SAN FRANCISCO — Right-hander that San Francisco Giants pitchers were prepared to enforce frontier justice after watching their teammates get hit by a spate of inside pitches. It didn’t take long for Hayden Birdsong to sound the gavel. Birdsong threw a first-pitch fastball that hit Miami Marlins No. 3 batter Otto Lopez with two outs in the first inning Thursday afternoon.
Umpires converged and issued warnings to both benches. That apparently wasn’t good enough for Marlins manager Clayton McCullough, who argued until he was ejected by plate umpire Alfonso Márquez.
The Marlins did not retaliate in the bottom of the first inning; they’d already gotten the sweetest revenge against Birdsong. Agustín Ramírez followed Lopez’s plunking with a double, and Kyle Stowers hit a home run to give the Marlins a quick 3-0 lead.
It would be difficult for the Giants to argue that Birdsong’s pitch lacked intent. A night earlier, several Giants players expressed frustration with what’s become a concentration of hit batters during this nine-game homestand. Hot-hitting third baseman Casey Schmitt, who was struck on the left hand by Marlins closer Calvin Faucher in the ninth inning Wednesday night, was not in the lineup Thursday.
Although initial X-rays did not conclusively show a fracture, the Giants sent Schmitt for a CT scan and will re-evaluate him. Advertisement Giants left fielder Heliot Ramos, who was hit twice in 600 major-league plate appearances entering this year, has been struck by pitches three times on this homestand and 10 times this season. “I feel like the game finds a way to even itself out.
And it will,” Webb said after Wednesday’s game. “It’s starting to get frustrating (with) how many guys are getting hit. As pitchers, we’ve got to do a better job protecting those guys.” How would the pitchers respond? “Baseball finds a way of working something out,” Webb said. “Hopefully, there’s a little bit of edge tomorrow because of some of the stuff that happened today. Hope we come out with a lot of energy.” If the umpiring crew was aware of Webb’s comments, it wasn’t proactive about Thursday.
No warnings were issued before the game when Webb represented the Giants by taking out the lineup card. (Photo of Hayden Birdsong: Lachlan Cunningham / Getty Images)
