If Wade Meckler can bottle his performance in the San Francisco Giants’ 8-6 10-inning victory at Philadelphia on Wednesday, chances are good for a long major league career.

The former Oregon State left-fielder went 2 for 3 with a walk, hit-by-pitch and three runs scored, along with a diving catch in the ninth to help keep the Giants from blowing the game in regulation.

“Wade’s at-bats were excellent,” San Francisco manager Gabe Kapler told the media afterward. “We are not going to expect him to have great at-bats every time out, but we can expect him to have grindy at-bats pretty frequently. He did that today.”

Meckler was sought out by reporters after the best performance of his 10-day major league career. “We are in a push for the wild card,” he told them. “It feels good to play a part in the win.”

Meckler’s call-up by the Giants on Aug. 14 was perhaps the quickest ever for a former Beaver, coming 13 months after his first professional game last July. And it may have been the most surprising, at least to a sportswriter who has been watching Oregon State baseball for a lot of years.

The 5-10, 180-pound Meckler was taken by the Giants in the eighth round of the 2022 draft. In the Beaver outfield with Meckler during the 2022 season were centerfielder Jacob Melton, 6-3 and 210, and Justin Boyd, 6 foot and 200, who were both second-round selections — Melton by Houston and Boyd by Cincinnati. A lot of scouts would have been in agreement in projecting that Melton and Boyd would reach the majors before Meckler.

Melton and Boyd are both playing in High-A ball in their first full minor league season. Melton is hitting .245 with 18 home runs, 42 RBIs and 41 stolen bases in 84 games with Asheville, N.C., in the Astros organization. Boyd suffered a season-ending torn labrum injury in early July after hitting .140 (7 for 50) with Lake County in Eastlake, Ohio, in the Cleveland Guardians chain.

Those closest to Meckler haven’t been taken aback from his rapid ascent up the chain to the majors.

“I’m not surprised at all,” says Boyd, now rehabbing in Arizona. “After being with Wade for three years, I know that’s the person he is. He works harder than anybody I know. He has wanted (a spot in the big leagues) so bad for so long. He wants to prove everyone wrong, that he belongs to be there.”

“Wade’s rise through the ranks, it’s insane,” says Alex McGarry, a first baseman/outfielder on Oregon State’s teams in 2019 and ’20, Meckler’s first two years with the program. “What he did in the minor leagues was absolutely nuts. But everybody knew he could hit. His mantra since I’ve known him has been defying the odds and proving people wrong.”

Perhaps OSU assistant coach Ryan Gipson frames it best.

“If you were to tell me at the start of Wade’s college career that he would be in the big leagues in a year, of course it would have surprised me,” Gipson says. “But by the time he left here, after seeing his work ethic and determination to be the best? Then no. When you see the body of work and how he hit at each (minor league) level, then I would say, it didn’t surprise me.”

Through 11 games heading into Sunday’s home date with the Atlanta Braves, Meckler is hitting .281 with a .378 on-base percentage in 37 plate appearances. If you had money on him reaching “The Show” at age 23, you’re rolling in the dough right now.

Meckler didn’t respond to numerous texts requesting an interview for this piece over the past week. I will do my best telling his story through the eyes who knew him best.

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Wade was a shrimp growing up in Yorba Linda, Calif., the second of two sons of Brian and Laura Meckler. Laura stands 5-9.

“Brian would tell you he is 5-9, too,” says Laura, who teaches transitional kindergarten. “But I’m taller than he is.”

Wyatt Meckler, three years older than Wade, grew early.

“Wyatt was 5-8 or 5-9 in seventh grade,” Laura says. “Doctors thought he would be 6-4. He is barely six foot now. Wade was born a pound bigger and an inch longer. I thought he would be bigger, but he didn’t grow for a long time.”

At one point, the Mecklers took Wade to an endocrinologist, who said he had “constitutional growth delay.” He entered Esperanza High at 4-10 and weighing 75 pounds, the smallest person, boy and girl, in a class of 450.

