Birdsong displays mettle en route to first MLB win

ATLANTA -- Less than a week after making his Major League debut, Giants rookie Hayden Birdsong got to check off another big career milestone: his first win.

Birdsong gave up two runs over a career-high five innings, and Jorge Soler, LaMonte Wade Jr. and Heliot Ramos each homered as the Giants defeated the Braves, 5-3, in Tuesday night’s series opener at Truist Park.

“It’s very special,” Birdsong said. “It’ll set in later, I’m sure. Now I would say I’m in the books. I can’t thank this team enough for being behind me and playing as hard as they can behind me. It’s been awesome.”

Birdsong, the Giants’ No. 4 prospect, per MLB Pipeline, came within an out of qualifying for the win in his first start against the Cubs on Wednesday, but he ended up surrendering a game-tying solo home run to Seiya Suzuki that ended his night after 4 2/3 innings.

The 22-year-old right-hander managed to get through five in his first career start on the road, permitting only back-to-back homers to Austin Riley and Sean Murphy in the second. Adam Duvall nearly made it three in a row with another deep drive to center field, but it ended up hitting off the top of the wall for a one-out double.

Still, Birdsong managed to keep his composure following a mound visit from pitching coach Bryan Price, recovering to induce a pair of flyouts from Forrest Wall and Zack Short to end the inning.

“I just told myself to keep filling up the zone,” Birdsong said. “Obviously, I kept doing that. Things are going to work out. I just had to execute a little bit better. I kind of got better as I went and found where I needed to miss and where I couldn’t miss. It worked out.”

The Braves also threatened in the fifth after Duvall reached on an 11-pitch leadoff walk and Wall legged out a bunt single, but Birdsong retired Short on a sacrifice bunt, struck out Jarred Kelenic swinging on a nasty changeup and then coaxed a flyout from Ozzie Albies to leave both runners stranded and preserve a 2-2 tie.

“I was like, ‘I’m finishing my inning. I’m not coming out after 4 2/3 [innings] again,’” Birdsong said. “I was like, ‘I’ve got to finish this.’ Obviously, it worked out. I had less pitches. I was throwing a little better and around the zone a little more, so it worked out.”

“Trying to get through five, trying to get a win and had to pitch out of a jam,” manager Bob Melvin said. “I think that’s when we kind of found out the most about his night tonight.”

Birdsong departed after striking out five and walking two in the 87-pitch effort, showing off a four-pitch mix that included a four-seam fastball that topped out at 97.7 mph and a slider that induced four of his 11 swinging strikes. The Giants celebrated his first win by sticking him in a laundry cart and giving him a traditional beer shower after the game.

“I was kind of freaking out because I have my one pair of contacts that I have in my eyes right now,” Birdsong said. “I’ll get more tomorrow, but I was like, ‘Oh god.’ It started to burn, and I was like, ‘Please don’t mess my contacts up for a second.’ But it was great. I loved it. It was really fun.”

The Giants got on the board after Soler and Wade went back-to-back off Braves starter Reynaldo López in the fifth and then went ahead in the sixth, when Michael Conforto led off with a double, advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Brett Wisely and scored on a fielding error by Riley.

Melvin initially sent up Luis Matos to pinch-hit for Mike Yastrzemski against left-hander Dylan Lee, though the Braves countered by bringing in veteran righty Pierce Johnson. Still, the move ended up working out for the Giants, as Matos sent a hard-hit grounder to the left side that bounced off Riley’s glove at third base, allowing Conforto to score the tie-breaking run from third.

San Francisco added a pair of insurance runs via Nick Ahmed’s sacrifice fly in the eighth and Ramos’ solo shot off Jesse Chavez in the ninth. Ramos’ 11th home run of the season, tied with Matt Chapman for the team lead, sailed out to right field, though he initially thought he fouled the first-pitch sinker straight back, which explained his confused look when he came out of the box.

“He always throws that pitch to get ahead, so I was looking for it,” Ramos said. “When I saw it, I swung. The helmet covered the ball, so I didn’t know where it was at. Then I saw the right fielder running. I was like, ‘What?’ I saw the ball, and that’s when I started running. I realized, ‘Holy [crap], it’s gone.’”