While the San Francisco Giants were unable to make it back to .500 on Sunday, their season-ending loss to the St. Louis Cardinals wasn’t all bad.
Rookie right-hander Hayden Birdsong took the mound for the Giants, and it didn’t take him long to get a leg up on the Cardinals’ lineup. Birdsong notched two strikeouts in a scoreless first inning, then added three more Ks in the second.
While Birdsong did give up a solo home run to Brendan Donovan in the top of the third, he punched out the other three batters he faced that frame. And after inducing a groundout to open the fourth, Birdsong added two more strikeouts to make it 10 on the day.
According to MLB.com’s Sarah Langs, Birdsong became just the third Giants pitcher since 1969 to record 10 strikeouts in the first 4.0 innings of a game. Blake Snell did so earlier this season on July 27, while Jason Schmidt did it on Aug. 30, 2002.
Birdsong added another strikeout to for the first out of the fifth, which neither Snell nor Schmidt did. That makes him the first Giants pitcher in the divisional era to record 11 strikeouts within the first 13 outs of a game.
Hayden Birdsong’s 10 strikeouts are tied for most by a Giants pitcher in the first 4 innings of a game in the divisional era (1969), with:
7/27/24 Blake Snell
8/30/02 Jason Schmidt
— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) September 29, 2024
From there, Birdsong gave up back-to-back RBI singles and got pulled in favor of Taylor Rogers. The Giants’ offense, meanwhile, couldn’t muster up a run until the bottom of the seventh, ultimately losing 6-1.
Birdsong finished the afternoon having allowed four hits, three walks and three earned runs in 4.1 innings, striking out 11 along the way. The 23-year-old wrapped up his rookie campaign at 5-6 with a 4.75 ERA, 1.389 WHIP, 11.0 strikeouts per nine innings and a 0.3 WAR in 16 starts.
San Francisco will bring Birdsong back to an intriguing pitching staff in 2025, alongside veterans Logan Webb, Robbie Ray and Jordan Hicks and fellow youngsters Kyle Harrison and Keaton Winn. Blake Snell, on the other hand, is expected to opt out of his contract and hit the free agent market once again.
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