“He was super small, but he was always very athletic and very capable,” Laura says.

Well, maybe not at first.

“Couldn’t hit the ball out of the infield,” he recently told an interviewer. “It forced me to hold myself to a high standard. I had to be very process-oriented as a kid.”

In 2022, Meckler told The Oregonian’s Joe Freeman: “My dad always told me, ‘You’re half the size of everyone else, so you’re going to have to play twice as hard and work twice as hard to be just as good.’ So I did. I outworked, outplayed and outgrinded everyone else.”

Brian recalls a moment when Wade was nine and Brian was going to be his Little League coach. As they were walking together to the team tryouts, Wade said something his dad will never forget.

“I hope you pick me,” Wade said. “This is like the biggest day of my life.”

Brian chokes up thinking about it.

“He doesn’t realize that, of course, I’m going to pick my own son,” says Brian, a retired firefighter who runs a business called “EDgun West,” selling air rifles. “At that moment, I realized how serious he was. He tried out as hard as he could that day. He thought if he wasn’t good enough, I probably wouldn’t pick him for my team.”

Laura Meckler relays a story of Wade as an eighth-grader, maybe 4-9 and 70 pounds, trying out for a tournament team sponsored, but not coached, by former major leaguer Nomar Garciaparra.

“Wade looked like a fifth-grader,” Laura says. “Wade couldn’t hit the ball, didn’t have a good arm, but he made a defensive play that caught Nomar’s attention.”

Nomar, who had also been under five feet when he entered high school, sought out Wade and offered a few words of encouragement. Nomar’s father, Ramon, made an acquaintance with Brian Meckler.

“Ramon told Brian that Nomar told (the coach), ‘If you don’t take Wade on the team, I will never help again,’ ” Laura says.

By his senior year at Esperanza, Meckler was pushing 5-8 and had become a pretty good player. A 4.0 student with a 1,470 SAT score, he qualified for entrance to Harvard, Yale and Georgetown but was passed on roster spots by all three baseball programs.

But Meckler had an ally — Scottie Tenen, who ran a business connecting prep players with college teams.

“Scottie had seen me play high school ball and told me I was a future big leaguer,” Meckler tells an interviewer. “He was texting every college coach in the country about me, but none of the schools wanted me. Oregon State is the only team that watched me play.”

Tenen knew Pat Bailey, who was to serve as OSU’s interim head coach for the 2019 season. “He said, ‘You gotta watch this kid play,’ ” Bailey says.

Bailey scouted Meckler at a summer tournament in Arizona.

“Just loved the way he played the game,” says Bailey, who offered Meckler a preferred walk-on spot.

Meckler arrived in Corvallis as a switch-hitting second baseman. He departed as a left-handed-hitting left fielder.

“He hit better from the left side than the right, and he could always run,” says Gipson, who was in his first season as an OSU assistant coach when Meckler arrived. “He was a little bit undersized and didn’t have the same muscle to his frame that he has now. He wasn’t near the player he was when he left the program, but he had some potential. And he had a tenacious makeup, right from the start.”

Meckler saw spot duty for the Beavers as a true freshman in 2019, appearing in 20 games and going 1 for 10 at the plate. That November, new coach Mitch Canham called Meckler into his office and told him that he wasn’t in the team’s plans for that season, and that there would be no hard feelings if he decided to transfer.

Meckler sat on that for a day, then asked for another meeting with Canham, during which he told him, “I might not be an All-American this year. I might not be an All-American next year. But I promise you, I’m going to be an All-American one day at Oregon State. I’m not going anywhere. You need me, and I’m going to prove it.”

Meckler never made an All-America team, but he was right about one thing. The Beavers needed him, and he proved it.

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First, though, there was an additional obstacle. After staying in Corvallis through the winter, training hard and showing well in spring practice, Meckler surprised his coaches by making the team’s 35-man roster. Canham had cut a scholarship player and, a week before the Beavers’ annual spring trip to Arizona, told Meckler he would be traveling with the team.

