A few days ago, Bob Melvin announced that the San Francisco Giants would be moving Hayden Birdsong into the rotation, and shifting Jordan Hicks into a bullpen role.
It was a move a long time in the making. In 2022, the Giants drafted Birdsong, an unheralded pitcher, with the 196th overall pick. In 2023, he started to appear on prospect radars. In early 2024, he broke out in earnest, and made his MLB debut. In the spring, he pitched so well that the Giants stuck him in the bullpen just so they wouldn’t have to face the turmoil of not having him pitch for them.
And on Tuesday, they moved him back into the rotation, where they hope he’ll stay for the next … I dunno … decade or so.
It’s along season. There will be downs to accompany the ups. There will be poor performances that precipitate roster transactions.
But for one day, at least, the lanky high school-looking Birdsong made the Giants look very smart.
He wasted no time stamping his arrival. He retired Jonathan India to start the game, then struck out one of the game’s great talents, Bobby Witt Jr., on a truly filthy slider/fastball two-piece meal (set up by a changeup), with Witt swinging and missing at both. And he was just getting started.
It wasn’t an overpowering night for Birdsong, who will surely have plenty of those in his future. It was simply a game in which he looked fully in control and unperturbed by the gravity of the situation, sporting a demeanor that has come to define his big league tenure. He nibbled at the edges of the strike zone early in counts and pounded the inside of it later in counts, avoiding walks entirely but occasionally throwing something more hittable than the count warranted.
Donned in the purple City Connect jerseys that are both goofy and endearing, Birdsong’s only real trouble of the day was when his lone awful pitch happened to be when he was aiming for the first baseman instead of the catcher. After allowing a leadoff single to Kyle Waters in the third, Birdsong’s throw to LaMonte Wade Jr. was a true scud, allowing Waters to take second. Then came Birdsong’s second-worst pitch of the night, this time to home, but far enough away from its intended target that Patrick Bailey had no chance, and Waters moved to third on the wild pitch. A few seconds later, he’d score the first run of the game on a sacrifice fly, bringing about one of baseball’s most laughed-at quirks: Birdsong’s lone run allowed was unearned, because it was all due to an error by his defense … specifically, by him.
He only made it through five innings, but that was only due to the fact that he’s spent the last two months working out of the bullpen, and isn’t fully up to speed yet. If he pitches this well next week, he’ll go six innings. If he pitches this well the week after, he’ll go seven.
As is, what he did was enough to get the Giants where they try to go every game: to their bullpen with a lead. To their elite quartet of Randy Rodríguez, Camilo Doval, Tyler Rogers, and Ryan Walker, though on this day fellow youngster Kyle Harrison took Rogers’ spot, spelling the veteran after one of his few poor performances of the year.
And the bullpen did its job. Rodríguez thoroughly dominated the sixth, striking out the side but throwing in a walk just to make the Royals feel something. Harrison, attempting to remind us all that Birdsong isn’t the only young potential ace to be excited about, looked outrageously good in the seventh, before giving up a leadoff double in the eighth. After getting an out, he was relieved by Doval, who made last year’s MVP runner-up Witt hit the ball so poorly that he got an infield hit out of it, scoring a run in the process (which was charged to Harrison), and cutting the deficit in half.
And Walker inherited the ninth inning of a 3-2 game, intent on leaving his dramatic performances behind, and achieving that goal masterfully. He got Salvador Pérez to ground out on the third pitch of the at-bat, then got Maikel Garcia to fly out on the fourth pitch. Mark Canha hit the first pitch he saw to Casey Schmitt (who gave Matt Chapman a day off at third base), and the game was over.
Pitching, just like they drew it up. Pitching, with a healthy assist from the defense. Patrick Bailey was masterful behind the dish, not only calling and framing a brilliant game for his young battery-mate, but throwing out both foolish souls who dared run on him.
The infield played a delightfully clean game, and Heliot Ramos had his weekly lay-out for a ball that’s caught while he’s parallel to the ground, looking like a dog jumping off a dock and into the water.
All of that allowed the Giants’ continued offensive woes to not be the story. It was hardly an offensive explosion, but it was just enough. They got started in the fourth inning, when Ramos was hit by a pitch and scored on a blistered triple by Willy Adames, which somehow didn’t bounce into the stands, thank goodness. That tied the game, brought life into the stadium, and made Justin Verlander wonder if good things will ever happen when he’s on the mound.
After Wade walked, Schmitt — who got a start for the second consecutive night, and has looked very comfortably both nights — roped a single into left, scoring the go-ahead run.
They would need insurance, and they would get it, from the very person who decided Monday night’s game: Royals first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino.
24 hours after hitting a two-run blast off of Rogers, Pasquantino fielded a grounder from Wilmer Flores, with no outs and Mike Yastrzemski on first. Given the speed of Wilmer — he is many things, but fast is not one of them — it was a tailor-made double play, but Pasquantino decided to play long toss with Cavan Biggio in left field, instead. Hey, if I knew a Hall of Famer’s son, I’d want to play long toss with him, too.
Instead of the bases being empty with two outs, there were runners at the corners with no outs, and the next batter, Jung Hoo Lee, lined a single to score Yaz.
That was enough to render Harrison’s incoming run meaningless, and to give the Giants a 3-2 win, which catapulted them over the San Diego Padres and back into second in the NL West … just one win behind you know who.
I’d say they’re feeling pretty good about switching to Birdsong…
