San Francisco hit three solo home runs, right-hander Hayden Birdsong pitched five solid innings to earn his first career victory, and the visiting Giants beat the Atlanta Braves 5-3 on Tuesday.
Birdsong, ranked as the team’s No. 4 prospect on mlb.com, was making his second major league start. He allowed two runs on four hits, two walks and five strikeouts to help the Giants take the opener of a three-game series.
Camilo Doval, San Francisco’s fourth reliever, pitched a 1-2-3 ninth with two strikeouts to earn his 15th save.
The Giants hit back-to-back homers to tie the game 2-2 in the fifth. Jorge Soler hit his 10th homer of the season into the San Francisco bullpen, and Lamonte Wade Jr. launched his third homer, a 442-foot blast, into the right field seats. The Giants’ final homer came in the ninth inning by Heliot Ramos, his 11th.
Atlanta starter Reynaldo Lopez was victimized by a high pitch count and exited after 4 1/3 innings. He went to a three-ball count in nine of the first 16 batters he faced and threw 101 pitches. Lopez allowed two runs on four hits and four walks, and he struck out six.
Atlanta scored twice in the second inning when Austin Riley and Sean Murphy hit back-to-back solo homers. It was the 10th homer for Riley and the fourth for Murphy.
San Francisco took the lead 3-2 in the fifth when Michael Conforto doubled, advanced to third on a bunt, and scored when Luis Matos’ hard-hit grounder went off the glove of third baseman Riley, who was playing on the grass, for an error. The unearned run tagged left-hander Dylan Lee (2-2) with the loss.
Nick Ahmed extended the Giants’ lead to 4-2 with a sacrifice fly in the eighth, but Atlanta cut the lead to one run in the bottom half of the inning on an RBI single by Ozzie Albies.
Atlanta was without starting shortstop Orlando Arcia (abscessed tooth) and outfielder Ramon Laureano (back discomfort).
–Field Level Media