Hours before the Beavers were scheduled to depart, Bailey — now an assistant to Canham — called Meckler and asked him to meet in the coaches’ office. There, he was told that they had learned that, due to NCAA regulations, there was a roster issue. Because the coaches had cut a scholarship player, they would have to give up a roster spot, leaving them with a 34-man roster. Meckler would have to stay home. He had been cut — again.

“Wade wasn’t happy about it, but he understood,” Bailey says today. “Through everything, you know what? He has learned all about adversity. It can be good for you if you respond to it. His response to adversity was outstanding.”

“This was another challenge,” Laura Meckler says, “and it ignited him.”

Adds Bailey: “A lot of guys would have quit. Wade had to deal with some tough things, but he stayed positive and kept working.”

The Covid-19 pandemic all but wiped away the 2020 season. By that time, Meckler was working his tail off in the batting cages, often with McGarry, preparing for the 2021 campaign.

“We ended up getting close because we were always in the cages late at night,” McGarry says. “We would be the two guys out there hitting.”

Meckler made the starting lineup and had a solid sophomore season, hitting .303 with four homers, 21 runs, 20 RBIs and a .396 on-base percentage in 49 games. That was accomplished while toughing it out after suffering a hamstring injury that left him far short of 100 percent physically.

“He tore the tendon,” Laura says. “No question it affected him. But we were thankful that Mitch Canham took care of him and protected him, whereas other coaches wouldn’t have.”

By 2022 Meckler was fully healthy, and he enjoyed a banner year, hitting .347 with 81 runs, 32 RBIs, 12 stolen bases, 53 walks and a .456 on-base percentage.

“He had a great year,” Bailey says. “He learned how to manage the strike zone better and kept working on his swing, and he could fly.”

More than that, he was a leader. His work ethic and spirit rubbed off on teammates. Melton called him “our heart and soul.” Pitcher Cooper Hjerpe called him “the glue.”

“Best position player I’ve ever seen,” Hjerpe said.

Bailey, now retired from coaching and working for Fellowship of Christian Athletes in Corvallis, stayed close to the program and saw Meckler’s effect on his teammates.

“He wasn’t a drain, he was a faucet,” is the way Bailey puts it. “He brought energy. He was relentless in how he played. His work habits were off the charts. He is as hard a worker as anybody I’ve been around.”

“Everything goes back to the tenacious competitor Wade is,” Gipson says. “He is so passionate about his development. Wade helped Jacob Melton more than anybody else in the program. He was the guy who put in the hours and was up there with Jacob and others. He was able to motivate the guys around him. Wade was just an outstanding Beav.”

“Everybody saw it,” Boyd agrees. “He was the guy who pushed everybody to get better in all assets of the game. He is an energetic little fireball who loves the big moments. He is always trying to find a way to get better, and making sure everyone around him is better, too.”

Gipson puts it another way.

“If you talked to the opposing manager or pitching coach, Wade was the guy they would say they didn’t want in the (batter’s) box against them,” he says. “His will to win was as good as anybody’s they would face over the duration of the season.”

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Meckler didn’t skip a beat during his swing through the Giants organization.

He started last July shortly after the draft, hitting .290 in 12 Rookie League games, then .439 in 11 games for Single-A San Jose. During the offseason, he and McGarry roomed together, renting a house in Vancouver, Wash.

“We call them ‘brothers from other mothers,’ ” Laura says with a laugh. “Wade wouldn’t have have any of the things he has without Alex.”

“We trained together, hit together, ran on the same schedule every day,” says McGarry, hitting .285 this season with Double-A Chatanooga in the Cincinnati Reds organization. “The key for Wade, he is an extremely diligent worker. I would describe him as focused. He works hard every day. but never shows up and works just to check the boxes.

“His attention to detail is world-class. If he takes a swing that doesn’t feel right, he will stop, go to the mirror, break down what went wrong and do it again until he gets it right. He is as diligent a hitter as I’ve come across.

