By Morris Phillips

AP photo: Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Jeff Locke throws against San Francisco Giants on Monday night in the first inning at PNC Park

The Giants came to Pittsburgh hotter than they’ve ever been. Eric Kratz arrived in town 10 days ago and was still looking to make an impression, hopefully starting with an initial, base hit. And Jeff Locke’s spotty record over six seasons as a Pirate, made one fan armed with a Twitter account hope that the lefty wouldn’t return for a seventh.

So guess what transpired along the Allegheny River on Monday night?

The Giants fell to the Pirates 1-0 with Madison Bumgarner losing for the first time since April as Kratz homered, Locke pitched scoreless ball for six plus innings and the late-game heroics that had fueled San Francisco’s historic streak failed to materialize.

With all of the geographic factors portending a different result, the whole equation ultimately hinged on Angel Pagan’s inability to hang on to Kratz’s home run ball that he caught initially, but dropped when his glove arm crashed into the left field wall during his descent. The almost catch made Pagan to throw his glove down in disgust, caused Bumgarner to appear bummed, and gave Kratz the opportunity to explain it all, which didn’t go particularly well.

“I don’t know if he helped it over, but he didn’t hurt it from going over, put it that way,” Kratz opined.

Kratz’s blow put the Pirates ahead in the fifth. When the Giants threatened in the seventh, Pirates’ manager Clint Hurdle executed the rare move of lifting Locke, who had allowed five hits and no walks, for a reliever to face Bumgarner, a pitcher with the ability to change the game with one swing of the bat and one, career homer off the Pirates’ starter. But that move paid off for Pittsburgh when Naftali Perez came on to retire Bumgarner to end the inning with a baserunner on second base.

Setup man Tony Watson retired the Giants in the eighth, and closer Mark Melancon finished the Giants off, inducing a double play, ground ball off the bat of Buster Posey after Brandon Belt singled leading off the ninth.

The Giants came in with a major-league best 27-8 record since May 11, also the best streak over that number of games since the team came to San Francisco more than 60 seasons ago. But before the game, the team announced starting third baseman Matt Duffy was going on the disabled list and Denard Span would be scratched due to neck stiffness, highlighting the fact that while the team has been hot, they haven’t been healthy.

Bumgarner had won seven consecutive decisions, while Locke had allowed 18 runs in his two, previous starts.