The San Francisco Giants beat the Pittsburgh Pirates by a 7-5 score at PNC Park on Saturday.
The Bucs are now 14 games under .500 at 25-39, and are in a freefall for the past week and a half. The Giants, meanwhile, sitting at 10 game over .500, are trying to keep pace with the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres in the highly competitive N.L. West.
Alex Wood improved to 5-5 on the season, giving up four runs on six hits. Jose Quintana started for Pittsburgh, giving up three runs on five hits in 5.1 innings. Wil Crowe suffered the loss, giving up two runs on two hits in two thirds of an inning.
The Giants took the lead in the first inning on a solo homerun by Wilmer Flores. A sacrifice fly by Diego Castillo in the bottom of the inning scored Ke’Bryan Hayes to tie the game, 1-1.
Darin Ruff’s single in the third scored a run to make it 2-1 Giants, but the Pirates answered in the bottom of the inning when Castillo hammered a three-run homerun to left center, making it a 4-2 game.
San Francisco cut the lead in half in the fifth inning on a solo homerun by Austin Slater. Brandon Crawford’s RBI single in the sixth tied the game, and a sacrifice fly by Mike Yastrzemski gave them a 5-4 lead.
Luis Gonzalez’s RBI double in the seventh made it 6-4, but Daniel Vogelbach’s solo homerun in the eighth once again made it a one-run game at 6-5. Crawford’s RBI double in the top of the ninth gave the Giants an insurance run which they ended up not needing. The Giants held off the Bucs for the 7-5 victory.
This was yet another difficult loss for the Pirates. They have played the Giants tough in both games so far in this series, but so far have nothing to show for it. They will look to avoid the series sweep when they take the field tomorrow afternoon at PNC Park. Mitch Keller will take the mound for Pittsburgh against Alex Cobb for the Giants.
Record vs. Giants: 0-2
Record vs. N.L. West: 11-9
Record at Home: 13-19
Overall Record: 25-39
And…
As Always…
Let’s Go Bucs!
