SAN FRANCISCO — With the 2023 San Francisco Giants now only owning a microscopic chance of making the postseason after a disastrous road trip, those in attendance on Monday night at Oracle Park got a good look at what could be the nucleus of the 2024 team.

Expanding on a theme that began in their just-completed four-game series in Los Angeles, the Giants started two rookies in the infield and two rookies in the outfield against the San Diego Padres to go with the one they already have behind the plate.

But leave it to two Giants veterans to lead the way

With the bases loaded with two outs, Michael Conforto sent a Robert Suarez fastball down the left field line, scoring two runs to help give the Giants a 2-1 win, keeping their tragic number at two before an announced crowd of 28,557.

Logan Webb escaped a ninth-inning jam to throw his second complete game of the year and of his career, as he struck out seven to help the Giants start their season-ending six-game homestand on a positive note.

With runners on second and third and no outs, Webb got Ha-Seong Kim to ground out, Ji Man Choi to ground into a fielder’s choice and Jurickson Profar to ground out.

That was enough to outduel Padres ace Blake Snell, perhaps the NL Cy Young favorite who struck out seven over six shutout innings.

“This is a pretty significant statement game when you’re going up against another Cy Young Award candidate,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said of Webb. “He was totally efficient, totally in control. Never lost his delivery, never lost his stuff. There wasn’t a hint of struggle the entire game.”

Of Conforto’s hit, Webb said, “It was a lightning jolt of energy that we felt in the dugout.”

The Giants had Luis Matos in left field and Heliot Ramos in right. Fellow rookies formed the left side of the infield, with Tyler Fitzgerald at third base and Marco Luciano at shortstop. Rookie Patrick Bailey caught right-handed starter Webb as he played his 95th game of the season.

“We’re working to try to win baseball games for the rest of this season,” Kapler said before the game, “but we’re also trying to win baseball games for the next five years-plus, and there’s a real strong signal that we’re trending in that direction.”

Along with those players, Kapler listed off pitchers Kyle Harrison, Tristan Beck, and infielder Casey Schmitt as players who have a chance to make a major impact at the big league level for years to come.

“There is a core group of young players, young, physical, athletic players that have a chance to be Giants for a really long time,” Kapler said, “and while this is not how you want to be talking about things with a handful of games to go and two big series left, it’s important that we do talk about it that way at this moment.”

It sure beats talking about how the Giants arrived at this decision to go young in the first place.

The day before they began a 10-game road trip against division opponents on Sept. 14, the Giants were tied with the Arizona Diamondbacks and Cincinnati Reds for the third and final wild-card spot in the National League.

But after losing three of four to the last-place Colorado Rockies, two straight to Arizona, and another three of four to the Dodgers, the Giants returned to China Basin five games back of a playoff spot with six games to play. On the trip, the Giants committed 12 errors, allowed 11 unearned runs, and went 3 for 30 with runners in scoring position.

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Prior to Monday’s game, the Giants had gone 27-38 since the all-star break and their tragic number to be officially eliminated from postseason contention was at two. That ignominious designation could happen as early as Tuesday with either a Diamondbacks or Chicago Cubs win and a Giants loss.

“After a very challenging, and continues to be a challenging, three-month stretch, maybe a little bit more, I think the biggest silver lining is the rookies that we’ve graduated to major league level and their major league development,” Kapler said. “So it’s not just getting to the big league level, but like actually seeing real tangible major development that they can apply for the remainder of the season (and) also for next year.”