It wasn’t supposed to come to this. Bryce Eldridge wasn’t meant to be placed in this position. He was supposed to continue working on the finer points of swinging a bat and playing first base. When it came to the day he’d be called up to the Giants, their top prospect was to simply be a complementary piece of the equation.

Not the savior.

But 0-6 happened, the record on their latest trip. And 13-21 happened, their overall record. And urgency and panic simultaneously arrived at the front door. The offense had become downright offensive. So Sunday, the call went to Triple-A Sacramento, the Giants’ top farm team, with a message that might as well have read: “Please help rescue our season.”

Eldridge got the word. He jumped at the opportunity. He and sidekick Jesús Rodríguez, called up together among a flurry of moves by president of baseball operations Buster Posey, were in the lineup for Monday night’s series opener against the Padres, the seventh and eighth hitters, and there was a refreshing new vibe around the team.

Eldridge was the designated hitter, which sent Matt Chapman to the bench because usual DH Casey Schmitt took Chapman’s place at third base for the day. Rodríguez was the catcher, pushing Patrick Bailey out of the lineup. Suddenly, there’s some competition for jobs and pressure on the guys not producing, which can’t hurt.

“The carefree way those two guys played, I thought it was awesome,” manager Tony Vitello said of the newcomers who combined to go 0-for-5, though the new-look Giants snapped their six-game losing streak with a 3-2 victory over the Padres. “If you look at the stat sheet, it maybe doesn’t show up as much, but I thought that quite frankly it shows the value of having a blank slate or a fresh start.”

The 21-year-old Eldridge is embracing the moment, embracing the pressure, and would even embrace being called savior, though nobody in management or in the clubhouse would dare apply that tag. Still, everyone realizes that the Giants are in dire straits and that neither Rafael Devers, Willy Adames, nor Chapman has stepped up enough – they’re three of the reasons Eldridge is here trying to pick up the slack.

In spring training, Eldridge said in a Standard interview, “I want to be the guy in San Francisco for a long time” and “that dude” who leads the franchise to new and historic heights.

In an interview Monday, Eldridge wasn’t backing down.

“I’m feeling sexy at the plate right now,” he said.

It’s all you need to know about the 6-foot-7 lad’s confidence in his ability. No wonder Posey and his staff have faith in him. They see how he handles his business. Works with his teammates. And, most importantly, crushes baseballs. Posey said he promoted Eldridge and Rodríguez not only because of how they performed in Sacramento but because of how his main guys haven’t performed in San Francisco.

And, no, Posey doesn’t think the big leagues are too big for Eldridge, who got a 10-game taste of the lifestyle in September.

“I just take into consideration what I’ve learned about the person the last year and a half or so,” Posey said. “He’s a pretty mature 21-year-old. I think his head’s in the right place about what he wants to be as a baseball player, and he wants to be a winning baseball player.

“I haven’t asked him, ‘Are you feeling like you have to resuscitate the offense?’ I’d be willing to bet, he’s smart enough, to know that it’s not all on him, that if he goes and hits a homer tonight that it doesn’t automatically mean that our offense is now going to be corrected and that he’s going to hit a homer every game and carry us the rest of the season.”

Would be nice, though. Eldridge and Rodríguez joined a team of handsomely paid veterans who haven’t cut it this year, Luis Arráez notwithstanding. The anemic Giants offense leads in the Quadruple Crown of ineptness: last in the majors in runs, homers, walks, and steals.

The bats didn’t exactly do major damage Monday, but they did just enough. Schmitt homered, and Devers drove in two runs for the first time since April 8. Trevor McDonald, another newcomer who was promoted from Sacramento to make a spot start, pitched seven stellar innings, all with Rodríguez behind the plate, and Caleb Kilian earned his first save since his college days despite yielding a homer in the ninth.

In the coming weeks and months, we’ll continue to do the math to compute the Giants’ record following Eldridge’s arrival. So far, 1-0. Management desperately hopes it’ll be far better than what it was before his arrival, amounting to a .382 winning percentage.

Only three teams in the Giants’ 144-year history have posted lousier winning percentages, the last time way back in 1943, eight years before Willie Mays’ promotion from Triple-A Minneapolis on May 25, 1951, himself a savior — 75 years ago this month. He helped ignite the Giants to a storied comeback over the Dodgers, capped by Bobby Thomson’s Shot Heard Round the World that won the pennant.

Speaking of which, 16 years ago this month, on May 29, 2010, the Giants called up another player who’d emerged as a savior, Posey from Triple-A Fresno, and all he did was pioneer three World Series championship runs over five years.

May is the month of miracles, apparently. And now comes Eldridge, who flew with the River Cats from Salt Lake City to Sacramento late Sunday, packed all his stuff, drove to the Bay Area early Monday, suited up, and went 0-for-2 with a walk — in Triple-A, he made a concerted effort to walk more.

“I think a big thing for me was taking my walks,” Eldridge said. “Getting on base is huge for me. Being a power guy, you start to realize guys are trying to pitch around me more than attacking me at that level. Being more picky, taking my walks. Being a power guy, there’s strikeouts involved and whatnot. You can say what you want about that, but if I’m getting on base, if I’m walking, I think it all evens out.”

With a different roster, Vitello needs to manage differently. He already offered a heads-up when addressing the team after Sunday’s sixth straight road loss. He can’t simply keep relying on his regulars. It could be a daily juggle. Eldridge might not play every single day, said Vitello, who vowed to start him once more this series, but he’ll certainly play a lot. He’ll get time at first base when Devers gets a day off or is the DH.

As for Schmitt, who can play all over the infield, he’s suddenly an option in the outfield as well, though he hasn’t played outfield since his freshman and sophomore years in high school. It’s vital to keep his bat in the lineup, so the struggling veterans need to beware that they’ll be losing playing time so long as they keep struggling.

Meantime, Eldridge is hoping to be a difference maker and keep raking at the plate. In his last eight games in Triple-A, he hit .483 with three homers, 11 RBIs, and eight walks.

“I believe he has a chance to be an impact bat,” Posey said. “As we all know, he has the ability to drive the ball to all parts of the field. His ability to drive the ball from center to left-center, with power, is about as good as there is out there. Defensively, it’s been well documented he’s worked really hard to improve, and by all accounts watching him and also talking to people in our system, he’s done that.”

Creating roster space for Eldridge, Rodríguez and McDonald, the Giants designated Jerar Encarnación for assignment, optioned Will Brennan to Sacramento, and placed Erik Miller on the 15-day injured list with a lower back strain.