Birdsong's short outing latest in rough spell for SF rotation

MILWAUKEE – Frustration is mounting after another abbreviated outing by a Giants starting pitcher.

Rookie Hayden Birdsong lasted just 3 2/3 innings against the Brewers on Thursday afternoon at American Family Field, marking the fifth time in the past six games that a Giants starter hasn’t made it out of the fifth inning. Logan Webb, the lone pitcher to do so during the stretch, pitched into the sixth on Tuesday but failed to record an out.

Pitching on the day before his 23rd birthday, Birdsong was roughed up by the Brewers for five runs in his 11th start of the season. Although he gave up only four hits -- one of them a home run to Garrett Mitchell -- Birdsong walked four batters for the second consecutive start and threw 92 pitches (49 strikes) as the Giants fell to Milwaukee 6-0.

“I’ve been struggling a little bit, obviously; not getting deep into games,” Birdsong said. “I haven’t really done that since I’ve been up here. I’ve only gotten into the sixth inning one time. I’m not happy with that but I’m going to keep working.”

In the first game of the Giants’ now-concluded six-game road trip on Friday night in Seattle, Birdsong allowed only one hit and struck out five, but departed after four innings.

Birdsong (3-4) said there were some effective aspects of his start against the Brewers.

“I was in the zone, I thought,” he said. “Not early in the count. But I got back from being down. I battled a little bit out there. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted, but there were some positives. Not a lot, but there were some.”

A native of Mattoon, Ill. -- about a four-drive from Milwaukee -- Birdsong had about 40 members of his family on hand to watch him pitch.

The high pitch count led to Birdsong’s early exit, manager Bob Melvin said.

“Just a lot of pitches,” he said. “I thought his stuff was good, especially the first inning. It looked like he was locked in. Then they scored some runs and made him work a little bit.”

In a three-game series last weekend in Seattle, Birdsong, Blake Snell and Robbie Ray each failed to complete five innings. In the series opener against the Brewers on Tuesday, Webb departed after allowing a two-run homer to Willy Adames with no outs in the sixth.

On Wednesday night, Kyle Harrison was stellar into the fifth but his outing came to an abrupt end after he surrendered five runs and departed with two outs in the inning.

“It’s taken a toll,” Melvin said of the string of short outings from his starting staff.

The Giants struggled against a Brewers starter for the second consecutive game. Aaron Civale pitched seven scoreless innings while allowing only two hits.

“It looked like an awful game for us all the way around,” Melvin said. “Whether it was pitching, defense, offense. Their guy pitched good. He had a good cutter. He had a good sinker. He threw just enough offspeed to keep us off balance. We had a good game plan going in but he pitched well.”

The Brewers scored one of their runs on a double steal in the third. Giants third baseman Matt Chapman mishandled a throw as William Contreras broke for home. Contreras scored on the play and was credited with a steal of home to give Milwaukee a 3-0 lead at the time.

The defensive execution on the play didn’t sit well with Melvin.

“The double steal, we execute well at the beginning and get them out in no man’s land and then we’ve got to run at him and make a decision,” he said. “We probably made the throw a little too early. Those plays look bad when you don’t execute them.”

The Giants won the opener of the three-game series, but dropped the final two contests, leaving Melvin frustrated.

“We were in every game except this one. Today we just couldn’t get it going at all. It looked bad,” Melvin said. “Obviously, when you win the first game of a series, you’d like to win at least one more. We didn’t do that, so it ended up being a bad road trip. We can’t be losing series.”

Chapman insisted that the team remains confident that a run for playoff spot remains in the cards, though the loss dropped the Giants to seven games behind the Braves for the final NL Wild Card spot, pending Atlanta's game Thursday night.

“There are still 29 games left. A lot can happen,” he said. “There’s no reason we can’t make a run. We know we have the talent in this room. We just have to get things going. We’ve had bad road trips before but it seems like when we get home, we get hot again. That’s our mindset. We’re going to go home and get this thing going.”

The Giants open a three-game series at home against the Marlins on Friday.