SAN FRANCISCO–When the Giants began the 2017 season, Derek Law was supposed to pitch the eighth inning and Mark Melancon was supposed to shut the door in the ninth.
How times have changed.
Giants’ manager Bruce Bochy addressed both Law and Melancon prior to Friday’s contest against the St. Louis Cardinals, but he wasn’t showering them with praise for the way they’ve handled the back end of the San Francisco bullpen this season. Instead, Bochy was talking about an upcoming pronator procedure for Melancon, and sharing his plan for Law, who was activated to the Giants’ roster on Friday as one of four September call-ups.
While Melancon could be shut down in the near future, Law is just about to get started. Though Law won’t pitch in true set-up situations, Bochy said he hoped to work the 26-year-old right-hander into games in the sixth inning during the month of September.
“Probably in that sixth inning,” Bochy said. “We’ve been pretty good with (Hunter) Strickland in the seventh, Mark (Melancon) helping out in the eighth, and Dyson in the ninth, but he’ll (Law) help out there. He’s been throwing the ball much better down there. He’s got 10 saves, he’s getting his location back. He’s doing well.”
After a strong debut as a rookie in 2016, Law appeared to have locked down a late-inning role in the Giants’ bullpen with a solid start to the 2017 season. After posting a 2.92 ERA in the month of April, though, Law began to regress, and in June, he compiled a 13.50 ERA that resulted in a demotion to AAA Sacramento.
By the middle of June, Law had clearly lost his command and confidence on the mound, and it all came to a head in an outing against the Atlanta Braves. Law didn’t record an out, but he did give up five earned runs, and almost immediately following that performance, the Giants demoted him in favor of rookie Kyle Crick.
That transaction proved to benefit the Giants in two ways, as it allowed Crick to showcase his talents at the Major League level for the first time, while it allowed Law to find himself again.
Immediately upon Law’s return to the Sacramento River Cats, it didn’t take long for starting catcher Tim Federowicz to know determine why the right-hander was struggling.
“When he (Law) came down, his breaking balls were kind of the same speed,” Federowicz said. “He started working on repeating his delivery and he kind of shortened up his slider a little bit more, making that a little bit more different from his curveball. When I first caught him his first couple of outings, I mean, honestly, all three of his pitches looked the same. He admitted it. We went to work and now he’s actually got different pitches, different speeds, different actions, so it’s similar to what I caught in the spring.”
Earlier this week, Bochy said the Giants demoted Law so he could regain his command, but the reliever knew the issue was more specific than that. Before he even left the Giants’ clubhouse, Law said catcher Buster Posey told him to begin focusing on tuning up his breaking pitches.
“I know leaving, Buster kind of mentioned that to me,” Law said. “He said that was kind of the focal point I should focus on and I kind of took that and ran with it. The first couple of games were rough. I was also fighting myself with mechanics and confidence as well but I think once I got that, the slider kind of came with it.”
Law said his slider had begun to look like his curveball, and for a pitcher whose fastball sits in the low to mid 90s, the lack of differentiation between the two pitches allowed hitters to sit back and guess breaking ball, instead of having to prepare for either a curveball or a slider.
“I put in a lot of hard work on that,” Law said. “Leaving here, that was one of the main things that I needed to differentiate between my two off-speed pitches. Basically it was like I was throwing one curveball. It took a little bit of time, but I got there.”
It did take time, as Law allowed five runs over his first five outings back with AAA Sacramento. Eventually, though, the Giants’ ninth round draft pick from 2011 began to rediscover his command, confidence, and feel for his breaking pitches by throwing on a regular schedule. Law said the Giants wanted him to pitch two innings and then take two days of rest, and for the most part, he said he was able to stick to that routine.
In July, Law posted a 2.84 ERA with the River Cats, but in August, that number dropped down to 0.64, as Law allowed just a single run over 14 innings of work.
Federowicz, his regular catcher with AAA, began to notice the difference, and said tightening up Law’s slider has made a world of difference.
“He’s (Law) a big guy, he can command all of his off-speed stuff,” Federowicz said. “But when they all blend together, it makes it kind of tough so he’s able to kind of make his slider a little tighter and harder and I think it’s helped him.”
Federowicz said the combination of Law and left-hander Steven Okert, who was also demoted by the Giants in the middle of the year, created a formidable combo at the back end of Sacramento’s bullpen. Law wound up saving 10 games over the course of a few months, and now, he’s back with the big league club and preparing to get a head start on earning a role in the Giants’ 2018 bullpen.
After making three critical changes, Law is ready to return to form, and he said his goal down the stretch is to throw as many scoreless innings as possible.
“One was confidence,” Law said. “Two, a little bit of grip. Also my mechanics were a little off. So I watched some video, trying to perfect it, watched a little film from last year and the playoffs, when I kind of went on a good run last year and I tried to mimic that as much as I could.”