San Francisco Giants at Pittsburgh Pirates

· Major League Baseball

San Francisco Giants

25-26, 10-16 Away

Final
7 - 6

Pittsburgh Pirates

23-28, 10-14 Home

Giants rally from a big deficit again and spoil a solid start by Paul Skenes in 7-6 win over Pirates

Chapman went deep off Hunter Stratton (1-1), and Brett Wisely delivered a go-ahead single off Aroldis Chapman five batters later as the Giants overcame a big deficit for the second time in less than 24 hours.

San Francisco trailed by five early in a 9-5 extra-inning victory on Wednesday. The Giants were down 6-2 through seven on Thursday before Chapman & Co. got going against Pittsburgh's struggling bullpen as the Giants won consecutive games in which they trailed by at least four runs for the first time since 1998.

“Incredible,” San Francisco manager Bob Melvin said, later adding, “It's a complete team win, both games.”

Skenes allowed one run on six hits with a walk and three strikeouts in six innings in his third major league start. He exited with the Pirates comfortably ahead before things fell apart.

Chapman, Wisely, Lamont Wade Jr. and Heliot Ramos had two hits apiece for the Giants, who won for just the fifth time in their last 13 road games. Luke Jackson (2-1) picked up the win by working the seventh. Tyler Rogers pitched the ninth for his first save this season.

“It’s definitely nice to get into the bullpen,” said Chapman, who is hitting .404 (17 of 42) with four home runs and 13 RBI in his last 11 games. “We knew that their bullpen is pretty taxed after the last couple of days. So we felt like if we could get into that bullpen we've got a chance to come back, which is nice.”

The rally came after Skenes had long since exited following another impressive outing.

The 6-foot-6 right-hander struck out just three in his third major league start but expertly worked his way around traffic on the bases. The 21-year-old rookie allowed six hits (all singles) with a walk while lowering his ERA to 2.25.

“Didn’t have the best stuff but made do,” Skenes said. "That’s their game, what they did today. They’re not going to punch out a whole lot, and put the ball in play. Overall, pretty happy with it.”

The top pick in the 2023 amateur draft has become an immediate sensation in Pittsburgh. A crowd of 23,162 that included Skenes' girlfriend, gymnast/influencer Livvy Dunne — more than double what the club had been averaging for weekday matinees this season — came out to see the hard-throwing Skenes and his trademark mustache, a look that is getting nearly as much attention as his 100-plus mph fastball.

Six days removed from a dominant start at Chicago in which he tossed six hitless innings against the Cubs, Skenes wasn't quite as overpowering against the Giants. Only four of his 93 pitches reached triple digits and he relied more on contact to work himself out of trouble, using a pair of double plays and some solid defensive work by third baseman Jared Triolo to get through San Francisco's lineup nearly three times.

It's when Skenes left that things got dicey.

“Our bullpen has got to be better,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “We had, what, a 5-1 lead yesterday, 6-2 lead today? We have to be better. ... We have to win games like that.”

Joey Bart hit a 434-shot off the batter's eye behind the center-field fence in the fourth for the first grand slam of his career. Bart, taken second overall in the 2018 draft by the Giants before being acquired by Pittsburgh in April, also added a double before being ejected by first base umpire Alex Tossi after grounding out to end the eighth.

Andrew McCutchen led off the bottom of the first with his seventh home run of the season for Pittsburgh.

ON THE MOVE

Giants: Placed LHP Blake Snell on the paternity list and recalled RHP Nick Avila from Double-A Richmond.

Pirates: Sent struggling OF Jack Suwinski down to Triple-A Indianapolis and recalled LHP Jose Hernandez from their top farm club. Suwinski, who hit 26 home runs in 2023, is batting just .174 with four homers and 13 RBI through 49 games this season.

Giants: Continue their road trip Friday night when they visit the New York Mets.

Pirates: Welcome the Atlanta Braves to PNC Park for a three-game set starting Friday.

How can I watch San Francisco Giants vs. Pittsburgh Pirates?

TV Channel: Giants at Pirates 2022 MLB Baseball, is broadcasted on MLB.tv.
Online streaming: Sign up for Fubo.

Matchup Prediction

Pirates: 54.2%

Giants: 45.8%

*According to ESPN's Basketball Power Index

Scoring Summary

	9th Inning	Joe fouled out to first.
	9th Inning	Reynolds singled to left.
	9th Inning	Bae caught stealing second, catcher to shortstop.
	9th Inning	McCutchen fouled out to first.
	9th Inning	Bae safe at first on fielding error by shortstop Luciano.
	9th Inning	Ty. Rogers relieved Rodríguez

Statistics

SF		PIT
1	Games Played	1
1	Team Games Played	1
0	Hit By Pitch	1
10	Ground Balls	11
6	Strikeouts	9
7	Runs Batted In	6
0	Sacrifice Hit	0
13	Hits	9
1	Stolen Bases	0
2	Walks	2
0	Catcher Interference	0
7	Runs	6
2	Ground Into Double Play	0
0	Sacrifice Flies	0
38	At Bats	36
2	Home Runs	3
0	Grand Slam Home Runs	1
15	Runners Left On Base	18
0	Triples	1
1	Game Winning RBIs	0
0	Intentional Walks	0
1	Doubles	1
22	Fly Balls	16
0	Caught Stealing	1
153	Pitches	138
0	Games Started	0
3	Pinch At Bats	0
1	Pinch Hits	0
0.0	Player Rating	0.0
1	Is Qualified	1
1	Is Qualified In Steals	1
20	Total Bases	21
40	Plate Appearances	39
324.0	Projected Home Runs	486.0
3	Extra Base Hits	5
6.7	Runs Created	6.2
.342	Batting Average	.250
.333	Pinch Hit Average	.000
.526	Slugging Percentage	.583
.263	Secondary Average	.361
.375	On Base Percentage	.308
.901	OBP Pct + SLG Pct	.891
0.5	Ground To Fly Ball Ratio	0.7
6.7	Runs Created Per 27 Outs	6.0
50.0	Batter Rating	46.5
19.0	At Bats Per Home Run	12.0
1.00	Stolen Base Percentage	0.00
3.83	Pitches Per Plate Appearance	3.54
.184	Isolated Power	.333
0.33	Walk To Strikeout Ratio	0.22
.050	Walks Per Plate Appearance	.051
-.079	Secondary Average Minus Batting Average	.111
14.0	Runs Produced	12.0
1.0	Runs Ratio	1.0
0.6	Patience Ratio	0.6
0.4	Balls In Play Average	0.3
99.0	MLB Rating	92.5
0.0	Offensive Wins Above Replacement	0.0
0.0	Wins Above Replacement	0.0