The sequel
Following his 3-hit, 4-RBI performance on Saturday, Willy Adames stayed locked in at the bat on Saturday, tallying three more runs batted in and a solo home run in the San Francisco Giants 6-2 win over the Athletics on Sunday.
While it was a trio of hard-hit singles that fueled Saturday’s early scoring, Adames showed off the value of a discerning eye on Sunday, working two bases-loaded walks in the 1st and 4th innings.
The walks not only brought in early runs, but picked-up teammates who failed to capitalize on the situation, while extending rallies and providing opportunities for others. In the 1st, starting lefty Jacob Lopez gave up two singles to Heliot Ramos and Wilmer Flores, and hit Rafael Devers to load the bases for Matt Chapman. Still regaining his footing in the batter’s box, the third baseman couldn’t drive a ball deep enough to the outfield to bring in Ramos.
Enter Adames.
During his early season struggles, it felt like Adames went to the plate already at a disadvantage. He couldn’t find his footing, digging into a sandbox rather than a batter’s box. He didn’t look at home at home. Opposing pitchers attacked him with pitches down and away and off-the-plate, and Adames with his big upper-cut swing would oblige with chases and hollow swings. He was a breath of fresh air for pitchers, nothing more than a fan, generating a light breeze with his empty hacks.
The first step in getting out of a slump is not necessarily hitting the baseball, but taking pitches you can’t hit. It’s training and focusing the eye, regaining an innate and instinctive understanding of the zone. The walks came first for Adames. They spiked about thirty games ago when his average was at its lowest. Getting in the habit of spitting at balls out of the zone forced pitchers back over the plate, and that’s when the average started to climb.
The pitch that swung the plate-appearance in Adames favor in the 1st was Lopez’s 2-1 slider.
Location-wise it was a perfect offering, exactly where he wanted it and exactly where April Adames would’ve jumped out of his shoes chasing it. Considering Lopez’s sling-y delivery and cross-over motion, I don’t understand how Adames saw that as a pitch that would eventually drop from the outside corner. Maybe he doesn’t know either — and when you’re hot, you don’t need to ask questions or sweat over answers. He took it and forced Lopez to throw something over the plate. He did, Adames fouled off an inside cutter, and then, having missed the pitch to hit, he sat back and took an off-speed offering well outside for ball four and the Giants first run in the game.
If only every other hitter had that kind of discipline. In a 3-1 count, next batter Luis Matos, getting the start in center, got jumpy and offered at a cutter well above the zone that should’ve brought in another run. Instead, it invited Lopez back into the at-bat. The lefty struck out Matos on the next pitch, struck out Mike Yastrzemski on three pitches to get out of the inning, then proceeded to strike out the next five batters he faced — part of a stretch in which both Lopez and Hayden Birdsong teamed up to strikeout nine consecutivebatters.
But just when Lopez looked unhittable, unfairly peppering the outside of the plate with his sweepy slider, jumping his opponents with his fastball, Adames spot in the order came ‘round again.
A 1-2 count, decent offering below the zone (a tad too far over the plate) — and Adames rocketed it 432 feet.
His next at-bat came an inning later, he got another AB with the bases loaded, this time against righty reliever J.T. Ginn, this time with two outs. The run-driving opportunities have fallen into Adames lap since Matt Chapman’s return. And after Chapman struck out on three-pitches, it became Adames responsibility to pick his teammate up. Another full-count, another disciplined plate appearance. A’s arms were pounding the outside edge and Adames didn’t give in, flinching at, but not lunging at a sinker that Ginn tried to clip the corner with.
San Francisco’s third run, and Adames’s third run batted in. This time, not only did Adames relieve some tension Chapman may have been feeling, but he also provided Matos the opportunity to redeem himself — which he did, driving another outside offering to the right-center gap for a two-run ground-rule double, giving the Giants a 5-1 lead.
On the pitching side of things, it’s hard to read Hayden Birdsong’s performance. Frankly, based on rampant command issues and heavy, self-inflicted traffic on the bases, it was a shock the young right-hander was still on the mound in the 5th and still in-line for the win, having surrendered just one run.
“Effectively wild” is the phrase thrown around to describe Birdsong’s pitching. Artless works too. His pitching is like watching a fencer, in the decorous setting of a bout, who hears “Allez” and snaps, charging their opponent while screaming at the top of their lungs, slashing their foil back and forth like a lightsaber. How do you not cower in the face of that kind of hectic energy? If you’re a hitter, how do you defend against a 95 MPH four-seam fastball that comes in a foot above your head followed by a loopy 12-6 curveball that drops below the zone? The only mode of attack is to take. And that’s what opponents have been doing against Birdsong.
After his 5 walk outing on Sunday, he’s now walked 4+ batters in three consecutive games and handed out 4+ free bases in four of his nine starts. That many gifts isn’t a sustainable way to pitch in the Major Leagues. More often than not, you’ll be punished for it, which Birdsong has experienced first-hand in his last three outings going into this one. But on Sunday, in the midst of finicky command of his four-seam and rallies teetering on the precipice, Birdsong whistled past the graveyard, holding the line, refusing to give in. He scattered three hits of little consequence while on the mound. None of the knocks came with a runner in scoring position, two of them were singles from Jacob Wilson, and the other, a solo shot off the bat of Tyler Soderstrom (a run the left-fielder ultimately gave back), came with a two-run lead.
Birdsong’s 1st inning was a perfect example of how he operates. Two hard-hit flyball outs were sandwiched between two four-pitch walks including a wild pitch. He didn’t earn a called strike until the 13th pitch of the frame. Facing Shea Langeliers with two-on and two-otu, Birdsong went the distance. He worked the extreme poles of North and South, sailing a fastball head-high and burying a slider underground. Mixed up in all that craziness were two perfectly-crafted change-ups that Langeliers swung through to end the frame.
Birdsong would then strike out the side in the 2nd, then fund another Athletics opportunity in the 3rd before getting Langeliers again in a 3-2 count, this time with the bases loaded and with a dotted fastball at the top of the zone that the A’s catcher popped up to shallow left.
Still standing in the 5th with an extended lead to protect, Birdsong provided the all-important shutdown frame — but not without some drama. He allowed two to reach on a single and walk before inducing only his second groundout of the evening for an inning-ending double play.
No, not the prettiest outing but hopefully an impactful one given the young pitcher’s struggles. He’s shone at times, but his record as a starter is spotty. Control of his offerings is fluid. Evidence of his ability to be effective the second or third time facing an order (before Sunday’s start, opponents’ .152 BA the first time facing him jumped to .300 in their second) hasn’t been convincing. After winning two of his first three starts, this was Birdsong’s first “W” in over a month, and the first time he completed the 5th inning since June 12th in Colorado.
A 6-2 win in Sacramento and a series victory — it had been awhile. The Giants are headed home, where things won’t be getting easier with six games against the Philadelphia Phillies and Los Angeles Dodgers before the All-Star Break.