Pittsburgh Pirates hitter Brian Reynolds (10) strikes out swinging with the bases loaded against the San Francisco Giants in the top of the seventh inning at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Fri Apr 26, 2024 (AP News photo)

Friday, April 26th, 2024

By Troy Ewers

Fresh from a rare home off day in the middle of a homestand, the  San Francisco Giants have reached the final series of their longest homestand of the year as they welcome in the Pittsburgh Pirates for three games beginning Friday night.

For San Francisco pitcher Kyle Harrison took the hill for his sixth start of the season pitched a gem shutting out the Pirates in a 3-0 win in front of a crowd of 37,110 at Oracle Park. Improved from his shortest outing of the season (4.0ip) vs. Arizona last Saturday.

Harrison facing the Pirates for the first time in his career…not one player on the Pirates has logged a plate appearance against Harrison in the regular season. Quinn Priester (0-1, 8.31) started for Pittsburgh pitching six innings no runs, three hits and seven strikeouts.

Harrison went six innings, five innings, seven strikeouts and no runs. Preister also went six innings, three innings, one walk, six strikeouts, and no runs as well. 

For the duration of the game, it was a scoreless game with at various times both teams scaring the pitchers, but to no avail. 

Pittsburgh had the bases loaded in both the seventh and ninth innings, but could not score. Brian Reynolds hit into a double play against Giants closer Camilo Doval (2-0) with the bases full and one out in the ninth. 

In the ninth Michael Conforto walked and Matt Chapman singled to begin the inning off reliever David Bednar (1-2). Bailey then knocked a 3-run homer to right field. 3-0 Giants win!!! “One thing this year I tried to build was just my confidence at the plate,” Bailey said. “I felt like I proved to myself last year that I could do it at this level, even with the struggles at the end. So that was my biggest thing this year was just going up confident every time no matter what.” Time of game was 2:23.

Next game for this series is Saturday night at 6:05pm PDT April 27th. Jordan Hicks (2-0, 1.61 ERA) was set to pitch for the Giants in the second game of the series against Martín Pérez (1-1, 3.45 ERA).