How Hayden Birdsong, Jordan Hicks reacted to SF Giants rotation swap
SAN FRANCISCO Hayden Birdsong of the Giants came to Oracle Park Sunday knowing he wasn t going to pitch in the final contest of a three-game series against the Athletics And he s fine with that Things are more uncertain with Jordan Hicks While going back to the bullpen isn t something Hicks longed he s not going to make any waves Birdsong will make his first start of the season Tuesday night against the Kansas City Royals the second of a three-game series to close out the homestand and preceding a nine-game road trip to Washington Detroit and MIami Giants manager Bob Melvin informed the switch Saturday Birdsong and Hicks discussed their role reversal for the first time Sunday before Justin Verlander took the mound to try and finish off a sweep of the A s I m definitely excited It s what I planned to do at the beginning of the year but circumstances didn t let me start but our job here is to win games Birdsong announced As a volume innings reliever Birdsong is - with a earned run average with walks and strikeouts Melvin has reported all season Birdsong would be a front-line starter at various point and now that time has come And he s hopeful the stint in the bullpen will pay off now that he s back in the rotation Just warming up and being ready to go all the time it helps me learn that I need to bounce back as best I can Birdsong noted I ve learned a lot about recovery and stuff like that Birdsong s last outing was pitches in an - loss to Arizona and Melvin suggested he d perhaps go pitches or so beyond that Tuesday if things go as planned We re going to find out Birdsong declared Melvin mentioned Saturday Hicks accepted his switch with the right attitude and the -year-old right-hander was philosophical when speaking with reporters We have a real good ballclub here and things just weren t going the way we sought as a starting pitcher Hicks declared So I ve got to turn the page now and do specific bullpen work Whatever the unit requirements I m not giving up on myself I want to be a starting pitcher That s what I longed to do in the big leagues Hicks was - with earned run average in five starts Analytics would suggest he pitched with specific bad luck with a number of seeing-eye hits He recovered from several early struggles in games to get better as they went along his first-inning earned run average was and batters hit -for- in the first frame I took pride in going deeper into games and getting past the five-inning mark Hicks commented That s the hardest part because that s kind of how I was evaluating myself how deep can I go into games limit damage keep us in games In the bad ones I felt like I had a bad innings ground balls that got through the infield Related Articles SF Giants Flores delivers walk-off walk in th inning to beat A s SF Giants move Hicks to bullpen bring Birdsong into rotation Athletics phenom Jacob Wilson debuting at Giants beautiful ballpark with Coke bottle Flores hits three homers as SF Giants rout A s in return to Bay Area Giants Athletics start new version of Bay Bridge Series minus Oakland touch Schmitt making progress Utility infielder Casey Schmitt has missed games with a left oblique strain but could be nearing a return He s -for- with Triple-A Sacramento but was at Oracle Park working out Sunday The reports have been good Melvin announced We re going to see how he gets through the day and evaluate the following day Could be soon Could be a couple more days how he gets through this day will have a lot to do with that Infielder outfielder Jerar Encnarcion left hand fracture is schedule to start his rehab next week
