Phillies' Ken Giles has been able to avoid a sophomore slump

ATLANTA - Ken Giles celebrated his 25th birthday on Sunday, the seventh straight day he went without throwing a pitch in a game for the last-place Phillies.

Manager Pete Mackanin thought about turning to his young closer in a 1-1 game in the ninth inning at Turner Field, but decided against it.

"I find it hard to bring him in a tie situation with an inning, to have to pitch two innings, even though there is a day off (Monday) - I still don't want to do that," said Mackanin, who went with Luis Garcia and quickly saw the Braves walk off with a 2-1 win in the ninth. "I don't think it's the right thing to do just to try to win one game. It would almost be a panic move, which I don't want to do. It's asking for too much."

Giles probably could have handled it, in retrospect.

He's been asked to get more than three outs in seven of his 63 appearances this season. In those seven games, he hasn't been scored on, has allowed only two hits, and has struck out 16 batters while walking five in 10 2/3 innings.

Then again, Giles has handled just about every assignment in his second big-league season, one that began with at least a little doubt that the hard-throwing righthanded reliever would be able to replicate his remarkable rookie year.

Giles has gone 13-for-13 in save opportunities since taking over the closer's role from Jonathan Papelbon two months ago. He's allowed only two earned runs in 27 games since the beginning of July.

In the season's final three months, Giles has been has basically been the same dominant force in the back of the bullpen he was last year: He has struck out 32.48 percent of the batters he's faced since July 1, which is at least in the same neighborhood as his ridiculous 38.55 percentage in 44 games as a rookie a year ago (ranking seventh among major league relievers).

Not a bad sophomore season for a guy who experienced troublesome back pain in the week before the Phillies broke camp in spring training and who sported a fastball more than a few clicks down from the "100 MILES GILES" moniker etched on his glove.

According to PITCHf/x data, Giles never averaged anything below 97.74 in four months in 2014. It averaged 95.77 this April and climbed to 96.85 in May.

Giles fastball has since returned - he averaged 98.39 in July, 98.11 in August and 97.40 so far this month - but he said the low numbers early might have, in fact, helped him become a better, more complete pitcher.

"I knew the velocity was going to come back, but it was the point where I needed to figure out how to get guys out without the velocity," Giles said. "It forced me to mix my pitches. It forced me to hit my spots a little bit better and focus on pitch by pitch rather than getting too far ahead in at-bats."

Giles couldn't make everything click immediately and endured his first big-league struggles the first two months, despite his still-pristine ERA at the time. He became a little too slider-happy, his walks were up, and opponents had a .323 OBP and .676 OPS off him in 23 games before June. (Those numbers are at .259 and .465, respectively, since June began).

He acknowledged Sunday that the learning-on-the-job training wasn't always as stress-free as he often makes it look with his steely-eyed demeanor on the mound.

"It was stressful at the time," he said. "I mean, why wouldn't it be stressful? You're out there trying to perform. But I learned from it. I think I pitch a lot better now because I went through that."

Giles credited the veterans for sticking with him, continuing to give him advice throughout his second season. He mentioned Cole Hamels. In the past, he's credited Papelbon, too.

And now, with less than two weeks remaining in the season, he's at the same place he was a year ago, in the same company as the game's top relievers. Giles takes a National League reliever-best 1.43 ERA into play today; among major league relievers, only Kansas City's Wade Davis (0.89) has a lower ERA.

If Giles can keep his ERA where it is now, he'll finish with the lowest ERA for a Phillies reliever since Roger McDowell in 1989 (1.11). But, there's more.

McDowell split that season with the Phillies and Mets, coming over in the memorable Juan Samuel-Lenny Dykstra trade. If Giles' ERA holds, he is in position to finish with the lowest single season ERA by a reliever who pitched exclusively for the Phillies in the 133-year history of the franchise.

"Really?" he said Sunday with a small smile.

As a competitive team-first ballplayer, he finds it difficult to get any satisfaction out of a season that's likely to finish with 100 losses. But Giles can look in the mirror and know he at least did his part this season.

"I struggled for the first couple months," Giles said. "I learned from that and kept on building each day, each outing."

Blog: ph.ly/HighCheese