SF Giants #19 prospect Tristan Beck reflects on big-league debut

SF Giants right-handed pitcher Tristan Beck once kayaked in McCovey Cove, but he likes the view from the mound at Oracle Park

The SF Giants dropped to 6-12 on the season after a 9-4 loss to the New York Mets. However, right-handed pitcher Tristan Beck (Giants #19 prospect) had a moment to celebrate in the Giants loss, making his big-league debut. The 26-year-old pitcher, who was called up from Triple-A on Wednesday, allowed four runs in relief across 5.1 innings pitched with five strikeouts.

"I'm happy with the way I threw the ball and executed today," Beck told reporters following the game. "I have some very concrete things I want to change going forward, and I'm pretty confident I can make those changes happen."

Beck has a standard four-pitch mix (fastball, changeup, curveball, and slider), but the righty leaned heavily on his fastball and slider on Thursday, continuing a trend that began this season at Triple-A. Beck's fastball sat in the mid-90s throughout his outing, reaching 96.7 mph. His slider sat in the mid-80s and was his swing-and-miss pitch, inducing eight of the Mets' 10 whiffs against Beck.

"It was really good work," Giants manager Gabe Kapler said about Beck's outing during his postgame media availability. "A lot of strikes. A lot of first-pitch strikes going after some really talented hitters. They got to him over the course of his outing, but I think that was just a function of the Mets being a good lineup with quality hitters from the right side and from the left side. I thought Tristan was composed the entire time. Moment wasn't big for him. Major-league debut and I thought he did a really good job overall."

SF Giants pitcher Tristan Beck catches a throw during a spring training game. (2023) / Allan Henry-USA TODAY Sports

While Beck was born and raised in Southern California, he has plenty of ties to the Bay Area. Beck's mother grew up in Los Altos, California and he played college baseball at Stanford from 2015-2018. Fittingly, it was Cal Berkeley night at Oracle Park.

Beck's friends and family flocked to Oracle Park on Thursday, with his brother traveling all the way from Florida to catch the game in person. However, his parents happened to be out of the country when he got the news.

"Unfortunately, my parents are in Europe right now," Beck said. "It's the first vacation they've taken without us in my lifetime. Tough timing, but I like to believe that's part of the reason why I got called up."

Beck's parents had stayed up until 4:00 am in Europe watching the Giants game against the Marlins the day before in case he made his debut. Hopefully the wear and tear of travel did not keep them from another late night of Giants baseball.

Beck admitted there was some extra adrenaline and nerves as he jogged to the mound from the bullpen. But he quickly found a rhythm on the mound.

"It was surprisingly comfortable," Beck said. "I haven't been to the park in years and definitely never had a field-level view. I just kind of kept my head down on my jog in and looked up for the first time when I got to the mound. Then it was just me and Sabol back behind the plate. Obviously, some adrenaline, some nerves helping me along. But it really did just feel like baseball once we got it going."

Beck is familiar with San Francisco from his days at Stanford. He said he attended several games at Oracle Park and even kayaked in McCovey Cove for a game between the Giants and Nationals in either the summer of 2016 or 2017.

Mets right fielder Jeff McNeil was responsible for the first run of Beck's career, blasting a solo home run just left of the right-field foul pole to lead off the sixth inning. However, the bulk of damage against Beck came in a three-run seventh. While he admitted there were some pitches he wishes he had back, Beck felt like a few of the Mets key hits during the rally could have easily been outs on another day.

"With each one, I kinda see something I would've changed about pitch selection, pitch location, execution, and all that," Beck said. "But at the end of the day, that three-run inning, that's baseball. They happened to find the holes that day, and that's what makes it such a great game, but unfortunately, sometimes it just kills you."

Given the SF Giants pitching depth, Tristan Beck will likely be optioned back to the minors at some point in the coming week. After throwing 81 pitches on Thursday, he very well could be optioned tomorrow to give Kapler a fresh arm out of the bullpen. But Beck impressed in his debut and made a strong case for another opportunity whenever one arises.