Astros send struggling closer Giles to Triple-A: 'He's not right'

The Houston Astros have made a major shakeup at the back end of their bullpen.

Struggling closer Ken Giles was optioned to Triple-A on Wednesday less than 24 hours after the right-hander allowed three runs without recording an out and appeared to swear at manager A.J. Hinch when he came to remove him from the game.

"We need to get his pitching right," Hinch told reporters. "He's had an up and down season. He's had signs of things that are good, some bad games, some meltdowns, but we need to get him right - he's not right. We need to get him right mentally and physically to make sure he's a good contributor to our 'pen."

Hinch said he didn't speak to Giles about the apparent swear.

"We're going to talk baseball here," he said. "We deal with a lot of different things behind the scenes internally as a team.

"I think it's important to get himself right where he's directing all of his attention towards the hitter and all of his attention towards his job. He pitches with a lot of emotion and when things are going well we love it, and when things aren't going well we have our concerns because of the volatility of the end of the game-type stuff."

Giles, who hasn't pitched in the minors since 2014, converted 34 saves while posting a 2.30 ERA and 1.04 WHIP over 62 2/3 innings last season but has been inconsistent this year. He owns a 4.99 ERA and 1.27 WHIP in 24 appearances.

The Astros acquired Giles in a blockbuster deal with the Philadephia Phillies in 2015 for Mark Appel, Vince Velasquez, Brett Oberholtzer, Harold Arauz, and Tom Eshelman.