SAN FRANCISCO -- The early returns from the Giants’ recent rotation swap certainly seem promising.
Hayden Birdsong, who made his first start of the season after replacing Jordan Hicks in the starting five, allowed only one unearned run over five innings to lead the Giants to a 3-2 win over the Royals on Tuesday night at Oracle Park.
The 23-year-old right-hander gave up five hits, walked none and struck out four while throwing 80 pitches in his longest outing of the year. Kansas City hitters went 0-for-8 against Birdsong’s four-seam fastball, which topped out at 98.4 mph on his strikeout against Bobby Witt Jr. in the top of the first inning.
"Not really a surprise,” manager Bob Melvin said. “There were some misses from him today that were kind of big, but when he needs to make a pitch, he does. His velo was up. His breaking stuff was good. I thought he pitched well.”
The Royals scored their lone run against the Giants’ young starter in the third, when Drew Waters singled, advanced to third on an errant pick-off throw and a wild pitch from Birdsong and scored on Kyle Isbel’s sacrifice fly to center field.
Birdsong hadn’t gone longer than three innings in any of his first 11 relief appearances this year, but he finished strong on Tuesday, working around a two-out double to Isbel in the fifth to improve to 2-0 with a 1.91 ERA over 12 outings.
"I felt good,” Birdsong said. “I had more energy in the fourth, fifth than I thought I would. Obviously, I’m still ramping up. They’re probably going to keep me somewhat at a pitch count for now and build me up again, but I felt good.”
The Giants erased the one-run deficit with a two-run fourth that featured an RBI triple from Willy Adames and a go-ahead single from Casey Schmitt, who started at third base on Tuesday to give Matt Chapman his first day off of the season.
Jung Hoo Lee brought home a key insurance run with an RBI single in the fifth, which proved to be the difference in the game after the Royals managed to pull within one in the eighth.
Left-hander Kyle Harrison worked a scoreless seventh and returned to the mound in the eighth, but he gave up a leadoff double to Hunter Renfroe, who then advanced to third on a groundout from Jonathan India. Melvin brought in Camilo Doval to face Witt, but the Royals’ star shortstop beat out an infield single to score Renfroe and trim San Francisco’s lead to 3-2.
Witt attempted to steal second to put the tying run in scoring position for Kansas City, but he was thrown out by catcher Patrick Bailey, who also caught Maikel Garcia trying to steal in the second inning. Bailey had a pop time of 1.83 seconds on his 82.5 mph throw to nail the speedy Witt, who entered Tuesday with the fastest average sprint speed in the Majors.
"To beat these guys, like some of the teams we have that run really well, you have to try to control the running game,” Melvin said. “[Bailey’s] about as good as it gets with getting rid of it. Two really good runners, really fast runners.”
Doval went on to strike out Vinnie Pasquantino looking on a 101 mph cutter to end the inning and pass the baton to closer Ryan Walker, who worked a scoreless ninth to pick up his ninth save of the season for San Francisco.
Birdsong recorded a 4.75 ERA over 16 starts as a rookie for the Giants last year, but he opened this season in the bullpen after he was unable to crack the club’s starting rotation out of Spring Training. Still, Birdsong made the most of his new role, emerging as a multi-inning weapon after logging a 2.31 ERA with 25 strikeouts over 23 1/3 innings over his first 11 relief appearances of the year.
Birdsong’s excellence -- coupled with a rough start from Hicks, who recorded a 6.55 ERA over his first nine starts -- ultimately compelled the Giants to make a change last week, with Hicks moving to the bullpen to clear a rotation spot.
Now that he’s getting a chance to start again, Birdsong is intent on showing that he has the tools to stick in San Francisco’s rotation for the long run.
"I plan on it,” Birdsong said. “I’ll do what the team needs, but I plan on starting.”