SAN FRANCISCO -- Marco Luciano realized a childhood dream when he made his Major League debut with the Giants on Wednesday, but his second game proved to be equally emotional for the 21-year-old shortstop.
With his parents, Marco Sr. and Juana, on hand to watch him play in the big leagues for the first time, Luciano delivered his first hit and scored his first career run, providing one of the few offensive highlights in the Giants’ 3-2 series-opening loss to the Red Sox at Oracle Park on Friday night.
Joc Pederson added an eighth-inning solo shot, but it wasn’t enough to support a quality start from right-hander Logan Webb, who was charged with three runs on six hits over 7 1/3 innings. Webb’s pitch count stood at 88 when he was removed with one out in the eighth, but manager Gabe Kapler opted to lift him in favor of left-hander Taylor Rogers, who surrendered an RBI single to Rob Refsnyder that extended Boston’s lead to 3-1.
The Giants have now lost seven of their last nine games to fall to 56-48 on the season, with their slumping lineup recording a paltry .609 OPS in their first 14 games to start the second half, the lowest mark in the Majors.
“I thought we put together some good at-bats and some empty at-bats,” Kapler said. “I think in order to beat the best teams in baseball, we’re going to have to string together more walks, hits and obviously score more runs.”
Luciano, the Giants’ No. 2 prospect per MLB Pipeline, went 0-for-2 in his Major League debut against the A’s on Wednesday and then struck out swinging in his first at-bat against Red Sox right-hander Kutter Crawford on Friday. But he collected his first hit in his next trip to the plate, smoking a first-pitch fastball off the glove of third baseman Rafael Devers for a leadoff single in the sixth.
The ball came off his bat at 107.1 mph, marking the Giants’ second-highest exit velocity of the night behind Pederson’s 11th blast of the year (109.5 mph). Luciano ended up advancing to second on a wild pitch and then scored from there on Michael Conforto’s RBI single, giving the Giants their first run of the night.
Making the feat even sweeter was the fact that Luciano’s parents were on hand to witness the big moment after flying in from the Dominican Republic.
“It’s not something that happens very often, so I’m really happy that they were able to be here and watch me play,” said Luciano, who planned to give the ball to his mom for safekeeping.
It was well past midnight in the Dominican Republic when Luciano learned he’d been promoted to the big leagues, so he decided to share the news with his parents via text. Marco Sr. and Juana found out when they woke up on Wednesday morning, creating quite the buzz in their hometown of Pimentel, which ended up organizing a big watch party for Luciano’s debut that night.
“For us, it was a surprise,” Marco Sr. said in Spanish. “We weren’t expecting it. God is the one who decides when good things happen. We’re thankful to God because he gave us and him the kind of talent that’s hard to find.”
Luciano was one of four rookies at the bottom of the Giants’ lineup on Friday, but the group couldn’t capitalize on another golden scoring opportunity in the seventh. J.D. Davis and Patrick Bailey strung together back-to-back singles to put a pair of runners on with no outs, but pinch-hitter Blake Sabol grounded into a forceout, and Brett Wisely and Luciano struck out to end the inning.
Luciano took a called third strike on a cutter from Red Sox reliever Josh Winckowski that appeared to be off the plate, leaving Giants rookies only 2-for-14 with seven strikeouts on the night.
“I’m going to wait for my pitch, a pitch I can do damage on,” Luciano said. “If I can’t do damage with it, I’m going to let it go.”
While the Giants have been among the teams who have benefited the most from rookie contributions this year, they also know there will inevitably be growing pains as they try to continue to develop their young players at the Major League level.
“We believe in those guys and especially believe in their ability to improve on the job,” Kapler said. “That’s why they’re here. At various times, they’ve been good for us. We expect that individually and collectively they have all the talent in the world to be successful going forward.”