Birdsong debuts without a hitch as SF Giants pick up 3rd straight win vs. Cubs

SAN FRANCISCO — They don’t manufacture many major leaguers in Mattoon, Illinois, and only a handful of future professional ballplayers have passed through the Ohio Valley Conference which Eastern Illinois University calls home.

It stands to reason, then, that Hayden Birdsong never backed himself into a corner like the one in which he found himself two batters into the third inning Wednesday evening. Making his major-league debut less than two years after his name was called in the sixth round of the amateur draft...