The Giants had at least one bright spot in a loss to the Houston Astros on Monday night: Blade Tidwell turned in a strong start. What followed, though, was the kind of move that left Tony Vitello fielding questions after the game.
Tidwell worked 5 and 2/3 innings and gave up one earned run on four hits and one walk while striking out six. He was pulled after 96 pitches, with two outs in the sixth, and Vitello went to JT Brubaker.
The decision wasn’t hard to understand on the surface. Tidwell was nearing a heavy workload. Still, the timing stood out because this wasn’t a case like the other day, when Vitello lifted Landen Roupp after three straight walks.
At the moment Tidwell came out, there were two runners aboard. But he had just punched out Jose Altuve and was about to see Taylor Trammell, a hitter he had already retired twice in the game.
When asked why he made the change instead of letting the young starter work through the spot himself, Vitello said, “We're kinda out of room for learning points...we're trying to win ballgames.”
That answer landed oddly, especially because the value in that situation seemed to be about more than the final score. Tidwell is the kind of arm San Francisco could be looking at as part of its rotation down the line, and those late-inning moments are exactly where a young pitcher can either take a step or get a lesson.
There’s also the simple reality that Brubaker is going to be a free agent after the season. If the choice is between letting Tidwell navigate a jam and giving that experience to a pitcher who may not be around long-term, the developmental case for the starter is pretty clear.
A strikeout to finish the inning would have been the ideal outcome. Even if Tidwell had allowed damage, he would have gotten the kind of live-fire test that sticks with a pitcher. If he got through it, the confidence boost would have mattered just as much.
The Giants have been in a similar spot before. In late July of 2024 against the Rockies, Hayden Birdsong was working through a fifth-inning jam around the 100-pitch mark. Bob Melvin could have gone to the bullpen, but he let Birdsong stay in and the young pitcher struck out Charlie Blackmon to end the inning and earn a win.
It wasn’t an exact comparison, but it did show the value of letting a young arm compete through a difficult spot. At this point, that feels like the more useful approach for San Francisco. The club had its chance earlier in the year to stack wins and stay in the race, and it didn’t get it done.
Now the focus should be on giving the younger players the kind of chances that help them grow. That has to be the priority from here, not squeezing out wins in a season that was lost a long time ago.
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