Try as the San Francisco Giants might to hang in the playoff race, losses like the 11-5 defeat they suffered against the Washington Nationals on Tuesday won't help matters whatsoever. The Giants could not have started the game off on a much better note; they scored four in the top of the first inning courtesy of a solo shot from Heliot Ramos and a three-run dinger from Michael Conforto. The game, however, got away from them almost immediately.
Giants starting pitcher Hayden Birdsong allowed seven total earned runs — more than double the number of outs he got on the night. Bob Melvin had a quick leash on the rookie, pulling him from the game after allowing a home run and walking a batter to start the third inning, and after the game, the Giants manager expressed his frustration over what was a disastrous outing from the rookie.
“Today he just really didn’t have command of anything early on. And they were putting some good swings on him, putting a lot of pressure on him. Never really had kind of a break out there. But not his best,” Melvin said, via ESPN.
Hayden Birdsong has disastrous outing for the Giants
From Hayden Birdsong's first batter faced, it didn't seem like he was in tip-top condition, as he went behind 3-1 in the count. The Nationals did not swing the ball well in the first inning, but in the second, they made the Giants rookie pay for his mistakes.
James Wood watched two balls from Birdsong to begin the second inning and then launched a meatball four-seamer for a triple. That opened up the floodgates of scoring for the Nationals. He then allowed two more batters to reach base via walk in the same inning and then watched them all cross the plate thanks to a huge home run from CJ Abrams.
Birdsong threw just 38 of his 66 pitches for strikes. The Giants won't win if their starter cannot find the zone. But it's difficult to be too hard on the 22-year-old starter. For starters, this outing against the Nationals was only the seventh start of his big-league career.
Through his first six starts, Birdsong has displayed major promise as a long-term piece in the Giants' rotation. Entering Tuesday, he was pitching to the tune of a 2.97 ERA, and his strikeout rate of 30.2 percent bodes well for his future. But he will have to work on his command. His 4.45 walks allowed per nine innings will make it difficult for him to achieve consistency.
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