Ken Giles struggles in season debut

Ken Giles swept his right cleat to the brush the dirt off the pitching rubber as manager Ryne Sandberg made his way from the dugout. Giles season debut was finished. All that was left for him to do was hand the baseball to the manager.

The pitcher that seemed unhittable last season looked unreliable in Wednesday's 4-2 win over Boston. He walked three batters, allowed two runs, and left the bases loaded for Jonathan Papelbon with two outs in the eighth inning. Papelbon ended the inning when Hanley Ramirez flew out to the warning track.

"It's always about consistency," Giles said. "I just have to find it. The game is all about adjustments and I have to find that consistency. Whether its tomorrow or a couple days, I just have to keep working on that."

Giles threw 31 pitches, 24 of which were fastballs. Only seven reached at-least 95 m.ph. He shied away from his slider, as 11 of his first 13 pitches were fastballs.

He used the slider on consecutive pitches to strikeout David Ortiz and threw it again to force Mookie Betts to fly out. Giles walked the next two batters using almost exclusively his fastball. Sandberg then walked to the mound.

"I just don't think he's where he wants to be right now, where he should be," Sandberg said. "He looked like he was laboring out there...Maybe it was one of those games to get his feet wet and then turn it up a notch. But, yeah, he struggled."

Giles' spring training was mired in inconsistency. He was unable piece together consecutive perfect appearances. The pitcher was then hindered by pain in his lower back, which caused him to be removed from a game on March 31.

The righthander returned to the mound four days later and allowed two runs in his final outing before opening day. His only concern was leaving Saturday's game healthy, Giles said. His back, Giles said, has felt fine since.

"To me, it was like 'Who cares what spring results are?,'" Giles said. "All of March was about getting tuned up and working on stuff. Nobodys going to be sharp in spring. If I was blowing everyone away during March, then I'd be in trouble when the season started."

Giles slider was not as sharp this spring as it looked last season. He paired the pitch with a blazing fastball to have one of the best rookie seasons in team history. Giles struck out 64 batters last season in 452/3 innings. He had good control, walking just 11 batters.

The righthander used the slider last season for 40-percent of his pitches, according to FanGraphs. Giles said the slider will be "just fine" once he feels the adrenaline of a game situation.

“I know what it’s going to do. I’m confident in it,” Giles said. “I know that when I need to throw it, it will do what I want to do. It’s just one of those things, being confident no matter what.”