SAN FRANCISCO — As he sat in the dugout on Saturday afternoon, Bob Melvin got different variations of the same question: What’s next for Jordan Hicks?
Hicks has been moved back to the bullpen, where he spent the first five seasons of his MLB career. He throws as consistently hard as any player in MLB history, and he had 32 saves in his career before hitting free agency and deciding he wanted to become a starter. He seems an easy fit in the late innings for any team, and Melvin is excited to have him in the mix, but as he answered the questions, he trailed off while talking about the depth of the bullpen even before the move was made.
It would be tough for any reliever to crack the late innings for the Giants.
“You look at our bullpen arms now … ” Melvin said.
Right now, it’s as good as it gets in Major League Baseball, and it’s why the Giants are 27-19 despite flaws elsewhere on the roster. Four Giants relievers combined to throw four hitless innings Saturday on just 34 pitches, setting the stage for Wilmer Flores’ latest heroics.
A night after hitting three homers, Flores drew the first walk-off walk in a 1-0 game in franchise history. He was eager to share the credit with a bullpen that leads the majors with a 2.59 collective ERA.
“They kept us in the game, especially Camilo (Doval) with the guy at second and getting out of that,” Flores said. “It was great.”
Doval was the fourth Giants reliever to take the mound after Landen Roupp pitched six shutout innings in one of the best starts of his career. The first man up was Randy Rodriguez, who threw nine pitches — all strikes — to lower his ERA to 0.96. Tyler Rogers followed and was just about as efficient as it gets; he threw four pitches (all strikes) and got three groundball outs. Ryan Walker went 1-2-3 on seven pitches, six of them strikes.
From the seventh through the ninth, the bullpen needed just 20 pitches to record nine outs, and 19 of them were strikes. Doval inherited the automatic runner on second base and struck out a pair to give the Giants a chance to walk it off against Mason Miller in the bottom of the inning.
As he recounted the sequence, catcher Patrick Bailey smiled and shook his head. “Sheesh,” he said quietly.
“I think everyone knows our bullpen has been our biggest strength this year,” he continued. “I mean, goodness, I’d put Randy with anybody in baseball right now. His stuff is electric, the confidence is high. Rog, nothing changes with him. He goes out there and gives you clean innings and throws strikes. That’s been the biggest thing this year for the pen is filling up the zone. It was awesome to see Walker get in there and fill up the zone as well, and then Duvey looks like the guy he was in 2023, maybe even better.”
Doval had the toughest task because he was the only one of the four to inherit a runner. A groundout got the go-ahead run to third and Doval walked the third batter he faced in the top of the 10th, but he stranded a pair with a nasty slider that A’s slugger Brent Rooker waved at. When he’s right, Doval accentuates his strikeouts with a hop off the mound. The one Saturday was about as high as he has gotten in the last couple of seasons.
“He’s been — not only on the mound, but in the clubhouse as a teammate — he’s been awesome. He’s been awesome,” Bailey said. “I think he was always there, but you struggle and it’s a humbling and frustrating game, but it’s been really cool to see him back to himself both on the mound and off the field.”
Doval is just two years removed from being an All-Star closer, and Rodriguez is pitching like someone who might have that in his future. Rogers has been so consistently good for so long now that he deserves a nod at some point, and Walker looks like he’s rounding back into form after some wobbles earlier this season.
It’s as good a foursome as there is in baseball, and the A’s didn’t even see Erik Miller, who has a 1.88 ERA from the left side. The bullpen also includes Spencer Bivens (3.54 ERA) and Kyle Harrison, who is sitting 96-98 mph in his return to the big leagues.
Hicks has sat at 100 mph with his sinker at times this season, and the Giants anticipate he’ll be a weapon in the bullpen right away. They believe the best bullpen in baseball got better on Saturday, and the 1-0 win was a reminder that a dominant pen can cover up for a lot of other issues this summer.
“We’re not always going to hit every day. The pitching is always keeping us in the game,” Flores said. “It’s been the same way all year.”
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