who played had moments. Luis Matos held Jason Heyward to a single when he played a carom off the right-field wall perfectly. Schmitt threw across the diamond at 89.3 mph at one point. And for the final out of the game, Patrick Bailey set Oracle Park into a frenzy by catching Chris Taylor stealing.
Beck, after giving up the tying run on a Bett single, won a bare-knuckled battle with Giants killer Max Muncy to end the fifth inning. That ended his night after five one-run innings and brought his season ERA to 3.92.
Reliever Ryan Walker, the eighth Giants rookie to factor into the game, spun a double play in a clean inning. When he came back out for the seventh inning, the Giants owned a 2-1 lead thanks to a couple walks and an error from Muncy. Then Walker stranded a man at third by retiring Betts.
Tyler Rogers worked a perfect inning, bringing his season ERA to 3.04 and setting Camilo Doval up for his 39th save of the season — a figure that leads the NL.
One victory doesn’t mean the Giants should’ve fully handed the team fully over to the rookies earlier. Far from it. But for one night, a club of rookies belonged on the same field as the NL West champion Dodgers.