By Vince Cestone

SAN FRANCISCO–The San Francisco Giants mustered only 2 hits, wasting a strong Justin Verlander start, falling to the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-1 on Tuesday night at Oracle Park.

With the Giants’ seventh-straight loss at Oracle Park, they fell five games out of the Wild Card race. With the trade deadline only two days away, it’s going to be hard for the Giants to justify buying.

San Francisco opened the scoring in the fourth inning, with a solo home run from the hot-hitting Willy Adames. After a horrendous first half, Adames smashed his seventh home run of July.

The Giants were up 1-0. They finally were ahead first, but then the mistakes happened.

Rewind to the first inning. Giants had runners at first and second with one out, when third baseman Matt Chapman hit a popup on the infield. The infield fly rule was called, but left fielder Heliot Ramos got caught between second and third. Rally killed there.

But it was the eighth inning where weirdness happened. With one on and one out and the scored tied at one, Pirates left fielder Tommy Pham hit an infield dribbler that Rogers fielded as he ran towards the third-base line. Rogers couldn’t get a grip on the ball and the runner was safe.

On the very next play, a ground ball to second turned ugly off the bat of Pirates third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes. Giants second baseman Casey Schmitt fielded the ball but his throw hit Hayes as he approached first base. Rogers appeared to be looking at second base instead of the incoming throw.

Then, with the bases loaded, former Giants catcher Joey Bart singled on a grounder to left field, giving the Pirates a 2-1 lead. A lead they would not give back.

Before the eighth-inning chaos, the Pirates tied the game on a fifth-inning solo home run by ninth-place hitter Liover Peguero.

Lost in the weirdness of the late innings, was a great start by Verlander. He went five innings, giving up just 6 hits, one run, one walk, while amassing seven strikeouts.

Despite the defensive miscues, the Giants’ lack of offensive is forcing them to play perfect baseball, which is hard for any team to do. And it doesn’t help when their big trade acquisition Rafael Devers went 0-for-4 in the game and is hitless in his last 14 at-bats.

The Giants will try to get right on Wednesday in the series finale against the Pirates. Giants ace Logan Webb (9-8, 3.38 ERA) will take on Pirates’ pitcher Mike Burrows (1-3, 4.15 ERA) at 12:45 p.m. at Oracle Park.

Time is running out for the Giants. If they want to stay in this Wild Card race, the time for them to win is now.