Luis Matos broke a fifth-inning tie with a home run, the San Francisco bullpen pitched brilliantly for a second consecutive game and the host Giants held off the Chicago Cubs 4-3 on Wednesday for a third straight win.
Michael Conforto and David Villar also went deep for the Giants, who recorded their first three-homer game at home this season after producing five such contests on the road.
The Giants will attempt to sweep the four-game series Thursday afternoon.
Matos came to the plate with two outs and no runners on in the fifth after the Cubs’ Seiya Suzuki drew the visitors even at 3-3 with his ninth homer in the top of the inning.
Matos went deep off Cubs reliever Drew Smyly (2-5), his third of the season.
The homers by Conforto, his ninth, and Villar, his first, came in back-to-back at-bats in the second against Cubs starter Hayden Wesneski. Conforto’s blast also scored Patrick Bailey, who had walked. Villar followed four pitches later to give San Francisco a 3-1 lead.
Wesneski went four innings and was charged with three runs on just two hits. He walked one and struck out seven.
Making his major league debut, Giants starter Hayden Birdsong retired the first four batters he faced before two walks and a two-out single by Pete Crow-Armstrong plated the game’s first run in the top of the second.
Miguel Amaya’s RBI single got the visitors within 3-2 in the fourth before Suzuki’s homer in the next inning tied the game and ended Birdsong’s night.
Birdsong, a 22-year-old right-hander, went 4 2/3 innings, allowing three runs and six hits. He walked three and struck out five.
Luke Jackson (4-1), Erik Miller, Tyler Rogers and Camilo Doval combined for 13 outs of shutout ball the rest of the way, limiting the Cubs to just three more hits. Doval stranded Dansby Swanson on second base by getting Nico Hoerner to ground out to end the game, picking up his 14th save.
San Francisco’s relievers threw 6 1/3 shutout innings during a 5-1 win over Chicago on Tuesday.
Matos was the only player with multiple hits, going 2-for-3 as the Giants were outhit 9-6. Every Cubs starter had one hit.
–Field Level Media
