San Francisco Giants Thairo Estrada runs the bases after hitting a home run in the bottom of the third inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Sun Apr 28, 2024 (AP News photo)

Sunday, April 28, 2024

Pittsburgh (14-15). 000 001 001. 2. 5. 0

San Francisco (14-15) 003 000 00x. 3. 8. 0

Time: 2:23

Attendance: 36,380

By Lewis Rubman

SAN FRANCISCO–The Giants continued their flirtation with .500, coming a step closer when they defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-2, this sunny and windy afternoon. The win improved the record of Bob Melvin’s men to 14-15 and excellent mound work by Keaton Winn and long balls by two heretofore underperforming batters, Thairo Estrada and Mike Yastrzemski.

Winn, San Francisco’s starting pitcher, was 2-3, 3.54 at game time. The 26 year old right handed rookie was coming off two strong starts, in which he had garnered that pair of wins. He had pitched six innings in each of them and held his opponents, Miami on April 17 and the Mets on the 22nd, to a run and four hits apiece.

This was the first time he’d ever faced the Pirates, and he performed very well, allowing just one run, earned, on three hits and a walk over six full innings, in which he struck out five batters. He threw 80 pitches, 29 of which were balls. earned the win and even his won-lost count to 3-3 while lowering his ERA to 3.18.

Winn’s opposing number was Jared Jones, also a 26 year rookie righty making his sixth start in the show. A tad less than half of his deliveries are four seamers, and he also throws a slider, curve, and change up. He pitched well in four of the five innings he worked, but he had a rough third frame over all, he yielded three runs, all earned, on six hits, two of them home runs, and a walk while striking out three.

His pitch count reached 83, 55 strikes. He took the loss, bringing his record to 2-3,3.18. (You’ll note a lot of numerical similarities between the two teams in this dispatch).

The game was a scoreless tie for the first 2-1/2 frames, but then the Giants’ bats heated up. They opened their half of the third with their first back to back home runs of 2024. Estrada smacked a first pitch slider into the left center field bleachers, leaving his bat at 106.2 mph and landing 397 feet from the plate.

It was the second sacker’s fourth round tripper of the year. Yastrzemski followed with his second four bagger of the season, a 402 foot blast to center that had an exit velocity of 105.1 mph. It came on a 2-2 four seamer. Back to back singles by Tyler Fitzgerald and Jung Hoo Lee, followed by a sacrifice fly by LaMonte Wade, Jr., and the hometown crew was up, 3-0 a third of the way through.

The Bucs narrowed the gap to 3-1 in the top of the fifth. Edward Oliveres was hit by a pitch to open the frame, and Rudy Tellez banged a two bagger to left center to bring Pittsburgh’s designated hitter home.

Luis L. Ortiz relieved Jones and sent SF down in order in the sixth and held the Giants scoreless in the seventh, despite a two out single by Yaz followed by a Fitzgerald’s windblown double to left. Kyle Nicolas set them down, 1,2,3 in the eighth.

Erik Miller replaced Winn and held the Pirates to walk in the seventh, giving way to Ryan Walker, who put Pittsburgh down with just a hit batter in their share of the eighth.

Camilo Duval went for his fifth save in the ninth. It would have taken an eclipse for the Giants to have darkened the stadium for his entrance so the crowd had to settle for video clips. But that didn’t mean that there was no excitement, not after Tellez sent a double to right center and scored on Triolo’s single to left center, making it 3-2.

With Michael A. Taylor at bat, Triolo moved into scoring position on a passed ball, bringing ex-Giant Joey Bart, who had replaced Henry Davis as catcher after Davis had been pulled for a pinch hitter in the previous inning. Doval got him out on a checked swing grounder to short, averting a demoralizing loss and giving the Giants the win for the game and the series.

The Giants will have a day off in Boston Monday and play the Red Sox on Tuesday and will follow that with visits to Philadelphia and Denver before returning home to face the Cincinnati Reds on May 10.