Giants 4, Pirates 3:
Dereck Rodriguez limits Pittsburgh to two hits in seven innings as San Francisco tunes up for series in L.A. with home victory.
It’s easy for armchair handicappers to examine the Giants, six games out of first place in the NL West with three teams ahead of them and 43 to play, unable to score consistently, their bullpen leaky, and wonder why they have not pulled the plug on 2018.
Why is Andrew McCutchen still here? Why is Chris Shaw still at Triple-A Sacramento? Shouldn’t every move now be geared toward 2019?
It’s much harder to walk into the clubhouse and ask the same questions.
“We’re definitely not where we want to be, but we’re definitely not out of it at this point in the season,” catcher Nick Hundley said after the Giants edged the Pirates 4-3 Sunday at AT&T Park in the kind of win that has been their forte.
Whenever they appear to be one defeat away from irrelevancy, one inch from the edge of the cliff, the Giants pull one out and make it tougher for the decisionmakers to concede the season.
So off the Giants go to Los Angeles for three games against a team they are chasing.
It’ll be Madison Bumgarner against Clayton Kershaw for the 11th time in the opener of an August series that means something, at least nominally. By this time last year in San Francisco’s 98-loss season, Bumgarner-Kershaw would have been nothing more than a sideshow.
Manager Bruce Bochy hates to call any game or series in August a must-win, but that’s what these three at Chavez Ravine will be for the Giants, who play a scant 15 games between now and season’s end against the Dodgers, Diamondbacks and Rockies.
These are opportunities the Giants cannot waste if they want to turn their faded playoff dreams into something close to reality.
“The only way we’re going to get there is to have a winning record,” Bochy said. “We’ve got to start winning series. That’s the simplest way.”
If fans really want to dream, they can imagine Dereck Rodriguez grabbing the ball in Game 2 of a postseason series and extending his remarkable rookie season.
He keeps raising the bar, then keeps clearing it as he did in a victory that allowed the Giants to split their four-game series against the Pirates and finish a 2-4 homestand.
Rodriguez surrendered a run on two second-inning doubles, the only hits he allowed in seven innings. He lowered his ERA to 2.25, which places him third in the league among those with at least 80 innings pitched. In his past nine games (eight starts), his ERA is 1.28.
“In a game we really needed to have, he went out and got it done,” said Hundley, who caught Rodriguez and had a big hand in providing the rookie the run support he needed for his sixth win.
Hundley tripled home Steven Duggar, who had singled to start the third, then drove in Gorkys Hernandez in a two-run fourth with a single off third baseman Colin Moran’s glove. Duggar and Hernandez used their speed to steal that run.
Duggar legged out an infield single with Hernandez at first base, beating a throw from first baseman Josh Bell to pitcher Joe Musgrove. As Musgrove argued with first-base umpire Chris Conroy, Hernandez raced to third.
“We have to be aggressive on the bases,” Hernandez said. That is especially true down the lineup, where Bochy has placed what speed he has.
Joe Panik had a good game, too, with a sacrifice fly and an RBI single. Panik has started to hit the ball hard in time for Dodger Stadium, where he won two 1-0 games with homers to start the season.
Giants first baseman Brandon Belt is expected to return Tuesday after nursing a knee injury.
“I’m definitely ready to get back and excited to play again,” Belt said. “It’s getting close to crunch time.”