After watching the San Francisco Giants throw bullpen games — and win — the past two nights, Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell has elected to go the opener route on Wednesday night as his club seeks to end a three-game losing streak.
Counsell announced that his originally scheduled starter for the third game of the four-game road series, right-hander Shota Imanaga, will be pushed back a day to Thursday as Imanaga attempts to brush aside the shock of having been shellacked for 10 runs and 11 hits in three innings by the New York Mets on Friday.
Imanaga is now scheduled to start the series-ender on Thursday, and right-hander Hayden Wesneski (2-4, 3.29 ERA) will open for the Cubs on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the Cubs will see a legitimate starter — albeit an unfamiliar one — when 22-year-old right-hander Hayden Birdsong makes his major-league debut for the Giants on Wednesday.
The Illinois native made just two starts at Triple-A Sacramento after an in-season promotion from Double-A Richmond. The 2022 sixth-round draft pick has gone 1-0 with a 5.00 ERA in those games.
“There’s some risk involved with a guy who was just in Triple-A, making his first big-league start,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said. “But we’re excited about it. He’s probably coming up a little quicker than we had anticipated because of the need and because he was pitching the best down there.”
The need to which Melvin referred revolves around having five starting pitchers — Blake Snell, Robbie Ray, Kyle Harrison, Alex Cobb and Keaton Winn — on the injured list and only two healthy starters, Logan Webb and Jordan Hicks.
Melvin had the option of going for the rare opener hat trick, but he decided his bullpen could use a break after 11 different pitchers got into the first two games of the series.
Those 11 relievers — two in the role of an opener — combined to limit the Cubs to a total of five runs. Eight of the 11 recorded scoreless stints in the 5-4 (Monday) and 5-1 wins.
After Giants opener Randy Rodriguez allowed a third-inning run Tuesday, five relievers combined to shut out the Cubs the rest of the way. Chicago finished the game with just four hits, all singles.
“Quiet night,” Counsell said afterward. “Three at-bats with runners in scoring position. No extra-base hits. You’re not going to have offensive success with numbers like that.”
Chicago’s starting pitching certainly couldn’t be faulted. Justin Steele left with a 4-2 lead after holding the Giants to two runs in 7 1/3 innings Monday, before Kyle Hendricks put up nearly identical numbers — two runs in seven innings — in the rematch.
The Cubs have gone the opener route just once this season. That was in the first week of the season when Luke Little threw one shutout inning against Colorado.
Wesneski, who has pitched out of the bullpen in his last 15 appearances, started three consecutive games in April and May, allowing four earned runs in 16 1/3 innings. But he hardly qualified as an opener; he pitched into the seventh inning twice.
–Field Level Media
