Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
Gabe Kapler said Camilo Doval may be lacking “a bit of confidence.” What he did not say, but has been plain enough, is the Giants are lacking a deep enough bullpen.
The Giants should see a chiropractor after suffering a second straight backbreaker in Pittsburgh. Friday’s came from some soft, ninth-inning hits against Kevin Gausman and Jake McGee before Caleb Baragar couldn’t keep the game going in the 11th, while Saturday’s emerged from Camilo Doval inheriting a seventh-inning mess from Sam Selman and only making it messier, before McGee couldn’t keep the game going in the ninth.
What the latter stems from is 4 1/3 shaky innings from Johnny Cueto, who could not provide enough length in his second start back from the injured list. The Giants were forced to scrounge for 14 outs from a bullpen that did not offer Tyler Rogers as an option, as the submariner leads the majors in appearances and had worked back-to-back days. Kapler did not want to turn to McGee, but he had little choice after the seventh inning.
Zack Littell had covered the rest of the fifth and sixth innings well before he handed off to Selman, who had not pitched in eight days, which showed. He walked one and hit another in a game the Giants led 6-2, but recorded two outs before Doval was called for.
The 23-year-old rookie has shown remarkable stuff and a propensity for both command issues and letting up home runs. The command was the issue this time, letting the four-run lead evaporate through: a single, a hit by pitch, a wild pitch and a Jacob Stallings double. The Pirates sent nine to the plate in their critical, four-run inning, but their offense consisted of a single and double.
Yet again, Doval stayed away from his 100-mph fastball. He threw five and got two strikes and three balls off the pitch. He otherwise used 15 sliders that had plenty of movement but not enough control.
“We’re definitely seeing the life on the fastball, we’re definitely seeing some bite on the slider. Both of those weapons are a little bit inconsistent,” Kapler said after the 8-6 loss to the Pirates at PNC Park. “One of the things that’s difficult about a young pitcher is while he can throw them hard and make them move, he has difficulty with hitting his spots. And that’s just going to take time and experience.”
The implication is time and experience at the major league level. The Giants have Triple-A options, though some of the most intriguing (Dominic Leone, Jimmie Sherfy, Nick Tropeano) would need to be added to the 40-man roster.
For now, Kapler is still speaking about coaching up Doval rather than letting him grow at a lesser level.
“We asked him to be better with his location. We asked him to be better in getting in count leverage. We asked him to stay ahead of hitters and force them to hit from behind,” the manager said over Zoom. “So that’s the messaging right now, and we have to keep hitting him every day with that messaging, but then also trust the talent.”
It’s less the talent than the workload — and the effect of that workload — that is troubling with McGee. He was brilliant early in the season, then his outings piled up and his stuff diminished.
Perhaps Kapler could have avoided his closer the second night in a row. He could have asked for a second inning from Jarlin Garcia, who pitched a solid eighth in 14 pitches and has multi-inning capabilities. Matt Wisler had not been used in six days, and thus Kapler said the slider-enthusiast would have been the pick for the 10th and probably 11th, if necessary. But Kapler clearly trusted his best arm, if not the freshest, most. The Giants gave Wisler a $1.15 million deal this offseason to be a trusted seventh- or eighth-inning arm, and he has not been thus far.
Otherwise, the Giants were out of relievers. The rotation has been so excellent and pitched so deep into games that the Giants’ bullpen, apart from Rogers, has not been greatly taxed. Cueto’s short outing taxed it.
So McGee was less the pick than he was one of the last still standing for the ninth. The Pirates stacked a double after a single, and Mike Tauchman and Brandon Crawford briefly saved the game with a relay throw-out at the plate. But two pitches later, McGee threw a four-seamer down the middle to Stallings, who crushed a homer to left.
“I was trying to throw it a little too hard I feel like. Just tried to make sure I got it up and away, and I think I just pulled it,” McGee said. “Threw it a little too hard.”
He had reached back for 94.5-mph heat, his fastest pitch of the day. But his fastball averaged 93.1 mph Saturday; his season average is 94.4 mph. He understandably will not admit it, but he was gassed.
“I feel like I was getting my pitches off. I missed a few pitches down, but I think overall, my body feels good,” McGee said after his 19th game in a 39-game Giants season.
The Giants are in first place and playing well regardless of games that could force Kapler to use tweezers to pull his hair out. But the bullpen has not contained enough answers at a time when a few answers might reside in Triple-A.
