PHILADELPHIA -- The Giants came away from Citizens Bank Park with a split, a positive for any team given that the Philadelphia Phillies have had the best home record in baseball over the past year and haven't lost any of their last 10 series in their own park. But it would be hard to blame Giants manager Bob Melvin if he never wanted to think about those 36 innings again.
Melvin's starting pitchers gave up 10 runs in the first inning across four games, and twice he had to call down to the bullpen to get a reliever loose before the third out. The only reason he didn't do it a third time was because the bullpen was so taxed coming into Thursday's series finale that Melvin had no choice but to let Jordan Hicks try and get out of his own jam, even if that ended up leading to an uncomfortable pitch count.
Hicks found a way to recover, and on a day when he watched the first five Phillies reach base, he ended up going seven and saving the bullpen in the middle of a stretch of 17 games in 17 days. After the loss, several pitchers stopped by his locker to tell him how meaningful that was.
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SIGN UP HERE But it was also a third close call in four games, and on the last homestand, Melvin had to pull Justin Verlander in the third inning of the home opener and nearly did it again in his next start. There's been an early theme for a rotation that isn't living up to preseason expectations.
Through 19 games, Giants starters have a 4.80 ERA, which ranks 27th in the majors, and they’re 15th in innings pitched. They're 29th in walk rate, and eight of those free passes came in the first innings against the Phillies.
There have been some early red flags, but for now, Melvin is focused on silver linings.
"On this trip, it's been difficult to pitch. The conditions have been tough," he said Thursday. "I'm not saying it's that much easier for hitters, but we're winning games without maybe some of the outings that we would expect out of our starters and I look at that as a good sign. We can win in different ways."
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The odd thing about the rotation is that all five starters can find their own silver linings through three weeks.
Verlander has a 6.75 ERA, but his fastball has averaged 94.5 mph, a full tick up from last season, and he has said this is the best he has felt physically in three years. Ray gave up five runs and walked nine on the East Coast swing, throwing just eight innings across two starts, but he had a 2.93 ERA through his first three starts, all wins, and has 21 strikeouts in 19 1/3 innings.
Hicks was absolutely dominant in his season debut in Houston, and after the five-run first on Thursday he threw six shutout innings against one of the league's best lineups, averaging 99 mph with his fastball and throwing one sinker 101.7 mph, the fastest pitch by a Giants starter in the pitch tracking era. Landen Roupp has a 4.80 ERA but also a 2.60 FIP and 12 strikeouts per nine innings.
Overall, Giants starters are 13th in FIP and they’re 29th in BABIP, indicating some bad luck early on. But that didn’t make the Phillies series any easier to take for a team that has yet to need a roster move.
Roupp was the first to take the ball in Philadelphia and Melvin immediately got the bullpen going. Two nights later it was Robbie Ray, and then Hicks, and combined, Giants starters allowed 18 baserunners in those four first innings. What happened?
"I think they just have a good gameplan coming out in the first inning and it's more about me just finding a way to get through it when the bad stuff starts happening and they start getting on base," Hicks said of the Phillies. "It's, 'How can I limit the runs and limit the damage for us to stay in that ballgame?' Hats off, they gameplanned well for that first inning and I felt good after that."
Hicks was a reliever until coming to San Francisco last year and wore down last summer after his first few months of starting. But he bulked up in the offseason and the Giants made it clear from the start of the winter that their plan was to again lets Hicks start. He has a 6.04 ERA, but also continually shows flashes of his tantalizing potential as a starter.
That extra weight has helped him maintain his velocity, and on Thursday, he became just the third Giants pitcher in the pitch-tracking era to hit triple-digits at least 16 times in one outing. The other two were relievers Brian Wilson and Erik Cordier.
At the end of a rough series for the rotation, Hicks chose to view it as a learning experience. He said he pitched “angry” after the first inning fireworks.
"I saw a different side of myself today,” he said. “And we'll build on that."