SAN DIEGO — Nothing, it seems, comes simply to these San Francisco Giants, especially not as they attempt to break in a group of young players they hope can morph into core contributors next year.

Not even their first series win since the third week of August, not even coming against the majors’ hottest team since the All-Star break, the San Diego Padres, not when their duo of rookie middle infielders let a pop up drop between them then had to be separated during a heated exchange in the dugout.

The Giants looked like they were on their way to a rout Sunday afternoon after their fourth homer of the game opened a 7-0 lead, but they needed Ryan Walker to record the final five outs to eke out a 7-6 win after Tyler Fitzgerald and Marco Luciano’s mistake allowed two runs to cross the plate in the seventh.

“At the end of the day, we played a great game besides that one pop up. I’m really excited about the win overall,” Fitzgerald said. “If that didn’t happen, then everybody’s super happy right now. Just don’t let that take away from how good the rest of the team played.”

Melvin called the play and what transpired afterward “unacceptable” and promised it wouldn’t happen again.

“It doesn’t matter whose fault it was. It was bad communication,” he said. “It’s just bad baseball. Our defense has to get better.”

The botched pop fly off the bat of Jurickson Profar would have been the third out of the seventh inning but instead allowed two runs to cross the plate, allowing San Diego to pull within one run when Xander Bogaerts took Camilo Doval deep the next inning.

It was hit in Luciano’s direction, to the right of second base, and he camped under the ball preparing to make the catch. Fitzgerald, however, encroached to his side of the bag and eventually interfered with Luciano while attempting to make his own play on the ball.

When it fell to the ground, neither player moved and right fielder Luis Matos had to pick up and throw it back to the infield.

“The way I see it is Fitzy probably went too far, probably because Marco didn’t call it,” Melvin said. “In a ballpark like this where maybe you can’t hear something, that’s where the indecision or Fitzy being the quarterback and the shortstop has priority, but maybe (he) went a little too far.”

Luciano said afterward that he did call for it, but Fitzgerald confirmed that with 43,000 screaming fans, he didn’t hear, and looking up at the ball, he didn’t see the second baseman signaling for it with his hands, either. Their miscommunication continued in the dugout after the inning, with the two players exchanging words until third base coach Matt Williams had to separate them.

“Just some things built up and we went at each other a little bit,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s not the first time or the last time this will probably happen. Being teammates, it’s just what teammates do. But we probably should have done it in a more private setting, so that was my mistake.”

“I agree with him,” Luciano said in Spanish through team interpreter Erwin Higueros. “I think it’s something that happens between teammates and I think we should have talked in private. … Everything was under control the whole time.”

It was a game full of learning experiences, as will be the case for many of their remaining 18 contests.

The starting lineup featured six players in their first or second big-league season, including Grant McCray, who was moved to the leadoff spot after homering twice and driving in five runs out of the nine hole in their 6-3 win Saturday night.

Following McCray was Heliot Ramos, who gave the Giants their first hit and started a streak of seven straight that led to six runs in the fourth inning against Joe Musgrove. But he needed a talking-to, too, after not hustling out of the box on his line drive to Fernando Tatis Jr. in right field.

Off the bat, it looked to be a routine lineout, but Tatis lost the ball in the sun and let it roll to the wall. Ramos made it to second and scored a batter later when Matt Chapman slugged the first of three home runs in the inning. Jerar Encarnacion added a three-run blast, and Luis Matos went back-to-back to make it 6-0.

Curt Casali added a fourth home run — his first since Oct. 4, 2022 — in the sixth that proved to be consequential as the Padres clawed their way back.

“He said he’ll never do that again,” Melvin said of Ramos’ lackadaisical baserunning. “He plays every single day. He plays hard every single day. A fly ball to Tatis is typically an out. But we did discuss here, too, that the sun in right field in a day game can be tough. He couldn’t be more apologetic. He’s a a guy that plays hard, he’s a great kid, he learns.”

The misplay in the middle infield, a pair of walks from Taylor Rogers, a bases-loaded wild pitch from Tyler Rogers and the two-run home run served up by Doval after he surrendered a single to lead off the eighth forced Melvin’s hand to call on his closer with one out in the eighth.

Walker, whose 70th appearance trails only Tyler Rogers for the most in the majors and has logged the fifth-most innings of any reliever (72⅓), picked off the runner he inherited at first base and retired the next four hitters to end the game, earning his seventh save.

“At the most you want to use him for four outs,” Melvin said. “The pickoff was huge. There were several plays over the course of the game that were huge. That (pickoff) was enormous.”

Everybody was eager to shift focus away from their fielding debacle and on to the fact that they took two of three from the team that owns the best record in the majors since the All-Star break, even after the past two games. The series win was the Giants’ first since they took two of three from the White Sox in the third week of August. Dating back to Aug. 11, they had dropped 15 of 23 before prevailing the past two days.

Separated by just two games at the All-Star break, the Padres and Diamondbacks now are putting in their final preparations for the postseason while the Giants have already set their sights on 2025. Even after a closer-than-it-should-have-been win on a steamy Sunday afternoon, they trailed the Padres by 8 1/2 games.

“For a good portion of the season, we were right there with them,” the Giants manager said earlier this weekend. “The difference is both those teams went on a run, and we weren’t able to do that. That can separate you really quickly.”

Looking ahead to next year, Melvin continued, “There’s more work to be done. It’s certainly showed up here in the past month that there is going to be some work to be done next year. Significant, probably. … I think it’s encouraging that we were there for a while. It’s just gotten away from us a little bit. I don’t think we’re that far away going into next season, especially with some of the talent that we feel like we’re developing.”

Notable

The Giants improved to 6-4 against the Padres, clinching the season series for the first time since 2021.

Up next

The Giants are off Monday before beginning their penultimate home stand of the season against the Milwaukee Brewers. RHP Hayden Birdsong (3-5, 5.19) gets the ball Tuesday in the series opener (6:45 p.m.), followed by LHP Blake Snell (2-3, 3.62), while the final game of the series is listed as TBA.

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