Giles sent to Triple-A after outburst
Luhnow says Giles’ pitching is reason for his demotion
Before he left the field in the ninth inning on May 1, raised his right hand and punched himself in the jaw, the enigma enveloping Ken Giles was clear, a maddening inconsistency with this flamethrowing but volatile reliever that, late Tuesday night, became too stark to ignore.
A night earlier, he struck out Gary Sanchez, Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Hicks on 13 pitches. His slider was purring — it got four swings and misses — and his fastball was electric. A 2-1 win was secured.
“When you put me up to a great challenge”, he said afterward, “I’m always up to the task.”
A day later, he cultivated the only image now associated with his miserable season, violently striking himself across the face after Sanchez massacred a three-run home run in the ninth inning of a scoreless game.
“There’s some nights he comes out
and looks dominant, faces the middle of a good lineup and gets them out,” Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow said. “There’s other nights he comes out and gives up three hits.
“Right now, we can’t roll the dice every time he’s out there and hope it’s the three-out save as opposed to the three hits and out of the game.”
In what the organization termed strictly a “baseball decision,” the Astros optioned Giles on Wednesday, jettisoning their once-prized acquisition and unquestioned closer to Class AAA Fresno.
Giles has not pitched in the minor leagues since before his Phillies debut in 2014.
The decision arrived hours after another turbulent ninth inning and, again, an explosive exit that set social media ablaze.
After his eighth pitch in the ninth inning of Tuesday’s 6-5 win against the A’s, after he ceded three consecutive singles on eight pitches, Giles appeared to yell an obscenity toward A.J. Hinch when the manager ambled from the dugout to remove him. Giles left the mound before Hinch arrived, too.
“I think it’s important for him to get himself right to where he’s directing all his attention toward the hitter and all the attention toward his job,” Hinch said. “He pitches with a lot of emotion and when things are going well, we love it, and when things aren’t going well, we have our concerns just because of the volatility of the end of the game type stuff.”
Decision ‘frustrated’ Giles
Giles was not inside the clubhouse after Tuesday’s 6-5 win. He did not report to Minute Maid Park on Wednesday after his demotion, news that Hinch said “frustrated” Giles when it was delivered.
“We need to get his pitching right,” Hinch said. “He’s had an up and down season, signs of things that are good, he’s had some bad games, he’s had some meltdowns, but we need to get him right. He’s not right. We need to get him right mentally and physically to make sure he’s a good contributor to a pen.”
Neither Hinch nor Luhnow addressed Tuesday night’s incident.
Hinch said Wednesday he did not speak to Giles about what he may have said while departing the mound. Both reiterated Giles’ demotion was necessitated by an ERA hovering near 5, a seemingly broken slider that is not receiving many swings and misses.
“This was a baseball decision,” Luhnow said. “I don’t know what he said (on Tuesday). Things are said between players and players and staff, and that’s a clubhouse issue. That’s dealt with separately. This was a baseball decision.
“Ken has had success in certain situations and he hasn’t been successful in other situations the way he should be.”
The three earned runs charged to Giles on Tuesday inflated his ERA to 4.99. He’s allowed 36 hits in 30 innings.
The 17 earned runs he’s yielded already eclipse his total from last season, when he struck out 82 men in 62 innings. In 2016, his first season in Houston, he fanned 102.
Slider not what it was
At the time of his demotion, Giles had 31 strikeouts.
Giles’ slider lacks the shape or depth it once had, Hinch said. Without feel for it, Giles cannot generate the swings and misses required to earn leverage innings.
He threw the pitch 87 times in June, according to Brooks Baseball. Twenty-nine were swung on and missed. Just 14 of 54 generated whiffs in May.
The reassignment was not for lack of effort. Hinch remarked Wednesday he’s seen Giles “work at a higher rate than ever before trying to sort out some of these tweaks.” Lacking concrete success afterward has piled up on the flammable former Phillie.
“It’s clear, though, that when a player isn’t having a ton of success on the field it does tend to wear on them emotionally,” Luhnow said. “You see different players react differently.”
Luhnow acknowledged he’d like to see Giles, and all Astros players, “channel their emotions in a productive manner.” Beyond that statement, he declined to comment on the emotional state of the 27-year-old he acquired to end games who now finds himself at a crossroads.
“When Ken Giles is good, he’s as good as anyone pitching the ninth inning,” Luhnow said. “And we hope he gets back to that form because we need big arms for the rest of what we’re trying to do this year.”