SAN FRANCISCO — Tyler Fitzgerald likes to run. He also had a lot of pent-up energy. For the entirety of his baseball life, from Little League to high school in downstate Illinois to travel ball to the University of Louisville to every rung on the minor-league ladder, the dugout bench was there mostly for appearances. Fitzgerald seldom spent time sitting on it.

In these first two weeks of the season, Fitzgerald has done a lot of sitting on the bench.

He’d started just one of the San Francisco Giants’ first 12 contests, and when he got his only opportunity to play shortstop in San Diego in the season-opening series, he booted the first ground ball of the game. His itch to play was beyond the aid of Calamine lotion. When Bob Melvin started Fitzgerald in center field and batted him ninth in Wednesday’s homestand finale against the Washington Nationals, the Giants’ manager was getting more than an eager 26-year-old rookie. Fitzgerald was a charged particle in cleats.

“I took more swings in the last week than I ever have in my life,” Fitzgerald said. “I probably took 200 swings off the machine and got to the point where the coaches told me to stop. But I just wanted to stay ready. I knew the opportunity was coming eventually.”

The Giants’ first stolen base was bound to happen eventually, too. In the second inning of their 13th game, Fitzgerald provided it. Never mind the fact that Fitzgerald was picked off first base or that he got rewarded for a bad read because Nationals first baseman Joey Gallo knuckled his throw to second. In the Giants’ previous two losses against a rebuilding opponent, their pitchers twice picked off runners and they didn’t have an out to show for it. Speed puts pressure on an opponent. It forces them to execute every aspect of a play from start to finish. Whether it’s a misread in the outfield or on the bases, speed can make up for a lot of sins. Refreshingly, for once, the Giants were fast enough to gain absolution.

Fitzgerald stood on second base and shook the dirt out of his jersey. Two pitches later, he stole third. He ran himself into position to score on Austin Slater’s two-out infield single in the second inning. He doubled and scored in the fifth. He got a little too sprint-happy when he was thrown out trying to score from second base on an infield hit in the sixth, but no coaches had a harsh word for him in the dugout.

Tyler Fitzgerald stole third in the second inning of the Giants’ win. (Robert Edwards / USA Today)

Nobody would’ve been surprised if he’d sprinted through the handshake line following the Giants’ 7-1 victory. If it’d been one of those afternoons when the Giants let kids run the bases, Fitzgerald might have shown up for that, too.

“We don’t have a ton of team speed,” Melvin said prior to the game, “but we need to push the envelope more.”

Fitzgerald brought the entire stationery aisle. He said he was charged up by his first conversation with Melvin in the offseason when the manager told him that the light would always be green and that he’d be relied upon to spark the team with his legs. When Melvin decided to pick a day game after a night game against a lefty to give Jung Hoo Lee his first day off of the season, Fitzgerald finally had his chance.

“I’ve heard that a few times in the last couple days,” said Fitzgerald, when it was pointed out that the Giants were the only team in the majors without a stolen base entering Wednesday. “It wasn’t my best read. He had me picked off, but luckily I was able to beat it out. At the end of the day, I had two bags so I’m happy with it. It’s a huge relief. We know we’re better than what we’ve been playing. We’ve been playing from behind a lot, so to get the lead early was important.”

The Giants are pushing envelopes because those early leads aren’t happening with home run trots. The Giants were held without a homer on their six-game homestand. It’s their first six-game stretch without a home run since Sept. 10-16, 2018, when they failed to set off the steam cannons during a six-game homestand against the Atlanta Braves and Colorado Rockies. It’s generally a bad idea to inspire comparisons to that 2018 season, which resulted in a 73-89 record and a fourth-place finish. Evan Longoria led that team in home runs with 16. He barely edged out their second greatest home run threat, Gorkys Hernandez, who hit 15.

If you’re not stealing bases and not hitting home runs, you’d better be stringing together hits. Except oops, the Giants were 2-for-33 with runners in scoring position over the first five games of the homestand. It’s early, but that’s a small comfort when you looked at the standings Wednesday morning and noticed that the Giants (minus-21) had a worse run differential than the A’s (minus-19).

