SAN FRANCISCO — The Giants began Tuesday tied for the major-league lead with a 2.64 ERA from their relievers, but subtract all the runs allowed by their closer, a title typically reserved for the best of the bunch, and the number sparkles even more: 2.33.
The season has not started the way Ryan Walker envisioned, but there’s reason to believe his fortunes are turning. Why’s that? He’s turning less.
“Just being crossbody, being on time is even more crucial. The slightest bit of over-rotation can really throw it off,” Walker said, referencing his unique motion that can make it look like the ball is going to go toward the third-base dugout. “(The adjustment) makes being on time a lot easier. Now we can be in the zone a little easier too.”
It never ended up in the dugout, but it had often seemed like Walker wasn’t sure where his pitches were going for much of the season’s first six weeks. He walked 18 batters and allowed 17 earned runs all of last season, finishing the year with a 1.91 ERA in 80 innings, but when he took the mound last Wednesday against the Diamondbacks, had already surrendered 10 earned runs in 14 innings.
Walker recorded a scoreless inning but issued two more free passes, bringing his total to seven, or 3.7 per nine innings, the highest rate of his career and almost double the 2.0 bases on balls per nine innings he gave up in 2024.
“I was still in my mind about how something’s got to change,” Walker said. “The next day (we figured it out) and obviously it played well. I felt like I was back to myself again.”
The two appearances since have been Walker’s most effective of the season, requiring only seven pitches to retire the Athletics in order to secure two of their wins in the weekend sweep. All it takes to see the difference is to look at Walker’s stance as he comes set in either game.
“My (landing) leg was further out and my torso was more rotated (toward the plate),” Walker said of his out-of-whack mechanics. “We just kind of nixed that and just mimicked what I did last year. A bit more straight-on with the plate in my set up so that when I come up I’m not rotating so much.”
There are so many moving parts in Walker’s torquing delivery that one cog out of place can throw the whole thing off. This year, when it came time to release the ball, his arm was so far behind his body that “getting on time from back here is virtually impossible.”
“I was looking at video of last year. You can see, when I’m about to release the ball, my chest is facing home plate and my arm is either in line with my body or out in front. This year, my arm’s way back here,” Walker said, stretching his right arm behind his head.
Walker assumed the closer’s role from Camilo Doval midway through last season, and manager Bob Melvin stuck with him even as the flame-throwing former closer and the rest of the relief corps got off to blistering starts this season. In need of big outs late in games, Melvin can confidently call on any one of Doval (1.25 ERA), Tyler Rogers (2.01), Randy Rodriguez (0.92) or Erik Miller (1.78), the group’s lone lefty.
“The numbers speak for themselves,” Melvin said. “We have a lot of confidence in those guys. When we have a lead and we go to our bullpen, we feel like we’re in pretty good shape.”
And now, Melvin’s list of options includes one more high-leverage reliever: Jordan Hicks, who struggled in his time as a starter but has a long track record as one of the game’s best short-burst pitchers, racking up 33 career saves and a 3.73 ERA out of the bullpen.
Hicks made his first relief appearance of the season in Monday’s 3-1 loss, surrendering a run on two hits and a walk, but said afterward that he was working on some things. That was evident by his pitch mix, which featured a heavier dose of four-seamers than usual for the sinkerballer.
Hicks hadn’t thrown more than 11 four-seamers in any his six starts this season but used it 10 times in 16 pitches in his return to the bullpen. He said to expect more of the same as he attempts to replicate his arsenal from 2023, when he posted a 3.29 ERA in 65 appearances for the Cardinals and Blue Jays, the last time he was a full-time reliever.
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“Getting back to that is going to take a little bit of time,” he said. “It’s more of a high-velocity pitch. If I don’t have it at, like, 98-101 (mph), it’s not as effective, as you saw (Monday). Once it creeps up and I get it into the zone, I feel like it’ll be a better pitch.”
He topped out at 100.8 mph and believes there is more in the tank as “the past three or four days I’ve been really chucking it trying to get the velocity up, so I had a little bit of fatigue.” Overall, Hicks said of his return to the bullpen, “I didn’t hate it.”
Melvin made sure to give Hicks a soft landing, with the Giants already trailing 2-1 when he took over to begin the ninth, and said he just wanted him to get comfortable in his new role.
“I’m a little bit surprised he got hit as hard as he did throwing 101 or whatever it was,” Melvin said. “The more he’s out there, the more he’s out there in the bullpen, I think you’ll start to see more strikeouts.”
