Ken Giles performs extra duty on giveaway day

The Phillies gave away a Ken Giles t-shirt on Sunday. Giles himself, gave his team an extended performance, a scoreless one at that.

He threw 1 2/3 innings of hitless relief and earned the win in Sundays' 6-4 victory over the San Francisco Giants at Citizens Bank Park.

San Francisco put runners on first and second with one out in the seventh inning against reliever Elvis Araujo when Giles was called in for earlier than usual duty. He got Buster Posey to pop out and Brandon Belt to line out to end the rally.

He then struck out the side the next inning along with giving up a walk. Giles threw 24 pitches, 12 for strikes.

When he struck out the final batter, Andrew Susac on a 97 MPH heater, Giles was visibly pumped walking off the mound.

"Who wouldn't be fired up," Giles asked. "I gave us a chance to win a ball game."

This was the first time this season that Giles had pitched more than one inning. Last year he had five such occasions

"For me it is not that much difference," he said. "I have to keep a mindset that I am going to keep focused."

Giles fastball has been a constant source of discussion this year and while it is down in velocity, it's still highly effective. According to Fangraphs.com's PITCHf/x, his fastball is averaging 95.2 MPH after averaging 97.2 last season.

Giles was the winning pitcher on Sunday and is now 2-1 with a 2.16 ERA. He has struck out 26 and walked 11 in 25 innings. Still, Giles doesn't feel he has hit his stride this season.

"I am still off and still have things to work with, mostly mechanical work and it is one of those things," he said. "But slowly but surely I am starting to figure it out. It is just a work in progress."

As for the t-shirt, which had an illustration of Giles on the front and his name on the back, Giles gave his endorsement.

"It needs improving," he said smiling. "But overall, it was great."

-Marc Narducci