It was rookie debut day at Oracle Park and Yunior Marte, who started the second game of the San Francisco Giants' doubleheader against Arizona, made quite an impression.
Lefty Seth Lonsway made his first big-league appearance in Game 1, a Giants loss, but it was Marte, a 6-foot-6, 235-pound right-hander, who put himself firmly on the radar for next year and maybe even this. Marte worked 4⅔ innings in San Francisco's 7-2 win Saturday night, going through the Diamondbacks lineup twice and allowing three hits and two walks, striking out three and getting a double-play ball after walking Lars Nootbaar to open the game.
Marte was all smiles after his debut - already baby-faced, he also has braces, making him look like a teen. Among other things, he was wowed by Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent being on the field as he was warming up and he met countryman Juan Marichal, the Dominican Republic's first Hall of Famer, before the game.
"It was really awesome," Marte said, with Erwin Higueros interpreting. "He just gave me a few tips - to enjoy the moment and try not to give up a lot of bases on balls."
"That was a lot of fun," manager Tony Vitello said, describing Marte as a player with personality and panache. "Marte was dancing a little before he went out on the mound. Normally you think your job is to calm a guy down, but he was talking to me like I was his college roommate before he went out there."
Giants 7, Diamondbacks 2
ArizonaABRHBIBBSOAvg.Totals3227239Nootbaar dh301112.233Carroll rf200020.244Perdomo ss401000.255Arenado 3b400000.238Kepler lf411001.214Tawa 1b401002.247McCann c401003.295Vargas 2b412100.253Waldschmidt cf300001.267San FranciscoABRHBIBBSOAvg.Totals3379768Cox cf111010.276a-Gilbert ph-cf030030.239Devers dh502201.251Eldridge 1b504401.261Lee rf401110.291Whitcomb 3b400002.102Knizner c200000.174b-Cavanaugh ph-c200002.225McCray lf411001.118Basabe 2b320010.205Koss ss300001.200Arizona001000100_271San Francisco10003012x_790a-walked for Cox in the 5th. b-struck out for Knizner in the 5th.
E: Martinez (1). LOB: Arizona 6, San Francisco 9. 2B: Nootbaar (12), Tawa (11). RBIs: Nootbaar (27), Vargas (66), Eldridge 4 (42), Devers 2 (78), Lee (49). SB: Cox 3 (8), Basabe (2). S: Koss.
Runners left in scoring position: Arizona 5 (McCann, Nootbaar 2, Kepler, Perdomo); San Francisco 5 (Eldridge, Cavanaugh 3, Lee). RISP: Arizona 1 for 6; San Francisco 6 for 13.
Runners moved up: Waldschmidt, Arenado. LIDP: Carroll. GIDP_Arenado.
DP: San Francisco 2 (Eldridge; Koss, Basabe, Eldridge).
ArizonaIPHRERBBSONPERABratt, L, 1-341-333322524.70Carrillo2-321121171.06Law11-321111366.75Ginkel2-300002134.34Martinez2-302012250.00Santana1-32000095.55San FranciscoIPHRERBBSONPERAMarte42-331123761.93Sanmartin, W, 2-01-30000154.91Harris, H, 3110000114.09Foley, H, 12-331101144.50Seymour, H, 511-300012254.58Smith100002143.34Inherited runners-scored: Carrillo 2-2, Ginkel 2-0, Santana 2-2, Seymour 2-0. WP: Seymour.
ABS Challenge: Waldschmidt (Strike-Confirmed); Marte (Ball-Confirmed); Eldridge (Strike-Overturned to Ball); Martinez (Ball-Confirmed).
Umpires: Home, Roberto Ortiz; First, Alex MacKay; Second, Alan Porter; Third, Jen Pawol.
T: 2:50. A: 29,272 (41,915).
Marte, 23, was picked up at last year's trade deadline when the Giants sent Mike Yastrzemski to the Royals. Marte is ranked the Giants' No. 24 prospect by MLB Pipeline and he was pitching at Double-A Richmond, where he had a 3.92 ERA in 13 starts to go along with his 6-1 record and 3.74 ERA in nine games with Class-A Eugene.
It's unusual for a player to jump straight from Double-A to the big leagues, but for a Giants team that has needed a steady infusion of pitchers and wants to avoid adding top prospects to the 40-man roster unless they must be protected from the Rule 5 draft this winter, Marte was a great fit - he would have been Rule 5 eligible elsewise.
He used his mid-90s fastball as his primary weapon the first time through the order, his slider the second time around, and he threw plenty of strikes, exactly what the Giants crave, 48 out of his 76 pitches. "He lets it go with, ‘Here's my stuff - deal with it,'" Vitello said. "We'll see what the future holds for him but I don't think it's the last time he pitches at Oracle."
"He's just the nicest guy ever and he's very deserving," said rookie Bryce Eldridge, who had a four-hit, four-RBI night. "His stuff looked gross."
Marte got a game ball and scorecards, which, he said, he will dedicate to his brother Alex, who died of a blood disorder last year at the age of 25.
Lonsway, sent down to make room for Marte between games, allowed two runs in his two innings in the first game and Braxton Roxby worked a 1-2-3 inning in his big-league debut Friday night. The Giants have had 14 players in all make their debuts this season, second most in the majors. San Francisco's record is 16 in 2008.
In all, the team has used an astonishing 22 rookies over the course of the year, 11 of them on the current active roster although Matt "Tugboat" Wilkinson was the 27th man for the doubleheader. He's likely to return when rosters expand by two Tuesday. Five rookies are on the injured list.
One of those 11 rookies, Jonah Cox, also jumped straight from Richmond to San Francisco this year. He helped Marte to an early lead, drawing a first-inning walk in the leadoff spot against lefty Mitch Bratt. Cox stole second and, with one out, stole third standing up, then scored on Eldridge's single. Cox is 8-for-9 on stolen-base attempts, and combined with his minor-league steals, he has 42 overall.
The team, dead last in walks in the first half, has fared somewhat better in that category in the second half. In the first half, the Giants drew 2.5 walks per game; since, 3.12.
In their three-run fifth, the Giants walked three times and two of those runners scored, shades of what their opponents have done to them much of the season. In the seventh, Drew Gilbert walked and came around to score after hits by Eldridge and Jung Hoo Lee, then walked again in the eighth and scored on Eldridge's second infield single, such an anomaly for the 6-7 first baseman, he started laughing as he got past the bag.
"I think you could see my reaction," Eldridge said. "I was like, ‘That was pretty cool!'"
That's how Vitello described much of the day, particularly with the win after the ceremony for Kent's jersey retirement.
"You get to meet Barry Bonds in person and win a ball game at the big-league level, you can't get too giddy," Vitello said. "But there's stuff to get giddy about right there."
SubscribeThere’s more to San Francisco with the Chronicle. Subscribe today for just 25¢.This article originally published at Giants' parade of rookies continues, with Yunior Marte stepping up in win over Arizona.
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