Deadline acquisition Gilbert debuts, hopes to help SF's playoff push

SAN FRANCISCO -- Outfielder Drew Gilbert did not want to start his Major League career with a lie. His bio says he is 5-foot-9. He isn’t.

“Five-eight and a half,” he said before he slipped into a Giants uniform for the first time Friday night. “There’s no give there. I wish it was about 5-11, 6 feet. That’s never gonna be the case.”

In summoning the 24-year-old to the Majors eight days after they acquired him from the Mets as part of the Tyler Rogers deal, the Giants are seeking a different truth: whether Gilbert has enough talent to live up to his pedigree as the Astros’ 2022 first-round Draft pick and part of the haul that Houston sent to the Mets in 2023 for current Giant Justin Verlander.

Gilbert passed one test in a 5-0 Giants victory against the Nationals -- not at the plate, where he did not get a ball out of the infield in four at-bats, but in right field with an electrifying catch.

With two outs in the third inning, Gilbert sped toward the foul line and lunged to make a backhanded grab and steal extra bases from Jacob Young, getting a bit of dirt on his face as he tumbled into foul territory.

Gilbert was not happy with his oh-fer at the plate, but thrilled to have teammates step out of the dugout to greet him as he trotted off the field, and to hear a near-sellout crowd chanting, “Drew! Drew! Drew!” during his final at-bat in the eighth inning. He fouled out.

“That was a super cool moment,” Gilbert said. “Obviously the at-bat doesn’t end how you want, but either way, I’ll have that memory for the rest of my life.”

With outfielder Jerar Encarnacion returning to the injured list with a hamstring strain, the Giants bypassed the conventional move to fill the spot. They could have brought up semi-mainstay Luis Matos, but they replaced the right-handed Encarnacion with Gilbert, giving manager Bob Melvin a third left-handed outfielder to join Jung-Hoo Lee and Grant McCray.

“It’s going to be a jigsaw puzzle” to see how that trio fits on the roster, Melvin said.

The Giants had myriad reasons to pick Gilbert. He went 7-for-14 with three extra-base hits during his five games at Triple-A Sacramento after the trade. He is more athletic than Matos, as his catch demonstrated. Also, Matos did not fare well against lefties even though he hits right-handed.

Beyond that, the Giants are keen to see what they have in some of prospects they received July 30-31 for Rogers, closer Camilo Doval and right fielder Mike Yastrzemski.

In the wake of his first Deadline as the Giants’ president of baseball operations, Buster Posey insisted he was not abandoning hopes for a playoff spot despite selling.

Posey and Melvin expressed optimism that their established players are good enough to combine with young newcomers to launch what must be viewed as a longshot run for an NL Wild Card spot.

So far, so good. In ending an eight-game home losing streak, which tied a San Francisco record, the Giants improved to 5-2 since the deals.

Melvin said the trades were a “wakeup call for the team. We didn’t play well enough to add at the Deadline, but we also feel like we have enough here.”

That includes Rafael Devers, who homered off Jake Irvin in a two-run first inning that also featured a Matt Chapman RBI single. Casey Schmitt hit a moon-scraping two-run homer in the sixth to end Irvin’s night.

Gilbert might have had the most electrifying moment of Friday’s win, the Giants’ first at Oracle Park in four weeks, but another rookie had a bigger impact.

Right-hander Kai-Wei Teng threw five three-hit innings for his first Major League win. This was his sixth, and by far best, game for the Giants. The 26-year-old had to wait nearly 16 months to return to the Majors and wipe away a terrible four-game debut last season (12 innings, 11 earned runs).

Asked why he has pitched so much better in two games this year, he said through interpreter Andy Lin that he was thinking too much during his first callup.

“That caused me to not be relaxed and not be myself,” he said. “This year, I changed my mindset. I just want to do whatever the coaches need me to do. So I just adapted and everything is going well this time.”