SAN FRANCISCO -- The Giants were intrigued by Drew Gilbert’s bat-to-ball skills when they acquired the 24-year-old outfielder from the Mets as part of the Tyler Rogers trade last month.
It took a few days for that ability to show up in the Majors.
Gilbert went 0-for-10 over his first three games after being called up from Triple-A Sacramento last week. He got on the board Monday night by recording his first career Major League hit in the Giants’ 4-1 series-opening loss to the Padres at Oracle Park.
Gilbert, who is ranked as San Francisco’s No. 8 prospect by MLB Pipeline, led off the bottom of the third inning with a broken-bat bloop single to left field off Padres starter Yu Darvish, earning a nice standing ovation from the 31,018 fans in attendance.
“Obviously, getting your first hit is cool,” Gilbert said. “But at that point, you turn into a baserunner. I, hopefully, plan on getting a lot of hits up here. Obviously, I know this league is tough. The first hit is cool, but at the end of the day, it’s, ‘What can I do after that?’”
Gilbert checked off another box when he swiped second to pick up his first career stolen base, but he ended up being thrown out when he tried to advance to third base on an errant throw from Padres catcher Freddy Fermin.
Fermin’s throw got past second baseman Jake Cronenworth and sailed into center field, but it was quickly corralled by Jackson Merrill, who fired to third baseman Manny Machado in time to get Gilbert for the third and final out of the inning, costing Willy Adames a chance to hit with a runner in scoring position.
“Obviously, you always want to be aggressive,” Gilbert said, “but with one of the best shortstops in the league up at the plate, I probably shouldn’t have gone to third there. Looking back at that, obviously, I wish I would have given Willy a chance to hit with a runner on second base. But you learn from it and move on.”
Gilbert’s eventful night wasn’t enough to spark the Giants, who collected only five hits -- including a sixth-inning home run from Rafael Devers -- en route to falling to 1-11 over their last 12 home games. They’ve mustered only 23 runs over that span and have been held to two runs or fewer in nine of their last 12 games at Oracle Park.
“At one point in time, this was a real home-field advantage for us,” Melvin said. “Recently, that script has been flipped.”
Darvish entered Monday with a 6.51 ERA over his first six starts of 2025, but he made quick work of the Giants’ lineup, needing only 84 pitches to get through six innings of one-run ball.
"We're getting beat," Melvin said. "Darvish is usually a guy that usually spins the ball a little bit, and he threw a lot of heaters. Good command of it. Probably the best game he's pitched this year.
“I think at times, we try to get too aggressive when we're a team that makes pitchers work and draw walks and get into deeper counts.”
Devers’ 23rd home run of the year -- and his third in the last four games -- tied the game at 1 in the bottom of the sixth, but the Padres quickly regained the lead by scoring three runs off All-Star right-hander Logan Webb in the seventh. Gavin Sheets doubled and scored on Cronenworth’s go-ahead RBI single before Fermin ripped a two-run shot to the left-field corner to put the game out reach for San Francisco.
The loss dropped the Giants (59-60) one game under .500 and left them 4 1/2 games behind the Mets for the third National League Wild Card spot, once again sending their fans home without much to cheer about.
"Giants fans are one of the best, and they've been showing up for us.” Webb said. “And we just haven't been doing a good job. We score a run today and tie the game, and I go back out for the seventh and the momentum shift -- it's just bad. It's kind of the way it's going."