'Tugboat' kicks off Giants' shutout win with stout showing

CLEVELAND -- Matt “Tugboat” Wilkinson has officially docked in the Majors.

The 23-year-old left-hander fired two scoreless innings in his MLB debut on Wednesday, setting the tone for the Giants’ 1-0 win over the Guardians at Progressive Field.

Wilkinson, who was acquired from Cleveland in exchange for catcher Patrick Bailey on May 9, impressed while making his first career start against his former organization. He retired six of the seven batters he faced, topping out at 91 mph with his signature “Invisiball” fastball.

“Unbelievable,” his mom, Tanis, said. “He worked so hard to get here. He pitched well. I wish he could have stayed in longer. But we do understand there's a plan. Whatever is going to happen is going to happen. We're just proud that he got this opportunity -- and against Cleveland, right?”

Wilkinson’s performance drew raucous cheers from the approximately 30 friends and family members who traveled to Cleveland to be on hand for his debut. Several of them wore captain hats in honor of Wilkinson’s famous nickname, which dates back to his T-ball days in his native Canada.

“That was probably when he was five or six years old, doing base race,” his dad, Gavin, explained. “He wasn’t the quickest kid. One of my good buddies would go, ‘Tugboat, toot, toot!”, to get him rolling.”

Wilkinson essentially served as an opener for right-hander Adrian Houser, who took over in the bottom of the third and continued to stymie the Guardians by striking out three over five-plus scoreless innings.

Houser returned to the mound in the bottom of the eighth, but he was pulled after issuing a leadoff walk to Steven Kwan. Right-hander Dylan Smith entered the game to replace Houser and allowed Kwan to advance to second on a wild pitch, but he proceeded to strike out José Ramírez, Nathaniel Lowe and Angel Martínez to keep the Giants’ slim one-run lead intact.

Smith came back out for the ninth and gave up a one-out single to Angel Genao, but he struck out Petey Halpin and Bailey to complete the six-out save and seal the shutout win for San Francisco.

The Giants scored the lone run of the game in the fourth, when Rafael Devers reached on a leadoff double against Guardians left-hander Parker Messick and came around to score on a two-out RBI single from Victor Bericoto.