SAN FRANCISCO—Michael Conforto and David Villar hit back-to-back home runs in the second inning, Luis Matos hit a tiebreaking solo shot in the fifth, and the San Francisco Giants beat the Chicago Cubs 4–3 on Wednesday night.
Seiya Suzuki homered for Chicago, which lost its fourth game in a row and fell to 3–13 in its past 16 road games. The past three losses have come in San Francisco, with the Giants putting together a winning streak on the heels of a five-game losing skid.
The Giants, with their starting rotation in tatters because of injuries, called up highly regarded pitching prospect Hayden Birdsong from Triple-A Sacramento, Calif., for his major-league debut. He allowed three runs on six hits, with five strikeouts and three walks, in 4 2/3 innings.
“Super exciting, obviously,” the 22-year-old Birdsong said. “My brain doesn’t really know if it’s excitement or nervousness, but we’re just, ‘Go with the flow and try to throw strikes, and see what happens.’ It’s all I was thinking.”
Luke Jackson (4–1), who had struggled of late, followed with 1 1/3 scoreless innings for his fourth straight win, and Camilo Doval pitched the ninth for his 14th save in 16 chances.
Hayden Wesneski, making his first start since May 8 for Chicago, permitted three runs on two hits and a walk, with seven strikeouts, in four innings.
Pete Crow-Armstrong gave the Cubs an early lead with an RBI single in the second.
Conforto responded with a two-run homer in the bottom half. Villar followed with his first homer in the big leagues since June 19, 2023.
The Giants got home runs from their No. 7, 8, and 9 hitters.
“All of those guys have power,” Manager Bob Melvin said. “We spoke earlier in the year about a deep lineup and feeling like you have a chance to score [any] inning, especially with the power at the bottom.”
Miguel Amaya trimmed the Giants’ lead to 3–2 with an RBI single in the fourth. Crow-Armstrong, who was running on the pitch, scored all the way from first base.
Suzuki tied it in the fifth with his ninth home run of the season.
Matos took Drew Smyly (2–5) deep in the bottom half to put San Francisco back in front.
“It feels good to hit a home run,” Matos said through a translator. “I went in there and I was looking for something to hit. He threw me a sinker. I let it go. But then he threw me the curveball, and that’s what I hit.”
Chicago put runners on first and second with two outs in the eighth inning, but Tyler Rogers picked off Ian Happ trying to steal third.
“It’s a risk,” Cubs Manager Craig Counsell said. “We’re trying to get two guys in scoring position, and it just didn’t work. But base stealing is a risk. We took a risk. It didn’t work.”
