San Francisco Giants at Cleveland Guardians

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. “That was cool,” Wilkinson said. “It was definitely a long-awaited moment. I’m happy it could happen here, of all places. I’m happy to get that win under my belt. Hopefully, there’s more to come.” “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 from his native Canada, Seattle (where he played baseball growing up) and Arizona (where he attended college) 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. “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. … He’s always been a chunky little guy.” 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 flashed some of his best velocity of the season after coming on in relief, hitting 98 mph with his four-seam fastball.