The Giants followed up a hotly contested, lead-changing affair on Friday with a long slog win in a Saturday pitcher’s duel in Pittsburgh. The 3-1 victory gave them the series win over their hosts ahead of a Sunday matinee.
It took until the eighth inning, in a 1-1 deadlock, for the Giants to mount their first compelling inning of offense… and their long-awaited second hit of the evening. After seeing consistent heat from domineering Pirates starter Johan Oviedo, they seemed warmed up for hard-throwing reliever Carmen Mlodzinski.
After a Wilmer Flores groundout opened the inning, Mlodzinski walked Lamonte Wade Jr. on four pitches. Following him up was Joc Pederson, who battled in an 0-2 count to work a single into right field.
The Pirates had seen enough of Mlodzinski, tapping — perhaps surprisingly — All-Star reliever David Bednar. The decision to go to Bednar early seemed so close to bearing fruit for Pittsburgh manager Derek Shelton. It was one pitch away from working out for the Pirates.
Instead, Michael Conforto came up massive, and the Giants benefited from a little youthful sloppiness on the part of Pittsburgh.
Despite falling behind to Bednar 0-2, Conforto had looked as patient at the plate as he’d appeared all night. He took a pitch, then pulled a lead-grabbing single into right. Gabe Kapler had injected Casey Schmitt for Wade Jr. as a pinch-runner, and Schmitt scored easily.
The throw home, though, was wayward, and Conforto was probably too aggressive as a baserunner, getting caught in no-man’s land between first and second.
Be that as it may, Conforto’s base running paid off. Jason Delay — inserted for Austin Hedges after a Connor Joe pinch hit — had a poor throw towards second, and shortstop Tucupita Marcano bobbled the throw, allowing Conforto to sneak in safely behind him at second while Joc Pederson scuttled home for a second run.
On Friday, it was a Buckner-esque error by Henry Davis in right field that allowed a second run to score. On Saturday, it was poor marksmanship and awareness in the infield. The Pirates’ youth cost them defensively on back-to-back days, and the Giants pounced both times.
As was the case with the day prior, the Giants’ bullpen shut the door.
Scott Alexander handled the eighth inning with aplomb.
Camilo Doval, meanwhile, was put into an immediate tough situation, allowing a leadoff single to Marcano. He promptly went wild, losing total control of a fastball to the backstop, and moving Marcano to second.
The temperature cooled a bit as he nursed a groundout from Nick Triolo for the first out of the inning. He then threw a half-dozen sliders to Josh Palacios for a pop out, and got Jack Suwinski to ground out to put the finishing touches on the win and the run-less save.
To get to an eighth-inning deadlock, though, required excellent pitching on either side.
For San Francisco, it marked Alex Cobb’s return to action after his first career All-Star appearance earlier in the week. The 35-year-old remained in fairly stellar form — going six innings, allowing four hits, two walks and striking out five — aside from a second-inning blip when the 23-year-old Henry Davis launched a solo 422-foot moon shot to deep left-center field.
He had to hold his breath in third inning, too, when Jack Suwinski forced Mike Yastrzemski to the deepest reaches of the ballpark for a leaping, warning track grab.
That spot wasn’t all that far from where Yastrzemski had his own solo home run in the second inning to open the scoring. The center fielder drew the ball a bit more to right-center to get the Giants on the board.
Yastrzemski’s next two at-bats were a bit frustrating. He was called out on a check swing by third base umpire Jordan Baker — a fate that befell and met the ire of Wade Jr. earlier in the game.
His next opportunity came in the top of the sixth with runners on first and second. Oviedo was gifted a borderline strike to start the at-bat, and Yastrzemski chased the next pitch in the same spot for a dribbler to end the inning.
Oviedo, by the way, was excellent.
Aside from Yastrzemski’s second-inning jack, no other Giant secured a hit against him. He allowed three walks, but was otherwise dominant.
That was perhaps best exemplified in the seventh, when Oviedo had Blake Sabol swinging out of his shoes and spinning his helmet halfway around his head. Brandon Crawford concluded the inning a batter later with a completely hopeless swing.
There was a whole lot of this:
It was Oviedo’s 10th strikeout of the night, and left him beating his chest and yelling triumphantly as he walked off the mound.
But even after that sterling outing, it was still netted at a run apiece.
Taylor Rogers entered for the Giants in the seventh, working through some frustrations with home plate umpire Brennan Miller’s strike zone. He walked Nick Triolo, then allowed a right field flare single to pinch-hitting former Giant Connor Joe.
Despite the potential peril, Rogers looked unbothered. His sweeper was magnificent, and he offered it thrice to Suwinski to strike him out after opening him up with a sinker. A pedestrian pop fly from Bryan Reynolds concluded the inning without much fanfare and set up the fun-filled eighth.
