SAN FRANCISCO – This time the comeback fell short.
One night after Patrick Bailey’s walk-off home run in the ninth inning, the Giants attempted to duplicate the late-inning heroics but came up one run shy and lost 4-3 to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday at Oracle Park.
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The Pirates scored three runs off Taylor Rogers (0-1) in the top of the 10th inning, the big blow being a two-run blast by former Giants prospect Bryan Reynolds.
San Francisco gave the crowd of 34,000 something to get excited about in the bottom of the frame before falling short.
Jorge Soler broke out of prolonged slump with runners in scoring position when he crushed a 1-1 fastball from David Bednar into the left field seats for a two-run home run that cut the gap to 4-3.
San Francisco Giants
Thairo Estrada reached on an infield single with one out before pinch-hitters LaMonte Wade Jr. and Michael Yastrzemski both struck out swinging to end it.
On a day when San Francisco received a stellar outing from starting pitcher Jordan Hicks, the Giants’ offense couldn’t sustain its momentum from their walk-off win 24 hours earlier.
San Francisco’s first run was unearned in the sixth after Nick Ahmed reached on a fielding error by Pirates shortstop Alika Williams. Two batters later Wilmer Flores clubbed a two-out RBI double.
That was the lone offensive bright spot for the Giants until Soler’s homer in the 10th. Five Pittsburgh pitchers combined to limit San Francisco to five hits, four of them singles. The Giants got three runners to third base but only one scored.
Here are the takeaways from Saturday’s game:
Clutch strikeout from Hicks
Hicks had his most dominant outing of the season, notching a career-best nine strikeouts in six strong innings. Hicks allowed five hits and didn’t walk anyone for the second time in six starts before getting removed by manager Bob Melvin after Connor Joe’s leadoff single in the seventh.
Hicks dazzled the Pirates for most of his outing and came up big when he got Jack Suwinski to whiff in the fourth inning.
Pittsburgh had runners at second and third following Joe’s two-out double, and the Pirates appeared to be in good shape with their No. 5 hitter up. But Hicks quickly jumped ahead in the count then got Suwinski to chase a splitter out of the zone for strike three.
Following the example set by Kyle Harrison on Friday, Hicks showed great poise with runners on base and didn’t flinch during the key moment. That mindset likely came from all the jams that Hicks had to escape during his time as a reliever.
RISP not an issue
Throughout the season the Giants have had a difficult time getting hits with runners in scoring position. That wasn’t much of a problem in the middle game of this series with the Pirates, because San Francisco simply didn’t get many runners on base, let alone in position to score.
The Giants threatened in the fifth inning when Patrick Bailey hit a leadoff single and Jorge Soler walked. After Michael Conforto grounded into a double play that moved Bailey to third, Thairo Estrada – back in the lineup after sitting out Friday with a sore hamstring – came up with a chance at breaking the scoreless tie but struck out swinging on a changeup down the middle.
San Francisco had another shot in the seventh when Bailey singled and advanced to second on a fielder’s choice but was stranded when Estrada popped out.
Two errors, one inning, zero runs
San Francisco dodged a bullet in the sixth inning after Flores committed a pair of fielding errors at first base. Fortunately, the Giants bailed out their teammate each time.
Flores muffed Williams’ pop-up in foul territory. Given a second chance. Williams lofted a short single to left. Hicks worked out of the situation by getting former Giant Andrew McCutchen to ground into a 6-4-3 double play.
Flores then let a sharp grounder by Bryan Reynolds roll through his legs for another error before Hicks got Ke’Bryan Hayes to ground out.
Flores, who made two errors in 61 games at first base last season, hadn’t committed any this season before Saturday.
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