SAN FRANCISCO -- Jared Jones has been one of the best stories in baseball early on, dominating opposing hitters with a fastball that approaches 100 mph and a nasty slider. But on Sunday, it was the Giants who had the most effective rookie right-hander on the mound.
Keaton Winn threw six shutout innings, keeping the ride going for a rotation that has allowed just four earned runs over the past seven games. When Thairo Estrada and Mike Yastrzemski went back-to-back in the fourth, Winn had a lead, and the Giants held on for a 3-2 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates at Oracle Park.
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Camilo Doval, pitching for a third straight day, ran into some trouble in the ninth, allowing a run and putting two on for former teammate Joey Bart. Bart tried to check his swing on a slider, but he hit a slow roller to short and Doval got out of the jam, picking up his fifth save.
The Giants finished 6-4 on their longest homestand of the season, getting series wins over the New York Mets and Pirates and splitting with the Arizona Diamondbacks. They're now headed for a three-city road trip, with Logan Webb set to kick things off Tuesday night at Fenway Park.
Here are three more things to know ...
San Francisco Giants
Winn Day
Jung Hoo Lee and Kyle Harrison got the preseason hype, but right now, Winn might be the Giants' best rookie. The latest strong start lowered his ERA to 3.18, which is tied with Jones for fourth among NL rookies.
Winn gave up a leadoff single to Ke'Bryan Hayes but allowed just two more hits over six innings. He walked one and struck out five, including all three batters he faced in a dominant third inning. Winn is tied for fourth among NL rookies in strikeouts, one spot behind Harrison.
Since a grand slam to Jurickson Profar in the first inning on April 6, Winn has allowed just five runs in 28 innings.
The Giants at some point will have to pull back on the workload for Winn and Harrison, but they hope to have Alex Cobb and Robbie Ray back in the rotation in the second half, so they're pushing their young starters early. In this series, they combined to allow one run on eight hits in 12 innings.
Back-to-Back Attack
Over their previous three games, the Giants scored just two runs in the first eight innings, but this time they didn't wait to do their damage.
Estrada crushed a slider into the seats to lead off the third and Yastrzemski followed with a dead-center bomb on a 98-mph fastball from Jones. It was the first time the Giants went back-to-back since last Sept. 8, when Wilmer Flores, Mitch Haniger and J.D. Davis hit three straight homers in the sixth inning against the Colorado Rockies.
Estrada's homer was his fourth of the season, putting him one behind Michael Conforto and Jorge Soler for the team lead. Yastrzemski now has a pair, both coming on this homestand.
FitzMagic
Tyler Fitzgerald followed the homers with a single and finished 3-for-3 after two Pirates lost his seventh-inning pop-up in the sun and allowed it to drop for a double. He was starting in place of Nick Ahmed, who took a liner off the hand on Saturday but should be back Tuesday in Boston. Regardless, the Giants should continue to find ways to get Fitzgerald on the field.
The utility man is batting .313 with a .916 OPS after his latest solid day. He also leads the team with four stolen bases.
Manager Bob Melvin was aggressive with days off on this homestand because the Giants played on 13 consecutive days, and the road ahead isn't any easier. The Giants are off Monday, but it'll be a catch-up-on-sleep day for most after a long flight Sunday night. That's the only break on the road trip, which consists of 10 games against the Red Sox, Phillies and Rockies.
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