Hayden Birdsong to the rescue. The San Francisco Giants needed a win on Sunday to avoid being swept by the Colorado Rockies in their first series out of the All-Star break. And Birdsong—with 27 swings and misses—put the SF Giants on his back. Birdsong's 27 whiffs came in Denver, a notoriously tough place to pitch, and in only six innings of work. And yet it was tied for the most by a pitcher in MLB this season. Hayden Birdsong also racked up 12 strikeouts, the most by a Giants rookie since Tim Lincecum in 2007. It was also the most strikeouts by a Giants pitcher in the history of Coors Field, which dates back 30 years to 1995.
Another 22-year-old SF Giants rookie also pitched great in this series, as Kyle Harrison pitched his second scoreless outing at Coors Field of the season, the only Giants pitcher to do that twice in one year over 5+ innings of work. Those were great signs. But unfortunately, and in part due to some miserable umpiring, the SF Giants lost two of three in Denver.
Now the San Francisco Giants head to Los Angeles for a four-game series with the dreaded Dodgers, who will go with a rookie making his MLB debut tonight. On the other side, the SF Giants will counter with Blake Snell, who's been sensational in his last two outings since coming off the IL. And, what's more, the Giants expect to active Robbie Ray off the 60-day IL during this series. This is a series where the Giants just need to avoid disaster and try to at least split. Their schedule after LA gets much softer with the Rockies and A's coming into town.
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