PHILADELPHIA -- Giants starting pitcher Jordan Hicks gave up five runs in the first inning Thursday and then threw six straight shutout frames. Afterward, he said he pitched "with some anger and some passion" and that wasn't hard to see.
Hicks exchanged words with the Philadelphia Phillies dugout and hitters several times in San Francisco's 6-4 loss At Citizens Bank Park, but he also had a moment with home plate umpire Phil Cuzzi, who ran over to yell at Hicks as he walked off the field in the seventh. The pitcher wasn't the only one who found himself in Cuzzi's crosshairs, though.
Jordan Hicks was visibly upset after he walked off the field in the seventh 😬 pic.twitter.com/0MVTkx5FnR
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SIGN UP HERE After the final pitch, Cuzzi went over to the railing between the visiting dugout and the tunnel that goes back to the umpire's room. He had a short conversation with outfielder Jung Hoo Lee and interpreter Justin Han as several Giants gathered. Lee said it was an odd misunderstanding.
Lee pinch-hit with two outs in the ninth and reached on an infield single. On a 1-1 count, he took a pitch at the bottom of the zone for strike two and tapped his helmet. Cuzzi apparently thought Lee was going through the act of challenging a call, and he briefly said something to Lee. After Christian Koss grounded out to end the game, the two discussed the moment again.
"Everybody that watches Giants games probably knows that every pitch that I go, I adjust my helmet. It's every pitch," Lee said through Han. "I told him that I don't speak English and the umpire said something, and I kept saying I don't speak English. I think that's what happened. The umpire had a sensitive game. Probably, that's what happened in the game today."
Crew chief Dan Bellino said Cuzzi went over to get clarification over what Lee was trying to convey with the head tap. Players were allowed to use that move to challenge balls and strikes in spring training but cannot during the regular season, and Cuzzi told Lee he shouldn't tap his helmet after a pitch he disagrees with. Bellino said the Giants bench asked Cuzzi after the game why he had said something to Lee.
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"Because of what we experimented with in spring training ... throughout Major League Baseball, we're not letting them tap their heads," Bellino told a pool reporter. "That would be arguing balls and strikes. So, it's the same as arguing balls and strikes. I'm not saying that's what he was doing or not. Phil was telling him, 'Hey, you can't tap your head right after a pitch that you disagree with because it looks as though you're arguing balls and strikes.' But obviously with the language barrier there, I don't know if Lee really understood what he was saying. I think that was part of the miscommunication."
There was no such miscommunication with Hicks, who drilled Trea Turner with a 101 mph fastball and then heard from the Phillies dugout. Hicks also got angry when Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm stepped out of the box late. The right-hander and the Phillies' bench exchanged words and glares a couple of times, and Bellino said Cuzzi followed Hicks off the field in the seventh to defuse the situation.
"I wasn't talking to him at all, so I didn't want him in my face, so I just kind of walked away and defused the situation," Hicks said. "It was pretty much all game, back and forth, everywhere. It was just one of those days."
Third baseman Matt Chapman went to the mound a couple of times during the game to calm Hicks, who gave the Giants seven innings on a day when the bullpen was down two or three arms. Chapman smiled after the game and said both Hicks and Cuzzi are competitive.
"It was two guys clashing a little bit. Both of them are a little hotheaded," he said. "I'm glad nothing bad came out of it and Hicks was able to stay in the game and you saw how huge that was for us. I love the competitive spirit. I'm glad things didn't get out of hand."