After a horrendous road trip, the Pittsburgh Pirates returned to PNC Park to begin a seven-game homestand. The first three of those games would come against the San Francisco Giants. Pittsburgh has done pretty well against the NL West this year, but tonight San Francisco would use two solo home runs and stellar pitching to pick up a 2-0 victory.
Zach Thompson made the start for the Pirates and worked 4.1 innings. He allowed two runs on four with two strikeouts and five walks. The first of those runs came in the in the first inning when lead off man Luis Gonzalez hit a solo home run to right field. Joc Pederson would give the Giants their second and final run of the game in the fourth on a 394 ft. homer to right.
Carlos Rodon worked a solid eight innings tonight for San Francisco. He allowed just two hits to go with eight strikeouts and two walks. Ke’Bryan Hayes and Jack Suwinski were the only two Buccos to collect hits. Camilo Doval replaced Rodon for the ninth inning and picked up his tenth save of the season in the process.
The Pittsburgh bullpen was solid as well. Cam Vieaux made his Major League debut tonight and, in the process, collected three strikeouts to go with one hit over 1.2 innings of work. Yerry De Los Santos pitched the seventh and struck out two batters. The final two innings belonged to Chase De Jong. De Jong gave up one hit, but struck out four batters during that time.
Not the start to the homestand that we were looking for, but you aren’t going to win too many games at this level with only two hits. On the positive side, the pitching did quite well tonight, aside from the walks by Thompson. It will be a late afternoon tilt on Saturday between these teams, as game two of this series will begin at 4:05pm.
Record vs. Giants: 0-1
Record vs. N.L. West: 11-8
Record at Home: 13-18
Overall Record: 25-38
And…
As Always…
Let’s Go Bucs!
