Pirates’ bats bash Giants in Pittsburgh, 11-2.
McCutchen has nice moment with his old fans, then Giants drop fifth in row
PITTSBURGH >> After Giants left fielder Gregor Blanco flied out to lead off Friday’s contest, the game took a dramatic, emotional and positively perfect pause.
The man who put baseball back on the map in Pittsburgh stepped to the plate wearing a gray road uniform, but received an ovation only a hometown hero could possibly deserve.
Andrew McCutchen waved his helmet to the crowd, soaked in the cheers and basked in the glory of a moment he rightfully earned before his old team downed his new one by a score of 11-2.
“I’m humbled by it and I appreciate it,” McCutchen said. “I always have and I always will. For them to do what they did today, it’s something that’s going to be with me from here on out.”
Pirates fans started the game on the their feet, and ended it there too as the club spoiled McCutchen’s return to PNC Park
throughout four rough innings against a Pirates team that’s now won four in a row.
Suárez surrendered a tworun home run in the bottom of the first inning to Pirates center fielder Starling Marte, but escaped a jam later in the frame after walking back-to-back hitters.
The Giants rewarded Suárez
for two clean innings in the top of the fourth when Austin Jackson delivered a two-out single with the bases loaded to knot the score at 2-2. After falling behind in the count 0-2, Jackson took a fastball that narrowly missed off the inside corner before lining a pitch into right-center field for his 10th and 11th RBIs of the year.
Jackson’s two-out knock came against left-hander Steven Brault, who replaced starter Jameson Taillon following the third inning after Taillon suffered a finger laceration on his pitching hand.
A steady stream of Pirates relievers who followed kept San Francisco in check. The Pirates regained the lead in the bottom of the fourth on an RBI triple from Jordy Mercer, which preceded a pinch-hit two-run home run off the bat of Jose Osuna.
“It’s very frustrating,” Suárez said. “They got those two runs back, and I gave up three right away so it definitely (stinks).”
Suárez was lifted after the fourth and became the fifth straight Giants starter who failed to pitch into the sixth inning. Over the past five games, Giants starting pitchers have combined to throw just 22 innings and allowed 23 runs.
“It’s starting pitching,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “That’s how you get on a roll or you have struggles, usually what’s happening is the starters are going through a little rut and that’s what’s happening with us right now.”
The staff hasn’t received nearly enough run support for the Giants to remain competitive, either, as hitters have struck out 69 times since the start of the losing streak. Of the 182 plate appearances the Giants have had since their losing streak began, 38 percent have ended with punch-outs.
“That’s part of the issue right now,” Bochy said. “We’re having a hard time making contact, even a productive out. You’d take that. We’re in a rut there too, and that’s why we’ve had five ugly losses here. We’re not doing a lot offensively.”
With five consecutive 11-strikeout games, the Giants today will have a chance to tie a franchise record that dates back to May 1997 for the longest streak of games posting a double-digit strikeout total.
“It’s pretty apparent that we haven’t been playing our best baseball these last five games after leaving Atlanta,” McCutchen said. “We came across a good Phillies team, their pitching was on, their hitting was on, and the Pirates showed up.”
As Bochy emptied out his bullpen, so did the Pirates who used former Giants right-handers Kyle Crick and George Kontos in relief of Taillon. While McCutchen did give the 34,720 a reason to cheer during the game with a double in the seventh inning, so did Crick and Kontos, who both worked scoreless innings.
Former Pirate Tony Watson spent six-plus seasons with Pittsburgh and also received a warm ovation when he entered to pitch the eighth on Friday. Because Watson didn’t pitch against Philadelphia, he was one of the few Giants who didn’t contribute to the damage done during the four-game sweep.
But alas, no Giant goes unscathed these days, so a pitcher who opened Friday with a 0.57 ERA served up a three-run home run to Max Moroff to cap off a brutal night for San Francisco. NOTES >> McCutchen, a fivetime All-Star, played his first nine seasons in Pittsburgh before being traded to the Giants in January. He threw out Pittsburgh’s Colin Moran at home plate to end the sixth . ... It was the largest crowd to watch a Pirates home game this season.