San Francisco Giants Rookie Got Back on Track Against Milwaukee Brewers

On the cusp of being officially eliminated from the 2024 MLB postseason race, the San Francisco Giants are going to just be playing out this final stretch in what has been a very disappointing campaign.

The most important thing for the team over the final few weeks of the year will be getting their young guys as much experience as possible at the Major League level.

That will improve the team’s overall outlook heading into 2025, and potentially fill some holes that may need to be addressed.

One of the players who will be looking to finish the season strong is pitcher Hayden Birdsong.

The starting pitcher had a great start to his Major League career, recording a 2.97 ERA over six appearances. Unfortunately, he has spent the majority of the second half trying to find his way again.

In six conseucitve starts beginning on July 27, he failed to complete five innings. His ERA was a ghastly 8.31 and he went 0-5.

Lack of command with his fastball was dooming him. Self-inflicted damage was piling up as he walked 20 batters over 21.2 innings. Giving the opponents scoring opportunities and rapidly building up his pitch count led to an inability to work deep into games.

That was something he wanted to change, and quickly.

Ahead of his start on Thursday against the Milwaukee Brewers, Birdsong revealed the goal he had for the rest of the 2024 season.

“I just want to eat innings and stop killing the bullpen,” he said last week per MLB.com.

Not many people were expecting that to happen against the Brewers, who are running away with the National League Central and are closing in on clinching a playoff berth.

But, that is exactly what happened.

Against the strong opponent, Birdsong had the best start of his career. He was able to find a rhythm, tossing five shutout innings and needing only 68 pitches to do it.

Four strikeouts were recorded as he scattered two hits and one walk. Getting ahead of batters was key to his success.

He threw a first-pitch strike to 11 out of 17 batters. That 65% clip was a major improvement from the 46.7% he had over his last six outings.

A first-pitch strike is essentially what determines the at-bat for Birdsong.

As shared by Maria Guardado of MLB.com, “… opposing batters entered Thursday with a .642 OPS when they’ve fallen behind 0-1 against him, compared to a .910 OPS when they’ve gotten ahead 1-0.”

If the young righty can get ahead in the count, he is putting opponents at a distinct disadvantage.

“It was nice to actually just be in the zone from first pitch to last pitch,” Birdsong said. “Obviously, I had a walk, but it didn’t bother me at that point because I was in the zone for the whole game. That’s all I really wanted to do. I want to keep doing that and keep showing that I can pitch through five and beyond. Today, I was really happy with what I did. Hopefully, we keep that going.”

The Giants were unable to take advantage of the strong start, as they lost the game 3-0, but the most important takeaway was that Birdsong showcased his immense talent against a very good opponent and could have built his confidence going forward after a rough stretch.