SF Giants’ losing streak hits six games as Birdsong fails to record an out

ATLANTA Thanks in part to the All-Star Break Hayden Birdsong went roughly two weeks in between starts The layoff gave him time to find a answer to the command issues that have plagued him in current starts Instead Birdsong hit his nadir He faced six batters and recorded no outs He threw pitches but landed only six strikes strikes He surrendered one hit but allowed five runs due to four walks and a hit-by-pitch Birdsong s imperfect outing that set the stage for the Giants - latest defeat a - loss to the Atlanta Braves on Monday night at Truist Park that extended the crew s current skid to six games He was kind of teetering the last time and determined a way through it This day he couldn t unfortunately disclosed manager Bob Melvin Put us in a little bit of a bind with the pitching and how we had to cover this tournament Not ideal and kind of back to square one with him as far as command issues go We re back to step one whatever that is Birdsong explained Go back look at film see what I was doing in the minor leagues see what I ve done up here early Just reset it That s all I got right now As poorly as Birdsong pitched the Giants didn t play a crisp challenge following his departure either Along with a pair of throwing errors from reliever Matt Gage and left fielder Heliot Ramos the defense had a pair of non-error miscues that directly led to runs In the fourth Ronald Acu a Jr scored from first base when Lee lobbed a throw back to the infield In the sixth Lee didn t take command of a routine fly ball to left-center field resulting in the ball dropping and a run scoring We had bad communication is what it is Melvin explained of Acu a scoring from first Casey Schmitt has to let him know when he gets up Matt Chapman is trying to yell Casey s still kind of learning the position too It s just a bad look when you re playing like that and something like that happens in a challenge like this where we look terrible Just another instance in current times that was not a good look for us Revealed Willy Adames who recorded his first four-hit contest as a Giant We just have to figure out a way to be a better organization We have to figure out a way how to be better on defense run the bases better continue to play hard baseball To the point about playing hard baseball Adames assessed the Giants were grinders in the first half but haven t had that same resource in the second half To Adames getting back to that point requires playing hard every day being aggressive taking good at-bats and doing the little things During this current skid Adames revealed the Giants aren t attacking the other gang That s not our identity It feels like lately we ve fallen off the bus It s just not us Adames declared We have to figure out a way to get out of it as soon as attainable It s not us It sucks because we are in a good spot but we have to be better for us to make a run And obviously to try to take this division we have to be way way better than how we are right now The -year-old s inability to command his pitches has seemingly come out of nowhere In his first appearances six starts Birdsong walked batters over innings and posted a ERA Over his last four starts by contrast Birdsong has walked batters over innings with an ERA Birdsong began his outing by walking Jurickson Profar on seven pitches getting into a full count before throwing a - slider in the dirt From there Birdsong lost the zone entirely He walked Matt Olson on four pitches then walked Ronald Acu a Jr on four more pitches After Birdsong loaded the bases Drake Baldwin cleared them with a three-run double The -year-old s night lasted just two more batters Following Baldwin s double Birdsong walked Ozzie Albies on five pitches and plunked Sean Murphy on an errant fastball With that Melvin pulled the plug on Birdsong s night Including tonight s outing there have now been instances since of a starting pitcher facing at least six batters and recording no outs The last Giant to do so was Zack Littell on June a tournament that San Francisco still won as Mike Yastrzemski hit a go-ahead grand slam The list includes former Giant and current roving pitching instructor Ryan Vogelsong who was coincidentally in attendance Related Articles SF Giants climb back into series finale but are swept away in Toronto SF Giants lose second straight challenge in Toronto this time with Logan Webb on mound SF Giants top prospect Eldridge returns to Sacramento s lineup from hamstring injury Verlander roughed up offense shut out as SF Giants open second half with loss SF Giants call up left-hander Matt Gage ahead of first challenge of second half Gage entered the ballgame with no outs the bases loaded and San Francisco already trailing Atlanta - All things considered Gage provided the Giants with much-needed equanimity He allowed a two-run single to Nick Allen that expanded the Braves lead to - but recorded three outs and got San Francisco back into the dugout following a lengthy first inning Still with Birdsong failing to record a single out San Francisco s bullpen needed to cover at least seven more innings at the minimum That task would be especially challenging given the state of the pen Tristan Beck pitched innings of relief on Friday when Justin Verlander was pulled before completing three innings In Sunday s - loss to the Toronto Blue Jays right-hander Spencer Bivens tossed innings while left-hander Joey Lucchesi contributed two scoreless frames The Giants had opportunities to crawl back in the ballgame despite the early four-run deficit but the defensive miscues combined with the offense going -for- with runners in scoring position led to Melvin almost exclusively using lower leverage relievers Gage s outing lasted two innings before Melvin called upon another arm Bivens allowed three runs over innings then Beck followed up by retiring all four batters he faced Ryan Walker handled the sixth and seventh then Camilo Doval rounded out the night by pitching the eighth in his first appearance of the second half We had plenty of opportunities to come back in that meeting We didn t Melvin commented If we did it might ve looked a little different as far as personnel but somebody like Tristan has got to wear it after throwing four-plus the other day Bivens pitched one-plus on the previous day and he s got to go back out there We re trying to get through the match and have enough weapons for the subsequent day Giants announce signings of draft picks The Giants broadcasted prior to Monday night s competition against the Atlanta Braves that they ve signed of the players they selected in the MLB draft a list that includes first-rounder Gavin Kilen out of the University of Tennessee Additionally San Francisco also signed three undrafted free agents infielder Hayden Jatczak Kent State catcher Daniel Rogers Iowa and right-hander Dylan Carter Arkansas Elijah McNeal who starred at Dublin High School did not sign with the Giants after being selected by the group in the th and final round of the draft McNeal is committed to play at UC Davis