“He is one-track-minded. He lives and breathes baseball. If you’re lucky, you’ll get him to loosen up and think about something about other than baseball once in awhile. His entire demeanor is focused on getting hits. He eats and sleeps and breathes baseball.”

Meckler started this season with Eugene in high-A, hitting .456 with 14 runs and 17 RBIs in 20 games. Called up to Double-A Richmond, he batted .336 with 36 runs in 39 games. A call-up to Triple-A Sacramento followed, and he hit .400 in 10 games. In 92 games and 253 minor-league at-bats, Meckler is hitting .377 with a .472 on-base percentage, 59 walks and 59 strikeouts.

Ad Lucas, the assistant director of player development, said this on his report card for Meckler: “Controls the zone. Smart decisions. High contact rate. High level of barrel accuracy.”

“That means you have the ability to put the barrel on the ball often,” Meckler told an interviewer. “Are you swinging at strikes and taking balls? If you can do those two things — put the barrel on the ball and swing at balls you can put the barrel on — good numbers are probably going to follow.”

The Giants needed help, with veteran outfielders, Mike Yastrzemski, Mitch Haniger and A.J. Pollock all out with injuries. On Aug. 14, Meckler got the call-up.

Wade was in Sacramento, supposed to be having a day off. Instead, it was, “Board a plane for San Francisco. You’re playing with the Giants tonight.”

Meckler called his parents, who hurriedly got replacements at work and booked a flight to San Francisco. They arrived at Oracle Park about 20 minutes before the first pitch of the Giants-Rays game.

“Completely surreal,” Laura says. “None of us expected this right now. We thought there was maybe an outside shot when the roster is expanded in September.”

“I don’t know that it’s sunk in 100 percent yet,” Brian says. “It’s hard to believe when you see your kid’s name in a major league lineup.”

Batting second in the order, Meckler went 0 for 3 in his first game. He got two hits in the second game against Tampa, and a third hit while batting leadoff in the finale vs the Rays.

“If you are going to throw anybody into the deep end, it’s somebody who’s capable of swimming,” Kapler said after the second game. “With Meckler, he’s got a pretty good skill set to hit second.”

Kapler was ejected from that game for arguing on behalf of a bad strike call against Meckler.

“He got F’ed a few times,” Kapler said afterward. “I think he is going to know the zone well and he is going to make good swing decisions at the plate. That’s been his calling card all the way through his career. He has had to grind and fight every step of the way.

“I was just irritated and reacted, but I really reacted on behalf of Meck, who deserves to be stood up for by all of us — all the players and staff. I’m just happy he got his first two big-league knocks. I think there are going to be many more to come.”

Kapler has company along that line of thinking.

“I have no doubt in his ability to hit in any level,” McGarry says. “I’m sure there will be an adjustment period, but I’m not worried about the guy at all. I don’t think anybody who knows him is.”

Certainly, his parents feel that way.

“He hates losing more than he loves winning,” Laura says. “That has always driven him. We didn’t put our kids in sports because we wanted to them to become a professional athlete. You learn life lessons with sports. When it becomes their life, then all of those friendships and life lessons they have acquired along the way — for me as his mom, those are the things that warm my heart.”

“I know there is always a bit of luck that goes in there (to make the majors),” Brian says. “But I always believed 100 percent in his work ethic. I always supported his desire to get to the highest level. He had a big-league dream from the time he was 10 or 11.”

Meckler will probably never be a home-run hitter, which seems at more of a premium in baseball than ever before.

“My goal is to keep hitting and let the power come as I keep growing,” he says. “My job is to get on base. That’s what I have done through my career — be a table-setter, get on base and keep the line moving.”

Meckler will surely keep on grinding.

“The only way I will ever stop is when I am 40 years old and I have been in the big leagues for 15 years,” he told Freeman.

Or, as it turns out, 17 years.

Wouldn’t that be something?

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