Luis Matos (right) is congratulated by San Francisco Giants third base coach Matt Williams (9) after hitting a bottom of the fifth home run against the Chicago Cubs that put the Giants on top at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Wed Jun 26, 2024 (AP News photo)
Chicago (37-44). 010 110 000 3. 9. 0
San Francisco (39-42). 030 010 00x. 4. 6. 1
Time: 2:25
Attendance: 30,893
Wednesday, June 26, 2024
By Lewis Rubman
SAN FRANCISCO–There was an air of indeterminacy to this Wednesday night’s Giants 4-3 win over the visiting Chicago Cubs that went beyond (perhaps it’s better to say they preceded) the usual questions about a game’s outcome.
The home team’s starting pitcher was 22 year old righty Hayden Birdsong, promoted from Sacramento on game day to make his major league debut. He had been a reliever in college and the low minors, but the Giants have been trying to stretch him out until he’s strong enough to join the starting rotation.
Compared with Birdsong, the Cubs’ opener, another Hayden, a 26 year old surnamed Wesneski, with 163-1/3 big league innings, including 41 this season under his belt, was a wizzend veteran. He brought a record of 2-4, 3.29 and a WHIP of 1.20 for the year with him to the mound. The lineup card distributed before the game lists him in the bullpen section. This was his fourth start of the season, but I haven’t been able to determine how many, if any, of the other three were as an opener.
Would this, then, be the Giants’ third consecutive bullpen game? And would the Cubs adopt the same multi-arm strategy?
Although Birdsong retired the side in order in the first, his control weakened in the second frame, and a pair of walks, a wild pitch, and Pete Crow-Armstrong’s single to right put the Cubs up, 1-0. (What musical match ups tonight afforded us! Two Haydens and a raven facing a Birdsong)!
The Giants got that run back and two more in their half of the frame. Patrick Bailey led off with a walk, and, after Jorge Soler and Thairo Estrada fanned, Michael Conforto put San Francisco ahead his his ninth home run of the year, a 411 foot blast over the left auxiliary scoreboard in right field, and David Villar followed with his first, a 433 foot no doubter that landed in in the patio in front of the center field batter’s eye.
The Chicagoans closed in on their hosts in the top of the fourth. Christopher Morel led off with a single to left and would have gotten a double if a replay hadn’t shown that Conforto’s throw had cut him down at second. Dansby Swanson sent Héctor Ramos to the warning track to haul down his fly to center. Birdsong walked Crow-Armstrong on a full count, and he scored all the way from first on Miguel Anaya’s single to left. That made it a 3-2 game, with SF still in front.
Both teams had pitchers warming up in the bullpen in the top of the fifth, even before Seiya Suzuki knotted the score with his dinger into the Cubs’ warm up space with the bases empty and two out. Luke Jackson stopped his warm ups, walked to the mound, and threw in earnest to Ian Happ, whose grounder to first ended the inning.
The Giants had gotten all they could reasonably expect from Birdsong. He gave them 4-2/3 innings and left with the score tied. That eased the strain on their overtaxed bullpen. It was more than what’s required from an opener but less than what you want from a starter. He threw 97 pitches, 55 for strikes. The three runs scored against him were earned and came on six hits, three walks, and a wild pitch, He now has a major league record of 0-0, 5.79.
It also was better than the more experienced Hayden Wisneski could do. He didn’t come out for the bottom of the fifth, having thrown 72 pitches, 30 of which were balls, and having allowed only two hits, but both of them were home runs.
Wisneski walked one batter and struck out three. The no decision left him at 2-4, 3.60. Drew Smyle, the losing pitcher in Wednesday night’s game and Monday night’s walk off Giant win, replaced Wisneski and coughed up the lead on a two out solo home run by Matos, 375 feet from home into the left field bleachers, his third round tripper in the part of the season he’s spent in the show.
Smyle was gone after toiling an inning and a third, leaving runners on first and second with two out in the sixth. Porter Hodge got the second and third outs, but the orange and black were back on top, 4-3. Hodge hurled a scoreless seventh and yielded to Keagan Thompson for the eighth.
Erik Miller jumped on the monticular merry-go-round to hurl a 1-2-3 seventh for the home towners, followed by Tyler, the right handed submarining Rogers brother, who, with a little help from a pitcher’s best friend, preserved the Giants’ 4-3 avantage.
An advantage that Camilo Doval almost threw away en route to his 14th save. Two Giant pitchers already had picked a runner off base. Doval tried to do it on Swanson, who had singled to lead off the top of the ninth.
He threw the ball past Villar, putting the potential tying run in scoring position. But Doval bore down and retired the next three Cubs to preserve the 4-3 win and give the Giants a chance to sweep the series, which will wind up Thursday, afternoon. The first pitch is slated for 12:45 and to be thrown by Jordan Hicks (4-4, 3.24). He’ll be opposed by Shota Imanaga (7-2, 2.96).
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