{"id":157778,"date":"2025-07-07T06:04:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T06:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/157778\/"},"modified":"2025-07-07T06:04:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T06:04:11","slug":"adames-birdsong-shine-as-giants-take-series-finale-against-athletics-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/157778\/","title":{"rendered":"Adames, Birdsong shine as Giants take series finale against Athletics"},"content":{"rendered":"

SACRAMENTO \u2014 The Giants<\/a> came out of Sacramento with a good win.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After getting off to a slow start in the series opener on Thursday<\/a>, the Giants closed out the Athletics on Sunday to notch a 6-2 win in front of a sold out crowd of 12,180 fans and capture the I-80 series<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe played cleaner and we got some big hits,\u201d Giants manager Bob Melvin said. \u201d Willie (Adames) was fantastic this series and is swinging the bat great at this point in time. We got some hits when we needed to and just did enough on the pitching end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shortstop Willy Adames went 1 for 3, hit a solo homer and drove in three runs. Rafael Devers and Wilmer Flores each had two hits and scored once.<\/p>\n

Hayden Birdsong made his second career start against the A\u2019s, striking out five and allowing a home run across five innings. It was a strange start for Birdsong as he threw just 46 strikes on 90 pitches and walked five batters, but had a stretch in the first and second innings where struck out four straight.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how I did it, but I guess I battled a little bit,\u201d Birdsong said. \u201cI\u2019m happy I got through five.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SACRAMENTO,SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA \u2013 JULY 06: Hayden Birdsong #60 of the San Francisco Giants pitches in the bottom of the first inning against the Athletics at Sutter Health Park on July 06, 2025 in Sacramento, California. (Photo by Lachlan Cunningham\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Birdsong has not gone past five innings in his last four starts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

San Francisco put its first three batters on base in the first inning, but only scored once when Adames was walked with the bases loaded, scoring Heliot Ramos.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After taking a 2-0 lead in the top of the fourth, the A\u2019s responded with a home run from Tyler Soderstrom to cut the deficit to one run.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But just when it looked like the A\u2019s were finding their groove, the Giants broke the game open in the fifth inning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

San Francisco loaded the bases after Wilmer Flores\u2019 blooper to right center field advanced Andrew Knizne to third and Rafael Devers to second. Two batters later, Adames walked in another run with the bases loaded to give the Giants a 3-1 lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the next at-bat, Luis Matos knocked in two runs on a ground rule double when he hit a laser to right center field that bounced off the warning and into the Giants\u2019 bullpen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"SACRAMENTO,SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA \u2013 JULY 06: Luis Matos #29 of the San Francisco Giants hits a two-run, ground-rule double in the top of the fifth inning against the Athletics at Sutter Health Park on July 06, 2025 in Sacramento, California. (Photo by Lachlan Cunningham\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

To add insult to injury, Tyler Fitzgerald hit a deep fly ball to the warning tracks in the eighth inning that looked like it was caught by Soderstrom in left field. The ball bounced off the third-year player\u2019s glove and over the wall to give San Francisco a 6-1 lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was Fitzgerald\u2019s first home run since April 17.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought I got enough of it at first,\u201d Fitzgerald said. \u201cI saw him jump for it and I thought he was going to catch it. It was just a relief when I saw it bounced over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adames has been playing better as of late after struggling through the first few months of the season. He totaled seven RBIs in the series and is hitting came into Sunday\u2019s game hitting .474 through five games in July.<\/p>\n

He believes he can build on the momentum from the last few games.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust to have a good week or two, I feel like I didn\u2019t have that from the start of June and that\u2019s how it goes sometimes,\u201d Adames said. \u201cFans were worrying. Everybody was worrying. I was worrying. My parents were worrying. But I was like, \u2018Chill out, chill out. It\u2019s a long season.\u2019 But we were winning and I felt it more when we were losing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Melvin agreed with Adames\u2019 sentiment.<\/p>\n

\"SACRAMENTO,SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA \u2013 JULY 06: Willy Adames #2 of the San Francisco Giants turns a double play over Brent Rooker #25 of the Athletics in the bottom of the fifth inning at Sutter Health Park on July 06, 2025 in Sacramento, California. (Photo by Lachlan Cunningham\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just looks more comfortable at the plate,\u201d Melvin said. \u201cWhen you knock some runs in, it makes you feel a little more comfortable. I think maybe there was some pressure on him early on and he kind of got past it, and now we\u2019re seeing better swings. \u2026 He\u2019s been pretty instrumental in the wins.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Giants will return to Oracle Park on Monday when they play the Philadelphia Phillies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Originally Published: July 6, 2025 at 9:50 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SACRAMENTO \u2014 The Giants came out of Sacramento with a good win.\u00a0 After getting off to a slow…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2408],"tags":[5,2178,13109,162,30055,4,7255,30056,63,378,66,4343,4340,30058,4344,4341,4342,7166,30059,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-157778","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-giants","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-contra-costa-county","11":"tag-giants","12":"tag-marin-county","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-monterey-county","15":"tag-napa-county","16":"tag-oakland-athletics","17":"tag-san-francisco","18":"tag-san-francisco-giants","19":"tag-sanfrancisco","20":"tag-sanfranciscogiants","21":"tag-santa-cruz-county","22":"tag-sf","23":"tag-sf-giants","24":"tag-sfgiants","25":"tag-solano-county","26":"tag-sonoma-county","27":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114810445746064224","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}