San Francisco Giants starter Carlos Rodon throws against the Pittsburgh Pirates line up in the bottom of the fourth inning at PNC Park in Pittsburgh on Fri Jun 17, 2022 to open the three game series (AP News photo)

by Marko Ukalovic

PITTSBURGH — Carlos Rodón pitched a two-hitter over eight innings in a brilliant performance as the San Francisco Giants shut out the Pittsburgh Pirates 2-0 on Friday evening at PNC Park.

San Francisco has won six out of its last seven games and gained a game in the NL West standings as both the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers suffered lost on Friday.

Rodón had eight strike outs and just two walks on just 98 pitches in his dominating eight inning mastery over an anemic Pirates lineup that was never had a runner get past second base. He lowered his ERA to 2.84.

For Rodón, he has now won back-to-back starts after being winless in his previous five starts (including three losses) and improved to 6-4 on the season. Keeping the Pirates lineup off balanced for most of the night, Rodón no hit Pittsburgh for the first four and two-thirds innings before giving up a single to Jack Suwinski with two outs in the fifth inning.

“I’ve been building off that inning,” Rodón said. “Week to week I’m still working on stuff, just refining and getting a little more crisp with my fastball-slider. … Just a couple things that (pitching coaches J.P. Martinez and Andrew Bailey) looked into. It’s got me in the right spot.”

The Giants offense wasn’t that much better as they scored both runs off of solo homers. Luis Gonzales opened the game with a leadoff home run, his third of the season, that went over the bleachers in right field off of Pirates starting pitcher Zach Thompson.

Joc Pederson hit a bomb that traveled 413 feet into the right fielder bleachers for his team leading 14th home run of the season off of Thompson in the fourth inning to conclude the scoring on the night.

“As crazy as it sounds,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said, “When he’s striking everybody out but running really deep counts and (getting) a ton of foul balls, it’s gonna be more difficult for him to get through eight innings like he did today.”

Thompson finished the evening going four and one-third innings with two earned runs on four hits, striking out two while walking five Giants hitters and is now 3-5 on the season.

Camilo Doval pitched a perfect ninth to earn his 10th save of the season.

GAME NOTES: San Francisco left five men on the base paths. Pittsburgh left three on.

UP NEXT: San Francisco and Pittsburgh continue its three-games series on Saturday 6/18 at 1:05pm at PNC Park.