Giants' Matt Wilkinson reflects on ‘cool story' of making MLB debut vs. old team
Giants pitcher Matt Wilkinson speaks to reporters after San Francisco's win over the Cleveland Guardians on Wednesday at Kauffman Stadium.
Giants' Matt Wilkinson reflects on 'cool story' of making MLB debut vs. old team originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Video Transcript
Describe the emotions of making your, your big league debut.
It was cool.
Definitely a long-awaited moment, and, happy it could happen here of all places.
But, you know, happy to get that one under my belt and, hopefully more to come.
Did you see your, your family out in the stands?
It looked like you had a whole, a ship- ship's worth of people behind him there.
Yeah, I could see.
I noticed them after the second.
But, you know, it's cool to have their support, and, you know, family and friends be able to come out, and so can't really complain about that whatsoever.
And some of your like old, like teammates, like going back to like tee-ball were out there.
Yeah.
A lot of friends, you know.
You know, some of my closest friends still to this day, so, you know, it's cool to have them here.
Any East County friends show up with captain's hats?
No.
No.
I, I guess back in Lake County, back here in Cleveland, but that was probably about it.
No, I haven't seen any since.
I mean, you probably envisioned, you know, making your debut in this ballpark, but, you know, was it Did you have to check yourself just to say, "Hey, I'm, I'm not wearing the Cleveland uniform"?
You know, after the trade, obviously, yeah, it was definitely different.
But, but, you know, the, the mindset flipped to Oracle.
But, you know, it's kind of a cool story that I do get to have my debut here, after especially being three years with them and stuff like that, so grateful that it was here, and I'm just, excited to keep going.
Did you kind of know coming into it that you were gonna do maybe two innings and then give way to Hauser?
Or what was your kind of sense of what the plan was?
No idea.
I just thought I'd got the first and then go from there.
No complaints.
Helped the team win at the end of the day.
Even though it was a small part, kind of just want to help the team win as much as I can.
So, doesn't matter how I do it, which role I have, I'm just happy to be here.
Seemed like a couple times you were kind of shaking your head, like maybe you weren't happy with a pitch location or something.
Were you, were you nitpicking a little bit with your, what you were- I just falling behind every count.
Okay.
I'm pretty picky about how I pitch, so just, you know, just little stuff like that to keep me fired up and stuff like that.
But other than that, no.
You obviously came up with a bunch of those guys in the li- in that lineup.
Just what was it like facing like, you know, Bazan and Angeneau, who you've been playing with?
Oh, yeah, it's cool.
I've been playing with Angel now since low A in rookie ball, so it was definitely cool to, you know, share a big league field with him.
And obviously we're not on the same team, but, just, you know, and, and Bazan as well, especially Parker Messick too.
A lot of people don't know this, but ever since we came up, someone I look up to a lot and kind of try and pitch like him in certain ways.
So, you know, it's cool to face off against him and stuff like that.
But, just happy to get this one over with and move on to the next.
These guys have endured a really tough year.
Yeah.
You know, a lot of down moments.
Could you kind of sense at all the, maybe the lift that you were able to give them today?
Nah, just strike one, trying to help the team win.
Didn't really think about that, just whatever I can do to help the team out.
