The two quietest sports days of the year are in the rearview. On Friday night in Pittsburgh, the Giants coronated the end of baseball’s All-Star hiatus with a 6-4 win over the Pirates.
This was a sleepy contest through four innings. It was anything but from the fifth inning on.
San Francisco took the lead twice, lost it once, then regained it, finally, and held on.
In the fifth, the tepid pace gave way to some smart hitting, questionable umpiring, and a Ross Stripling balk that saw a Giants lead evaporate as quickly as it came into existence.
San Francisco opened the inning with a Brandon Crawford single and an Austin Slater double off the top of the right field wall. Following a pop out from Wilmer Flores, a torched single from Michael Conforto brought both home for the first couple runs of the evening.
That joy, though, was not long lived.
Ross Stripling, who’d been cruising through four — having allowed two hits to that point — was taken deep immediately by Ji-Man Choi for a 404-foot solo home run.
Things spiraled a bit for Stripling, who allowed back-to-back singles to Jared Triolo and Tucupita Marcano.
The box score, though, is a bit unfair to the 33-year-old. He should have, by any account, struck out Marcano on a 2-2 count. He fit a 92 MPH fastball on the inside corner of the plate, called, in confounding fashion, a ball by home plate umpire Jordan Baker.
The head-scratching call was met with head-turning confusion from Patrick Bailey.
One pitch later, Marcano singled, arriving at first with an all-knowing grin stapled to his face. The fifth pitch in the at-bat below is the one that should have been strike three and prevented runners at the corners.
That decision cost Stripling, though he has to own some of the blame.
After striking out Nick Gonzales, Stripling balked home a run to tie the game at 2-2, while also moving Marcano to second.
He was given one more batter, leaving the mound with a strikeout of Austin Hedges.
His replacement, the far-from-reliable Sean Manaea, embarked on a frustrating journey of missing more plate than bats.
When he entered in the fifth, Manaea pitched Jack Suwinski up and in with a 95 MPH fastball that Suwinski came inches from turning into an extra-base RBI. Instead, it dropped mercifully foul, and Manaea nursed a ground out to conclude the chaotic frame two pitches later.
The chaos, though, continued into the sixth.
San Francisco got back ahead again. And as has been a theme of some of their brightest moments in the first half, it was the Giants’ two youngest hitters who sparked them.
Luis Matos ripped a single off Rich Hill into left field — later seen kicking up a storm in the dugout — and was followed up moments later by a Casey Schmitt double to give the Giants runners on second and third.
Then, the often-clutch Brandon Crawford grounded out on a chopper towards second. It took just long enough to get there to drive in a run and give the Giants a 3-2 lead.
That lead, like the one which preceded it, would not hold.
Manaea was absolutely woeful. He allowed a leadoff single to Bryan Reynolds, then walked back-to-back batters. It loaded the bases for the already-homered Choi, who obliged the opportunity with a sac fly which tied the game.
At that point, Manaea was relieved for Mauricio Llovera, who continued in similar fashion to his predecessor. He walked his first batter, then allowed another sac fly from Marcano to put the Giants in a 4-3 deficit.
The inning ended with a crucial catch from Mike Yastrzemski in left, who had to range over to his right to catch a fast-dropping liner to prevent more damage.
Once again, though, the Giants came up with a response. Wilmer Flores led off with a double down the left field line, and after a looping, short fly out from Conforto, J.D. Davis nursed a walk to give SF a pair of baserunners with one out.
It seemed both bullpens were feeling the rust of the All-Star break, and at long last, the Giants found themselves the benefactors.
For the Pirates, Colin Holderman struggled to find the plate. He went wild to Patrick Bailey, while also offering him and advantageous 2-0 count.
Bailey, who has been nails in every facet this season, fouled a ball off his leg, grimaced, then came up with a massive, 2-RBI single to right field. Pittsburgh right fielder Henry Davis got a bit too itchy for the throw home and had a baby Bill Buckner moment, letting the ball through his legs.
The broadcast showed that J.D. Davis was being held up at third before the Pirates’ Davis failed his fielding duties. It left Holderman with his hands on his head, and he was promptly relieved for Ryan Borucki.
Bailey, of course, had a bit more to say.
For the first time in his career, he stole a base. And in another poetic echo of the Giants’ youth movement, it was Matos, on a blooping single to left, who drove him home.
Bailey came stumbling and diving home to etch the 6-4 lead. He drove in two, stole his first base, and a run, and also threw out Marcano in the third with one of his already vintage pinpoint throws.
At that juncture, the Giants tapped Tyler Rogers. He was the lone reliever to support the MLB-best reputation of the bullpen, working through a scoreless seventh and eighth that loomed large on a night no one else in either bullpen seemed to have much control over the game.
From there, one of the Giants’ two All-Stars in Camilo Doval was handed the reins. Aside from a blip in the form of a Nick Gonzales single, Doval was himself. He promptly induced a 4-6-3 double play from former Giants legend Connor Joe to put an end to the often erratic proceedings of Friday night.
