© Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports
SAN DIEGO — Shortly after pitching the second start of his career on Sunday afternoon against the San Diego Padres, the Giants optioned Tyler Beede back to Triple-A Sacramento.
“It’s never a great feeling being sent down,” Beede said. “I’ve never had this feeling before, but I learned a lot when I was here and it’s an opportunity for me to go learn some things and hopefully the next time they call me up I’ll be better for them.”
The Giants got through the first few weeks of the season without needing a fifth starter, but Beede was their first call when they needed one on April 10. He made his major league debut against the Arizona Diamondbacks, holding the division leaders to three hits and two runs over four innings pitched.
Yet, Beede struggled with his command, surrendering five walks with only three strikeouts. Although walks continued to haunt him in his second start, his evident improvement won the praise of Bruce Bochy.
“It was a better outing, no question,” Bochy said. “His changeup was getting over. The walks hurt him. That two-out walk in the third came back to haunt him. The leadoff walk.
“Just making pitches with men on base,” Bochy added. “Pitch in traffic. We’ve got to polish up some things. He did a better job of getting ahead of the hitters. Now, he’s got to execute that pitch to put them away, and making pitches with men in scoring position.”
While his command might have improved against the Padres, Beede’s pitch location clearly needs some work. He kept his number of walks down to three, but two of them ended up scoring as the Padres tagged the 24-year-old for six hits and five runs over 3.2 innings.
“That’s when you’ve got to make your pitches up here,” Bochy said. “He’ll go back down to Sacramento and continue to work on that part of his game.”
Nonetheless, Beede expressed how grateful he was for the opportunity to get his first taste of the major leagues, and looks forward to being back with the Giants in the future.
“I have a lot of confidence coming out of these two starts,” Beede said. “It’s just a matter of going down and refining some things and coming back to be competitive and help this team win more than I did in my starts.”
With Beede being sent back down, that leaves the Giants with Johnny Cueto, Chris Stratton, and Ty Blach in the rotation. Demoting Beede gives the impression that Jeff Samardzija will be ready to make his 2018 debut once his spot in the rotation comes around, but Bochy isn’t ready to confirm anything.
“We’re talking about that right now.” Bochy said. “I don’t want to confirm that or verify that.”
