In the top and bottom of the order, off Pittsburgh’s starter and relievers, with the long ball and with small ball, the Giants scored in a variety of ways to climb out of an early 4-2 deficit and emerge from a minor offensive funk.
San Francisco (37-27) had been held to three or fewer runs in seven of its past 10 games, then crossed home seven times in PNC Park. They needed all of them Saturday, as an uncharacteristic Dominic Leone outing forced Jake McGee into rescue mode. But McGee stranded the bases loaded. Camilo Doval, in his seventh appearance in the last 10 games, worked a squeaky clean ninth for a 7-5 win — the second of the weekend in Pittsburgh.
Starter Alex Wood had one bad inning that put SF behind early. He had trouble finishing off at-bats in the third.
Wood got ahead 0-2 to Ke’Bryan Hayes, but allowed a double off the center field wall in that advantageous count. Again he got to 0-2 against Michael Chavis, but walked him. Then Diego Castillo battled back from an 0-2 count and scored both of them with a three-run home run to left field.
The first run the Pirates scored came off a string of soft contact. That third-inning blitz, not so much. Hayes’ double left his bat at 108.4 mph and Castillos’ game-breaking homer traveled 418 feet.
Castillo, the rookie utility player, entered Saturday with .192/.239/.288 hitting splits. He’d knocked in 11 runs in 164 plate appearances. But the Pirates slotted Castillo cleanup, and he proceeded to drive in all four Pirates runs against Wood.
Wood hadn’t allowed a home run since May 28 — three starts before Saturday. Frustrations boiled in the Giants’ dugout, as pitching coach Andrew Bailey got ejected for reacting to a borderline check swing call in the fifth inning.
This wasn’t his sharpest outing, but after failing to get through opposing lineups three times through until June, it seems like Wood has turned a corner. Despite the four runs, the starter still competed and left after 5.1 innings with a one-run lead.
Solo home runs from Wilmer Flores and Austin Slater early prevented Pittsburgh from building a big lead.
In all, the Giants scored in six different innings. Six hitters drove in at least a run and 10 of 12 Giants got on base. It wasn’t a flawless night — the Giants left 12 on base and went 4-for-14 with runners in scoring position — but the Giants will take seven runs any day.
San Francisco’s offense wasn’t scuffling necessarily, but the seven-run output matches its biggest production in the last two weeks. Over the past six games before Saturday, SF averaged 3.2 runs per game — almost two fewer than its season average.
Part of that is the strange happenstance of solo home runs. Each of the Giants’ last 10 home runs, including Flores and Slater’s, have come without runners on base.
SF needed all of those runs Saturday, as Daniel Vogelbach beat the previously unhittable Dominic Leone for a home run in the eighth inning. His homer cut SF’s lead to 6-5.
Leone couldn’t keep his pitches out of the dirt and handed the ball to McGee with the bases loaded. He’d completed nine scoreless outings in a row before Saturday, but the typically pinpoint command escaped him. McGee, though, picked up Leone by ending the inning with a pop up.
Brandon Crawford, hitting in the eight-hole, unleashed an RBI double to give closer Camilo Doval some breathing room. Crawford had started June hitting .211, but his performance in Pittsburgh pushed an already encouraging offensive performance over the top.
