SAN FRANCISCO — They don’t manufacture many major leaguers in Mattoon, Illinois, and only a handful of future professional ballplayers have passed through the Ohio Valley Conference which Eastern Illinois University calls home.
It stands to reason, then, that Hayden Birdsong never backed himself into a corner like the one in which he found himself two batters into the third inning Wednesday evening. Making his major-league debut less than two years after his name was called in the sixth round of the amateur draft, the bushy-haired, baby-faced right-hander was staring down the heart of the Cubs’ lineup after putting the first two batters of the inning on base.
Hours before the Giants’ eventual 4-3 win, manager Bob Melvin was asked how Birdsong, 22, was “handling the moment,” with less professional experience under his belt than any Giants pitching prospect in their first major-league start since Tim Lincecum almost two decades earlier.
“We’ll see when he gets out there,” the manager responded, earnestly.
In the span of three batters, the Giants got their answer.
“You’re in a situation where you’ve got to bear down a little bit, really no room for error,” Melvin said afterward, “and he gets out of it with nobody moving up, so that was an impressive inning.”
Falling behind 2-0 to Cody Bellinger, the Cubs’ No. 3 batter, Birdsong evened the count with a pair of high fastballs, which only served to set up his next pitch, a looping curveball over the inside corner that felt the air of the left-hander’s swing before finding the back of Patrick Bailey’s glove.
The next batter, Seiya Suzuki, skied a letter-high fastball to right field for the second out, and Birdsong reversed his approach to send Ian Happ back to the dugout for the third and final out of the inning. Using his changeup and curveball to get ahead of the Cubs’ No. 5 hitter, Birdsong powered a 96.5 mph fastball past an empty swing for his second strikeout of the inning, stranding the Cubs’ runners where they were two batters into the inning.
“It was very impressive what he was doing out there. He’s got legit stuff; he’s just got to keep it over the plate,” said Bailey, who paid Birdsong a mound visit after the rookie right-hander walked the first two batters of the inning, telling him, “Just trust your stuff. Throw it over the plate and get count leverage.’
“I think that’s going to be the ticket for him, getting ahead and keeping guys on their toes.”
Beaten by Suzuki in their next battle, Birdsong ultimately didn’t factor into the decision but over 4⅔ innings proved he was plenty capable of taking down many more to come, an answer Melvin and his depleted pitching staff was desperately seeking when the day began.
“I thought he used all his pitches really well, too,” Melvin said. “Especially in that third inning when you’ve got two on and nobody out.”
Delivering their third straight win over the Cubs — rebounding from a five-game skid that sent them a season-worst six games under .500 — the 4⅔ innings the Giants got from the rookie right-hander matched the largest workload they’ve received from one pitcher since they returned home Monday.
Tagged for three runs on six hits, Birdsong struck out five and generated nine swings and misses while issuing three walks. His fastball topped out at 98.4 and registered readings of 97 mph or harder 13 times, the most in an outing by any Giants starter not named Jordan Hicks.
The biggest surprise might have been his changeup, a pitch he threw only seven times in two Triple-A starts but broke out 21 times to strong effect Wednesday. He used one to freeze Michael Busch in the first inning for his first career strikeout, getting the ball, the “K” card and the lineup sheet as keepsakes from his debut.
“(Bailey) told me at the very beginning of the game, ‘Your changeup’s good; let’s throw it,’” said Birdsong, who credited a tweak to his grip he made in spring training for fine-tuning the pitch. “I’m like, ‘I’m in; let’s do it.’ We threw it a lot, and it was working. We’ll keep doing that.”
“I think it grades out as his best pitch,” Bailey added. “I think it’s going to be one of the better pitches in the game. … He’s getting negative (vertical movement). It’s probably 10 (mph) off his fastball. And from his release height, it’s going to have more perceived depth.”
The 97 pitches Birdsong exhausted were the third-most by a pitcher making his major-league debut this season, but he’d like to have the last one back.
While the 30,893 on hand gave him a warm reception as he walked off the field, Birdsong shook his head as he descended the dugout steps. One out shy of completing five innings and putting himself in position to earn the win, Birdsong didn’t factor into the decision after Suzuki sent the eighth pitch of his at-bat over the center field wall.
“We needed him to go five today,” Melvin said. “You could see he was getting a little wobbly. We were just trying to get five innings out of him. But to get 4⅔, and when he leaves the game we’re tied? Pretty good.”
Still, it should have amounted to a “pinch-me” moment for the young right-hander, considered the Giants’ No. 6 prospect by MLB.com, who grew up rooting on the Cubs. While Birdsong wowed coaches during his first big-league spring training, he began the season at Double-A Richmond and had thrown 169⅔ professional innings — the fewest by a Giants pitching prospect since Lincecum in 2007 — when he was informed to pack his bags and get to Oracle Park in time to start Wednesday’s game.
This whole season, but especially the past 24 hours, have felt “fast,” Birdsong said. He didn’t even get to savor the moment of informing his family of the news when he was called up. He had a flight to catch in an hour and a half.
“My brain doesn’t really know if it’s excitement or nervousness,” Birdsong said of his emotions. “I mean, I feel nerves. But at the same time, it’s another baseball game. It’s fun. I’m playing a kid’s sport that I grew up playing since I was 4 years old. I love every second of it.”
His dad, Stacey, and mom, Paula, were in stands with scores of other family members who temporarily traded allegiances.
“A lot of Cubs fans,” Birdsong said with a smirk. “But they were wearing Giants stuff. That’s all that matters.”
Notable
With a pair of swings in the second inning, Michael Conforto and David Villar provided the majority of the Giants’ offense. Scoring Bailey after a leadoff walk, Conforto sent a two-run homer into the seats above the out-of-town scoreboard in right field, and Villar followed with a line-drive solo shot to center.
Building a 3-1 advantage, it was the second time the Giants have hit back-to-back home runs this season.
Luis Matos put them ahead, 4-3, with his own solo shot with two outs in the fifth.
They improved to 13-4 when hitting multiple home runs in a game.
Up next
RHP Jordan Hicks (4-4, 3.24) gets the nod in the series finale against LHP Shōta Imanaga (7-2, 2.96). First pitch is scheduled for 12:45 p.m.