Rookie Hayden Birdsong combined with four relievers on a four-hitter as the San Francisco Giants completed a doubleheader sweep over the visiting Colorado Rockies with a 5–0 victory on Saturday night.
Birdsong (3–0), Sean Hjelle, Taylor Rogers, Erik Miller and Spencer Bivens combined for 13 strikeouts after Blake Snell and three relievers teamed for 17 in a 4–1 win in the opener.
The 30 strikeouts were the most by one team in a doubleheader since at least 1906, according to mlb.com.
Birdsong pitched the first five innings of the Giants’ fifth shutout of the season, limiting the Rockies to three singles and three walks. His eight strikeouts were his second-most, trailing only the12 in his previous start, which was also against the Rockies in Denver on July 21.
The Giants needed just nine pitches by Rockies starter Tanner Gordon to take the lead for good when Jorge Soler singled and Mike Yastrzemski followed with a triple to right field.
The hosts added a run in the second on consecutive doubles by Matt Chapman and Brett Wisely, then doubled the advantage in the fifth on a sacrifice fly by Yastrzemski and RBI single by Heliot Ramos.
They capped the scoring on a solo homer by Tyler Fitzgerald in the eighth.
The home run by Fitzgerald was his ninth of the season, eight of which have come in the last nine games.
Promoted from the minors for the doubleheader, Gordon (0–3) was charged with four runs on nine hits in six innings. He struck out five and did not walk anyone.
The Giants’ bullpen allowed just one hit, a ninth-inning single by Brendan Rodgers, over the final four innings.
Soler collected two doubles, a single and two runs for the Giants, who have won three in a row in the wake of a 2–5 trip that included dropping two of three in Colorado.
Wisely chipped in with a double and a single as part of an 11-hit attack.
