SAN FRANCISCO — A tied game heading into the ninth inning usually occurs when the home team decides to deploy its closer.
Faced with those circumstances Friday night, with the score tied at 2 in their first game against the Tigers, Giants manager Bob Melvin had no reliever to rely on.
After Camilo Doval was sent to Triple-A Sacramento before the game, Melvin brought in Tyler Rogers for the most advantageous situation in their 3-2 victory. The relief pitcher recorded a 1-2-3 inning, but afterward, the manager named another reliever when asked what his ninth-inning duties would be going forward.
Ryan Walker will handle ninth-inning duties in Doval’s absence, Melvin said, but the cross-hitting right-hander was unavailable after pitching in their previous two games.
“It makes it a little smoother,” Melvin said of the decision to go with Walker over other options like Rogers, the only other Giants pitcher with a save this season, his twin brother, Taylor, or Jordan Hicks, both of whom already have experience as a closing pitcher. “Hicks is going to move up a little bit. Everybody is going to move up a little bit behind Tyler, who’s pitching the eighth. We’re trying to preserve the roles, and then the lefties can do their job.”
Walker, who played in 59 games, posted a 2.24 ERA while striking out 30.5 percent of the batters he faced and walking just 5.6 percent. While the former 31st-round draft pick wasn’t on many radars when he debuted last May at age 27, the pressure of being a slugger shouldn’t be too foreign.
Along with his 21 catches this season and his first career save last August in Philadelphia, the leverage rating is an average situation at 1.0, and Walker’s average leverage rating this season was 1.32, compared to 0.90 as a rookie last year.
“Walk certainly deserves it,” Melvin said. “He’s been really good. We don’t want Tyler to get out of the eighth. He’s been so good in the eighth. Our bullpen has been really good at times — the backcourt — we don’t want to upset them and everybody has different roles. The hard part is (Walker) has been that firefighter that comes in with guys on base and often pitches his way out of trouble and the next inning as well.”
“But he gets lefties out, he gets righties out, he’s got swings and misses.”
Doval blew his fifth save of the season Thursday against the Nationals and was sent to Sacramento before Friday’s game.
With a career-high walk rate, Melvin said he hopes Doval, an All-Star in 2023, can harness his command and return to the closer role sooner rather than later.
“It’s just got to be a cleaner game with him. Our best team and we expect him to finish,” Melvin said before the game. “It gives him an opportunity to go out there, do some of those things and come back here and be the All-Star he was last year.”
