SAN FRANCISCO — On a sunny Sunday afternoon at Oracle Park, Jordan Hicks took the next step in his transformation into a starting pitcher. Only after losing part of himself.
“Just, all the fuel I put in my body left,” Hicks said, elegantly describing the activities that consumed the morning before a mesmerizing pitching performance from the converted reliever.
Heaving twice before taking the mound, the man who once hit 105 mph out of the bullpen didn’t register a single reading on the radar gun above 96 mph. Hicks completely abandoned his once-prolific velocity and baffled opposing batters, anyway, navigating through five innings to earn the win as the Giants completed a three-game sweep of the Rockies, 4-1.
A day after becoming the final team to win three games in a row, the Giants notched their first series sweep of the season. It was only fitting that it came against their perennial punching bags, the Rockies, who have lost 23 of their 28 meetings in San Francisco since the start of 2021.
“He felt fine, he wanted to pitch, and he pitched completely different without the velo,” manager Bob Melvin said of Hicks, who limited the Rockies to a lone run — a first-inning solo shot from Ryan McMahon — on three hits despite recording only one strikeout to lower his ERA to 2.38, fifth-best in the National League.
“I wasn’t going to push it past five innings, just with the lack of oomph he had,” Melvin continued, “but to go out there and give us five like that on a day where we were pretty limited in the bullpen, I appreciated that.”
Walking off the mound down 1-0 after Hicks escaped his only trick situation of the afternoon in top of the fifth, the Giants flipped the score for good with a three-run rally in the bottom half of the inning. The rally was kickstarted by the bottom two members of their batting order, rookie shortstop Marco Luciano and recently signed catcher Curt Casali, who both reached base to lead off the inning and scored the tying and go-ahead runs.
With the bases loaded in the top half of the inning, Hicks reared back for his 72nd and final pitch to find a 96 mph fastball and coaxed a soft pop fly from Charlie Blackmon for the third out. Before that pitch, his only three offerings that topped 94 mph were three heaters outside the strike zone that put Jacob Stallings on base earlier in the inning.
“I told them out there in the bullpen (before the game), like, ‘I’ve got 92 today; I’m gonna have to work,’” Hicks said. “It’s a conscious approach leading into the first inning. I know what I’ve got and I’ve got to try to manage it.”
Hicks threw 32 sinkers, averaging 91.7 mph, down from an average of 95.3 mph in nine previous starts. He threw 26 splitters, down 2.4 mph from an average of 85 mph. His sweeper, which averages 81.7 mph, sat at 78.1 mph on the 11 times he used it, never above 80.5 mph.
“I really liked my sinker, honestly, at 91, 92,” Hicks said. “There was one that I wish I could have back, obviously the homer, but besides that I thought I was really effective more down in the zone. … It tells me that my sinker with that action is good with pretty much any velocity above 87, 88 in my eyes. I’m very confident in that pitch at any velocity, and today just kind of reaffirmed that.”
The 91 mph sinker that McMahon mashed over the left-field wall in the first inning was the fastest of the 17 pitches Hicks had thrown to begin the game. Five of his fastballs clocked in at 90 mph or below, something he had done only once in nine previous starts.
Prioritizing quick contact to pitch deeper into games, Hicks said from the outset of his transition to the starting rotation that he didn’t intend to match the velocity records he set as a reliever. He now tends to pace himself while reserving his premium fuel for the biggest situations.
This was different; he was more worried about the fuel going into his body than the kind leaving his right arm.
“I feel like I got stronger as we went,” Hicks said. “Before the game, I had my normal meal and water and just threw it up. I didn’t have time to get it back in me, so I was just snacking throughout the innings. That’s why I understood the move to get me out of there and feeling right for the next one.”
With trainer Dave Groeschner checking in on him in the dugout between innings, Hicks, a Type 1 diabetic, shoveled down his in-game snacks of choice, a couple of bananas, and a stroopwafel. After McMahon’s homer, he retired 11 Rockies in a row until running into trouble in his final inning.
Hicks was pitching on an extra day of rest, and the Giants plan to get him another before his next start on the upcoming road trip, too.
Now at 53 innings, Hicks is on pace to surpass his workload from last season — 65⅔ innings — by the first week of June. He has never thrown more than 77⅔ innings, which came during his rookie season in 2018.
“I feel good,” he said. “I’d say the biggest surprise in starting so far is the (toll on) the lower body. The shoulder is holding up all right. It feels good enough. Just keep staying on top of it, keeping it strong, I think that’s the most important thing for me: my shoulder health. That effects so much about how much velocity I’m going to come with that day.”
Notable
With his RBI single in the fifth inning, LaMonte Wade Jr. tied the score at 1 and also extended his on-base streak to 19 games. The Brewers’ William Contreras went 0-for-4, snapping his streak at 25 games, leaving only the Padres’ Luis Arraez (22 games) ahead of Wade on the list of the longest active streaks in the majors.
The go-ahead knock was provided by Matt Chapman, whose RBI single into right field was the 11th consecutive plate appearance he reached base safely. Grounding out in his next at-bat, Chapman had to settle for the longest streak without making an out since Brandon Belt (11; Aug. 22-25, 2020) and the most consecutive at-bats with a hit since Brandon Crawford (seven; July 9-11, 2021).
Heliot Ramos slugged his first home run since being called up to tack on an insurance run in the sixth inning, becoming the 14th different Giants batter to homer this season, more variety in their power output than all but three other teams.
Up next
The Giants will use Monday’s offday to fly across the country for a third time this season, scheduled to land in Pittsburgh around 7 p.m. local time.
RHP Logan Webb (4-4, 3.03) will start the first of three games at PNC Park on Tuesday against LHP Martín Pérez (1-3, 4.86), with first pitch scheduled for 3:40 p.m. PT. LHP Blake Snell (0-3, 11.73) will make his return to the rotation Wednesday against the first of two fireballers on the mound for the Pirates, RHP Jared Jones (3-4, 2.89), followed by RHP Paul Skenes (1-0, 2.70) against RHP Mason Black (0-1, 7.70) or a possible Giants bullpen game in the series finale.
Source: www.mercurynews.com