SAN FRANCISCO -- Saturday 6:05 p.m. starts at Oracle Park are great for fans who can catch a ballgame and still have plenty of time to sample the food and nightlife the city has to offer. They are not so great for outfielders who are new to the Majors and have no concept how blinding the sun can be in the late afternoon and early evening.

Giants center fielder Jung Hoo Lee learned the hard way Saturday when Padres leadoff man Xander Bogaerts skied the game’s first pitch in Lee’s direction, ordinarily a catchable ball. Lee never saw it and it fell for a single.

Five batters later, before the sun could duck behind the upper deck, Bogaerts trotted home from third when Jurickson Profar hit a two-out grand slam into the arcade section off Keaton Winn that quickly settled a 4-0 San Diego victory. The ticket-holders from a sold-out crowd were back on the streets just after 8:15 p.m. The game took 2 hours, 10 minutes.

“The ball escaped from my view,” Lee said through interpreter Justin Han. “I wasn’t able to see it from the sunlight. I never played a home game at this time at Oracle Park. I wasn’t experienced with it. But next time, through the experience that I had today, I’ll try to do a better play with that.”

Lee, who played all of his Korean home games in a domed stadium, suggested he might need different sunglasses.

It might be natural to lump Lee’s misadventure into the host of fundamental mistakes the Giants have made on defense and on the bases early in 2024. Manager Bob Melvin took issue with that.

“That’s not a mistake in center field today,” Melvin said. “He just never saw it.”

Melvin also said he believes that a smattering of poor fundamentals, though bad optically, have not had much impact on his team’s 3-6 start.

Other issues have surfaced.

The Giants are not clicking teamwide at the plate, relying on a few hot hands to produce runs. They have scored three runs on nine hits over their first two home games, mustering four singles in seven innings Saturday against Michael King while not getting a runner to third base.

The rotation, which is expected to be a major strength once Blake Snell, Alex Cobb and Robbie Ray arrive at various points in the season, has not performed well aside from Jordan Hicks.

Giants starters entered Saturday’s game with a 4.99 ERA, eighth worst in the Majors. It rose to 5.12 after the four runs in six innings that Winn allowed Saturday and 6.68 if you remove the two outstanding starts by Hicks.

Things could improve quickly as the Giants begin their third turn through the rotation Sunday with Logan Webb seeking his first win of the season.

Snell will make his Giants debut against the Nationals on Monday night, with fellow lefty Kyle Harrison pitching Tuesday night. Hicks presumably gets the ball in Wednesday’s homestand finale with Winn opening a three-game series in Tampa Bay on Friday.

Melvin suggested he will use Thursday’s off-day to juggle the rotation so he can split the two lefties.

Snell provides more than a Cy Young arm. He adds normalcy to a rotation that endured a rough spot start by since-optioned Daulton Jefferies in San Diego last weekend and Winn starting on four days’ rest Saturday despite throwing 89 pitches in Los Angeles on Monday.

If the Giants had a full complement of starters, Melvin might have used last Thursday’s off-day to grant Winn an extra day off. That seemed a logical assumption given Winn’s minor elbow injury in Spring Training. But Winn has appeared healthy and, Melvin said, “Eighty-nine pitches isn’t overdoing it with anybody, in my opinion.”

Despite losing Saturday, Winn gained the confidence that he could adjust after a rough first inning and, without using his splitter as much, still get the Padres to pound the ball into the ground from innings two through six. He retired 14 of his final 16 hitters, allowing no hits after the first inning.

Winn responded to Bogaerts’ sun-ball single by retiring the next two hitters, including Fernando Tatis Jr., before Manny Machado singled and Ha-Seong Kim walked. Home-plate umpire Alan Porter could have ended the inning by calling strike three on a 2-2 splitter to Kim that appeared to clip the corner of the plate. Instead, Winn threw ball four and Profar hit the next ball out.

Winn blamed the walk to Kim for setting up the slam, not Lee for losing Bogaerts’ fly ball.

“It does suck, but it’s part of the game and part of pitching at Oracle,” Winn said. “The sun does play a factor. I’ve got to be able to work through that.”