Monday BP: Marco Luciano and Tyler Fitzgerald share their sides of the story

Not a great look.

The San Francisco Giants wrapped up what should have felt like an unequivocally successful series on Sunday. The beat the streaking San Diego Padres 7-6 to capture a road series victory, which has been a hard thing for them to capture this year. There were exciting signs throughout the weekend, such as home runs from youngsters Grant McCray and Luis Matos.

But something negative stole the headlines as they headed out of town: a bizarre sequence that allowed San Diego back in the game, when second baseman Marco Luciano and shortstop Tyler Fitzgerald collided attempting to catch a routine pop-up. Instead of the inning ending and a five-run lead being preserved, the ball fell to the ground and two runs scored.

But what followed was just as bad, if not worse: an altercation between the two in the dugout.

As far as altercations go, it was about as mild-mannered as they get. If you weren’t watching closely — or with sound — you probably wouldn’t have noticed any tension. Fitzgerald and Luciano have spent lots of time together in the Minors, and there’s no reason to think that anything is brewing here beyond tension for two youngsters trying to prove themselves and trying to avoid being responsible for yet another late-game meltdown and blown lead.

After the game, the infielders — and manager Bob Melvin — shared their respective sides of the story, which basically amounted to this: there was no reason for Fitzgerald to make a play at that ball, but Luciano needed to call for it more loudly to keep Fitzgerald and Bay. And of course, the obvious: the words that followed should have been kept out of sight.

Here’s Fitzgerald talking about it:

And here’s Melvin:

Luciano, per The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly, said that “Just miscommunication on both of our parts. He didn’t hear me because it was loud here at the stadium. I didn’t hear him calling.”

Meanwhile, while the focus was on the poor communication (the lack of communication on the field, and the show of communication off it), arguably the worst part of the situation has snuck by for both players: after failing to catch the ball, both players stood there dejectedly. Neither player chased after the ball (thankfully Luis Matos was backing the play up), and neither player went to cover second base, which allowed Jurickson Profar to take a free 90 feet. Those are surely things that Melvin will have noticed and been unhappy with.

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What time do the Giants play today?

They don’t! They get an off day at home today, before starting a home series with the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night.