Rookie Drake Baldwin drove in a career-high six runs and the Atlanta Braves overpowered visiting San Francisco 9-5 on Monday, sending the Giants to their sixth straight loss.
Baldwin went 3-for-5 with two doubles and scored two runs to help the Braves end a two-game losing streak. He is the first Braves rookie with at least six RBIs in a game since Kelly Johnson did so on June 17, 2005, at Cincinnati.
Atlanta’s Bryce Elder (4-6) won his second straight start. He pitched five innings and allowed three runs on eight hits and three walks with one strikeout.
Giants starter Hayden Birdsong (4-4) failed to retire any of the six batters he faced. He was lifted after throwing 25 pitches and was charged with five runs on one hit, four walks and a hit batter.
Birdsong became the first major league pitcher to face six batters, record no outs and issue four walks in a game since Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan did it in his final career start on Sept. 22, 1993.
Willy Adames led San Francisco’s 12-hit attack, going 4-for-5 with two doubles and a home run, his 15th, with two RBIs and two runs scored.
The Giants scored in the top of the first on Matt Chapman’s RBI single, but the Braves sent 10 men to the plate in the bottom of the inning and scored five times to take a lead they would not relinquish. Baldwin delivered the big blow with a three-run double. Two more runs scored when Nick Allen’s ground ball took a bad bounce over the glove of third baseman Chapman for a single.
San Francisco cut the deficit to 5-2 in the second inning on Patrick Bailey’s sacrifice fly to center field.
Atlanta scored three times in the fourth on a rally that began with two outs and no one on base. Matt Olson doubled, Ronald Acuna Jr. walked, and Baldwin drove in both with a single to center field. Ozzie Albies followed with an RBI single that upped the lead to 8-2.
Baldwin added an RBI double in the sixth.
–Field Level Media
