SAN FRANCISCO — The Giants gave up a run Monday when they let Ronald Acuña Jr. score from first on a single to center. They allowed another run when a high fly ball to left-center dropped between Heliot Ramos and Jung Hoo Lee. They repeatedly let Atlanta Braves starter Bryce Elder off the hook as they tried to make a comeback. 

But in a 9-5 loss, they had a much bigger problem than any of those mistakes. 

Young starter Hayden Birdsong didn’t record an out in his first appearance in two weeks, walking four and hitting one in the first inning of a disastrous performance. Birdsong threw 25 pitches and just six were strikes, which put the Giants in an early hole and led to a marathon night for a bullpen that has been worked hard through the first four games of the second half. 

Giants pitchers threw 188 pitches, a season-high for a game that did not go extra innings. There will surely be at least one fresh arm for the bullpen Tuesday, and the staff now needs to make a decision with Birdsong after a jarring outing. 

From start to finish, this might have been San Francisco’s ugliest performance of the 2025 MLB season. It also was a sixth consecutive loss, which dropped the Giants to just three games above .500. 

The Wrong Kind of Zero

Birdsong’s pitching line was one the franchise has never seen before. He became the first Giant to walk four, give up five earned runs and fail to record an out, and just the 10th MLB pitcher to do it. The last was Boston Red Sox pitcher Darwinzon Hernandez in 2022. Birdsong also became just the third big league starter — and first since 1996 — to walk four, hit one and fail to record an out. 

It was a shocking inning, although Birdsong has been dealing with command issues for a while. He walked at least four in his final three starts of the first half, which led to the Giants skipping his final turn and giving him a two-week break. Maybe that added some rust Monday, but in general, this has been a major issue for a couple of months, one that might lead to the Giants taking a real step back with the talented 23-year-old to try and figure out what’s going on. 

If the Giants make a move, Carson Whisenhunt and Carson Seymour are next up in Triple-A. They also could go with a bullpen game or two — with Spencer Bivens or Tristan Beck pitching bulk innings — as they try and figure out what they can add before the July 31 MLB trade deadline. 

Right Into the Fire

Lefty Matt Gage, added to the roster on Friday, had made 23 previous big league appearances — but none had come before the third inning. Gage had to get loose in a hurry Monday, and he did a nice job of hustling in for Birdsong and keeping the Giants within shouting distance. 

Gage came in with the bases loaded and no outs in the first and struck out the first two Braves he faced. When Nick Allen hit a chopper to the left side it looked like he would completely limit the damage, but the ball took an odd hop off the dirt and got away from Matt Chapman, making it a 5-1 game. 

Gage struck out Acuña in a scoreless second inning before handing the baton to long man Bivens. The two-inning outing tied a career-high, and Gage’s 41 pitches were a career-high. 

Adames, Again

There’s not a whole lot going right for the Giants, but Willy Adames at least looks like his old self. The shortstop hit a no-doubter in the seventh, his third of the trip and 15th of the year. If you take out Rafael Devers, who hit 15 of his 17 in Boston, Adames leads the roster in home runs. 

Adames also had two doubles and a single, and his OPS is up to a season-high .717, which is short of where he was last year but is in line with his 2023 season, when he hit 24 homers for the Milwaukee Brewers. He entered the month at .645, but he has six homers in July. 

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