‘Hotheaded’ Jordan Hicks and ‘sensitive’ umpire clash in Giants’ loss to Phillies

PHILADELPHIA — Music played in the Giants’ clubhouse. Everyone held his head high. No one sulked at his locker. There was no mourning Thursday’s series-capping 6-4 loss to the Phillies.

“I like the way we’re playing,” proclaimed third baseman Matt Chapman.

The Giants have been so successful so far this season that it felt like they won even though they lost. Nothing seemed to get them down.

Not even umpire Phil Cuzzi.

The Giants, who went 4-3 on their weeklong East Coast swing and will complete their 10-game journey with a weekend series against the Angels in Anaheim, received a courageous contribution from a highly emotional Jordan Hicks, who overcame an awful 33-pitch first inning and got through seven to save the bullpen.

The Giants rallied in a bid for another comeback win but fell short. Still, there seemed nary a bad mood in the clubhouse as the team prepared to fly west with a 13-6 overall record, including 9-4 in road games — a grand start for a team expected to finish .500-ish.

“We’re happy about where we’re at,” said Chapman, who narrowed the score with a two-run homer in the sixth and made two mound visits to calm Hicks during hectic moments.

Emotions were high with words exchanged between Hicks and the Phillies’ bench, Hicks and Cuzzi, and Cuzzi and Jung Hoo Lee.

It all seemed to initiate when Hicks plunked Trea Turner with a 101-mph pitch in the second inning. Hicks heard chirping from the Phillies’ bench and didn’t appreciate it when Alex Bohm stepped out of the box in the fourth and was granted time just when the right-hander was throwing a 100-mph pitch into the strike zone. After the inning, Hicks glared back at the Phillies’ side as barbs were flung.

After Hicks’ final pitch in the seventh, as he walked toward the dugout, Cuzzi chased him down apparently with the intention of diffusing any heated dialogue involving Hicks and the Phillies.

“I didn’t like him getting in my face and yelling,” said Hicks, who yelled back. “Besides that, I don’t think he did anything wrong.”

Chapman visited Hicks on the mound during the five-run first inning, pushing him to pitch deep into the game, and again after Hicks seemed rattled when Bohm stepped from the box, telling him this time to keep his cool and not get ejected.

“I know he’s a competitive guy, and he really means well, and I think Phil sometimes can also get a little bit hot,” Chapman said. “So I think it was two guys clashing a little bit. Both of them are a little hotheaded.”

Or, as Lee eloquently put it, “The umpire had a sensitive game.”

Cuzzi’s beef with Lee came when the South Korean center fielder, who was pinch hitting in the ninth, kept tapping his helmet between pitches, a habit of Lee’s. In spring training, when Major League Baseball experimented with automated balls and strikes, batters were instructed to tap their helmets to signal for a review.

Thursday’s crew chief, Dan Bellino, said that’s a no-no during the regular season even though there’s no challenge system for balls and strikes. Cuzzi was irritated because Lee tapped his helmet after a called strike, which could be construed as disputing the call.

“I’m not saying that’s what he was doing or not,” Bellino said through a pool reporter. “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 [Cuzzi] was saying.”

Bellino said after the game that the Giants asked Cuzzi for clarification as he was about to exit the field near the visitors’ dugout, and Cuzzi spoke for several moments with Lee through interpreter Justin Han as many Giants players and coaches crowded around.

“Anybody who watches Giants games probably knows every pitch, I adjust my helmet,” Lee said through Han. “It’s probably the timing with that pitch, I touched my helmet. I told him I don’t speak English. The umpire said something. I kept saying I don’t speak English.

“I guess we’ll need to find a good way to work on this.”

When the game was over, the Giants were grateful Hicks didn’t fold during the five-run first inning or shortly thereafter. In fact, he gave up just one more hit the next six innings so that a string of relievers was not needed.

Hicks said he pitched with a “little bit of everything, some anger, some passion.” After the first inning, it worked. And it was appreciated.

“Nothing to feel bad about as far as how we went about the game today,” Melvin said. “Obviously we didn’t win the game, but we continue to play like that, we’re going to come back in a lot of them, which we already have. It’s the same determination we’ve seen.”