DENVER — No team asked more of its bullpen than the Giants in the first half of the season, so it justifiably raised some alarm bells when the group was handed a 3-0 lead in their first game after the All-Star break and flipped the score into a 7-3 loss.
Lights out in the late innings for the bulk of the season, it was a different story for Tyler Rogers and Ryan Walker, who surrendered the tying and go-ahead runs.
The pair of right-handers occupy the top two spots on the major-league leaderboard of appearances this season, but a day later manager Bob Melvin downplayed any concerns about their workloads looking ahead to the team’s final 63 games.
“It’s just a night where we gave up some runs,” Melvin said Saturday. “Sometimes it happens. You don’t expect it out of the guys that have been so good. Our seventh and eighth inning guys have been fantastic this year.”
Rogers’ appearance Friday night was his 50th of the season, while Walker is one behind him with 49. As a whole, Giants relievers have thrown 405 innings, more than any bullpen in the majors.
Rogers picked up his team-leading 18th hold while helping secure the Giants’ win over the Twins in their final game before the All-Star break, lowering his ERA to 2.58 before the three-run home run he surrendered to Jake Cave in the eighth inning Friday raised it to 3.15.
Walker has allowed four runs on six hits and walked three batters over his past four appearances. It took opponents the prior 22 games Walker appeared in to score four runs against him, dating back to May 18, lowering his ERA to 1.91 before it spiked to 2.45 after his recent rough stretch.
“We’d like to take a little off their plate,” Melvin said. “But as far as physically, they both feel really good right now.”
The workload is nothing new for Rogers, who has appeared in more games than any other pitcher since he debuted in 2019 and has led the league in the category twice before. Walker, however, matched his major-league total from last season when he stepped on the mound for the 49th time Friday night but is still 30 innings shy of reaching his combined total last season, when he took down 81⅓ frames between Triple-A and the majors.
“I feel like I feel great. I don’t feel exhausted or anything,” Walker said. “Could it be affecting pitch shapes or control of the zone a little bit? Maybe. But I don’t know if that’s just pitchers going through ups and downs or if that’s the workload, or what.”
While Walker expressed confidence that he could keep up the pace for the rest of the season, “Obviously it’d be nice if we didn’t have to do that,” he said. “You know, when I say we don’t feel it now, that doesn’t mean we won’t eventually. It’d be great to get back to the point where we have our full rotation.”
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Rotation reinforcements are on the way in the form of Robbie Ray and Alex Cobb, and their returns could also provide some downstream help to the heavily taxed group of relievers. Jordan Hicks, a high-leverage reliever for five seasons before transitioning into a starter this year, will move to the bullpen for the remainder of the season.
Ray tossed 5⅓ scoreless innings for Triple-A Sacramento in a rehab start Friday, and the expectation is that he will make his team debut Wednesday in Los Angeles. Melvin, however, was not ready to set anything in stone until further conferring with the 33-year-old left-hander, who had the ulnar collateral ligament and flexor tendon in his throwing elbow surgically repaired last May.
“The velo was there, he threw all his pitches and felt really good,” Melvin said. “That’s what we’re looking for. Today, we’re talking about what-if. But as we sit here today, I think there’s a good chance that we see him in LA.”
