SAN FRANCISCO — This is Jordan Hicks’ second season as a starting pitcher, but still, this is all new to him.
When Hicks started to struggle last year, the Giants didn’t have any conversations about the big-picture implications. He had been a godsend for a banged-up rotation, and the Giants knew he would run out of gas at some point in his transition from bullpen life. When it happened, it was what they had planned for.
But this, a 6.55 ERA through nine starts, is not what they expected. And as they head to an off day after their fifth loss in six games, it seems time for a serious conversation within the walls of Third and King.
After an 8-7 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks, manager Bob Melvin wasn’t ready to go there, at least not publicly.
“The game is just over,” Melvin said when asked about Hicks. “I thought his stuff was pretty good again. It’s hard groundballs that find some holes. At some point in time you’d think they would be hit at somebody, and then [Hayden Birdsong] came in and he didn’t have his best stuff, either.”
If Wednesday’s game was the start of a shift, it wasn’t a clean one. Birdsong, the next man up, warmed up in the second as Hicks put himself in a bind, but the veteran limited the damage. When the first two runners reached in the third, Melvin came out with the hook.
Birdsong immediately gave up a three-run homer, with two of the runners belonging to Hicks, who was charged with five earned. Another homer put three runs on Birdsong’s line in his three innings of work.
For Hicks, it was the fourth time in nine starts that he allowed at least five runs. But he said he’s not worrying about his spot in the rotation.
“At the end of the day I’m just going to go out there every time and put my best foot forward. That’s really all I can do,” Hicks said said. “Shut the page, shut the book on the bad outings and then grow from the good ones. I take the positive from the bad games. I feel like there was a high percentage of groundballs today and that is ideal for me as a groundball pitcher — it just didn’t find the guys.
“You’ve just got to live with it and move on.”
That’s been the story of the season for Hicks, who is fourth in the majors in groundball rate. He has been hurt by a high .344 batting average on balls in play, and he’s not fully equipped to get more swing-and-miss to try and limit the damage. On Wednesday, there was just one whiff on 28 sinkers. That’s a pitch that’s meant to induce weak contact.
“I got a lot of groundballs. There was a lot of finding holes, obviously that’s not ideal,” Hicks said. “That’s unfortunate. That’s how baseball goes sometimes.”
Hicks said he doesn’t dive into advanced stats, but if he did, he would find reasons for optimism. His expected ERA based on batted ball data is about three runs lower than his actual ERA. His FIP is 3.48.
There are reasons for the Giants to believe much better days are ahead. But it was hard to focus on them when Melvin had to get his bullpen — which includes two starting pitchers — going with no outs in the top of the second.
That led to a disappointing loss on a day when the lineup put up a late charge. The Giants trailed by six at one point, but Jung Hoo Lee’s homer got them within a pair and a bases-loaded walk put the winning run on second in the ninth. The comeback fell short, though.
“We’re not getting our timing right,” Melvin said. “You think you score seven runs, you have a chance to win the game, but we gave it up early.”
Download and follow the Giants Talk Podcast
Read the full article here