“We’re all frustrated with our record right now,” Melvin said prior to the game. “When you look at some of our numbers, we haven’t excelled, really, in any area. We have to be better across the board. Some of the internal numbers, the hitting numbers, runners in scoring position — not too good. We’ve got to be grittier in those situations. Man on third, less than two outs, we’ve been really good. But there’s a lot more in there for us and we should expect a lot more.”

What’s alarming about the offensive struggles is that the lineup is the healthiest it’s going to be. The Giants aren’t missing any personnel on the injured list. They are already at full strength. There are no potential reinforcements like Alex Cobb or Robbie Ray who promise to bolster the group down the road.

The Giants shouldn’t be so bereft of power this season that Gorkys Hernandez comes up in regular conversation. They’re bound to hit their share if hitters like Jorge Soler, Matt Chapman and Michael Conforto stay healthy. For now, anyway, the Giants played six home games and weren’t able to show off any of the new theatrical gadgetry and LED lighting effects they installed over the winter. Camilo Doval didn’t have a save opportunity in a night game. When the Giants return home from their road trip to play the Tampa Bay Rays and Miami Marlins, the steam cannons will be fully pressurized.

Tyler Hitzgerald
Tyler Gritzgerald

Here’s the Tyler Editzgerald 😮‍💨 pic.twitter.com/X10rI3aPI3

— SFGiants (@SFGiants) April 10, 2024

In the meantime, it had to be encouraging for Melvin to see his team grab an early lead and collect timely hits. Nick Ahmed shook off a slow start while scoring three runs as part of a three-hit game that included an RBI triple in the second inning. Fitzgerald also had three hits and sent Ahmed home with a broken-bat single. And Ahmed showed why the Giants believe he’s a fit on this roster, receiving a steady stream of ground balls in Jordan Hicks’ six innings.

It’s hard to identify a better early-season sign for the Giants than this: A Hicks start is beginning to resemble a Logan Webb start. Entering Wednesday’s game, Hicks and Webb were two of just 17 starting pitchers averaging two grounders for every fly ball. Hicks rode his two-seamer to loads more contact outs, inducing two double plays while recording his 18 outs on an economical 79 pitches. It didn’t bother the former St. Louis Cardinals closer that he struck out just two batters. He was far more encouraged by the fact that he pitched effectively even though his slider wasn’t great and he was bouncing his splitter four feet in front of the plate.

“It’s mostly the sinker,” Hicks said. “That’s why I was confident I could always (start games). It induces so much early contact. It has that late action to where it looks like it’s in one spot and it misses the barrel. I think the sinker is what makes all of this possible. Any time there’s someone on first, I’m hunting the double play.

“It’s good to know I can fall back on that on a heavy dosage.”

And when he really needs it, he can still run that two-seamer up to 100 mph.

“It’s really tough for a hitter to think along with him,” Melvin said.

The biggest question with Hicks was whether his pitches would move too much, leading to walks and inefficient innings. But he’s completed five, seven and six innings in his three starts, and even when he appeared to be wobbling a bit, he’s been able to maintain control. Even a pitch-clock violation that led to an automatic ball four against Gallo in the fourth inning might have been intentional. Hicks was operating with a two-run lead and an open base after Jesse Winker stole second. And Gallo had hit a home run in his previous at-bat. A double play got him out of the fourth inning. The only time he didn’t work quickly was when he landed funny on his knee, needed to shake his leg a few times — and then had to convince Melvin and head athletic trainer Dave Groeschner that nothing was the matter. Hicks said he knew his mother would be watching at home and he didn’t want her to worry.

“I’m good, I’m good,” Hicks told them. “I want to throw. Get off my mound.”

Hicks worked fast. Fitzgerald worked faster. The result was a victory in two hours, seven minutes. The Nationals and beer vendors came out on the losing end.

(Top photo of Tyler Fitzgerald saluting the Giants dugout after hitting a double: Robert Edwards / USA Today)