Tyler Mahle struck out nine and still came away with another bruising line Saturday, allowing five earned runs in 5 2/3 innings in the Giants' loss to the Padres. He gave up five hits and two walks, and the result fit a recent pattern that has been hard to ignore.
The right-hander has allowed three earned runs or more in four of his last six contests, a stretch that has left him with a 5.13 ERA and 1.39 WHIP across 18 starts. His 3-9 record and 8.5 K/9 ratio show the split that has defined his season: enough swing-and-miss to keep hope alive, but too much damage when hitters do connect.
That contradiction was on display again Saturday. Mahle missed bats at a strong clip, yet the Padres still built enough traffic against him to turn the outing into a loss. The strikeouts helped his line look better than it was for pockets of the game, but the five runs that crossed erased any benefit from the nine punchouts.
For the Giants, the concern is no longer just one rough start. Mahle has become part of a rotation stretch that is producing uneven results, and his last six outings suggest the issue is recurring rather than random. What comes next is the unanswered part: whether he gets another turn soon enough to steady himself, and whether the Giants keep giving him the ball while the runs keep piling up.
