⏩ Phillies 11, Giants 0: Jeff Samardzija still seeks his command.
PHILADELPHIA — If everyone involved were honest, they would have to admit the Giants out of need rushed Jeff Samardzija into the rotation after his late-spring pectoral injury. He got one rehab game, in San Jose, that lasted 60 pitches before he was thrown into the big-league fire.
Nobody should have expected Samardzija to pitch sharply or powerfully out of the gate, and he didn’t.
“We had an idea it was going to be a process,” Samardzija said after Monday night’s 11-0 loss to the Phillies.
Samardzija has made four starts and pitched well enough in two to help the Giants win. But the rotation’s hardest thrower was not right. He was tossing fastballs at 88 mph in the first inning of his games and gradually gaining speed. His command has been way off.
One issue seems to be solved. Samardzija was throwing 96 mph in the first inning Monday and hit 97. However, his ability to throw strikes, which he did exceedingly well last year, remains elusive.
Samardzija walked his first two hitters, Cesar Hernandez and Rhys Hoskins, before Odubel Herrera hit a misplaced fastball deep over the center-field fence for a threerun homer.
The Shark needed 40 pitches to get through nine hitters in the first inning, rebounded with two scoreless innings, then hung a slider to Hernandez for a two-run homer in his fourth and final inning.
“I was encouraged, really,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “He was back to having his normal stuff and velocity. The command is an issue.”
Samardzija has walked 13 hitters in 172⁄3 innings after issuing just 32 walks in 2072⁄3 innings last year. He said the key is regaining command of his slider, which he is throwing too hard and too flat.
He has faced a catch-22, though, having to spend most of his side work on regaining the proper mechanics for his velocity, leaving him less time to work on the slider. He has to keep injury in mind and not go overboard in betweenstarts throwing.
“You want to be smart about it,” he said. “To go out and throw 50-pitch bullpens is probably not the best route.”
Briefly: The Phillies’ Carlos Santana hit a three-run homer to center that Gorkys Hernandez had in his glove over the wall, but it popped out. Herrera hit his second homer of the game off reliever D.J. Snelten. … The Giants committed three errors and have 10 in four games on the trip. … The Giants lost for the fifth time in their past 17 games. In those losses, the pitchers have allowed nearly a third of their runs for the season, 48 of 151.