Losing streak reaches 6 games
Watson comes in from bullpen, surrenders go-ahead run in eighth
PITTSBURGH >> The Giants needed to sit through a 93-minute rain delay before first pitch on Saturday at PNC Park.
They’ll need to wait at least one more day to snap their six-game losing streak.
The Giants’ skid continued after the club’s most reliable reliever, Tony Watson, allowed the go-ahead run in the eighth inning of a 6-5 loss. After Watson surrendered his first home run of the season in Friday’s blowout loss, he hit Pirates shortstop Jordy Mercer with the bases loaded in the eighth inning to bring in a run.
“Hitting a guy to get the gamewinning run in, that’s unacceptable,” Watson said. “Especially after the inning the guys put up to fight back. After Jackson’s bit hit, frustrating for sure.”
Pittsburgh’s ability to cash in against Watson crushed a Giants squad that scored a run in the seventh and one more in the eighth to tie the game 5-5. Down 5-4 entering the eighth inning, center fielder Austin Jackson launched an RBI double off the top of the left-field wall against former Giant George Kontos to even the score, but Jackson barley missed a home run that would have pushed the club ahead.
“That thing just missed going out,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “That might have been the difference in the game to be honest. He hit it well, and it’s a shame.”
Despite Josh Bell’s leadoff double in the bottom of the eighth, Watson had an opportunity to escape a jam as he induced a David Freese grounder to the left side of the infield with runners on the corners and one out. Bell took a step from third base toward the plate, but after Evan Longoria corralled the ball, Bell darted back to the bag and danced out of the way of a Longoria tag.
“I was going too far the other way, and I had already gotten the
ball out of my glove,” Longoria said. “I couldn’t get it back in my glove to tag him. At the very least I’m thinking I’m not going to try to wing it over to first.”
With the bases loaded and Mercer at the plate, Watson wanted to attack his former teammate on the inside corner but delivered a fastball too far off the plate that ultimately pegged Mercer.
“That’s got to be a first for me,” Watson said.
With Madison Bumgarner and Johnny Cueto on the disabled list, the Giants desperately needed their most experienced active starter, Jeff Samardzija, to reverse an ugly trend plaguing the staff.
After their starters combined for just 22 innings the last time through the rotation, Samardzija was one strike away from logging a quality start and navigating through the heart of the Pirates order in a critical situation.
Then he left a fastball up in the zone, and Francisco Cervelli crushed it.
“I think that one right there was just a little more down in the zone, and he was able to get a bat on it,” Samardzija said.
The Pirates catcher broke a 3-3 tie with a tworun blast to right center field in the sixth inning, ruining Samardzija’s night and forcing the Giants to play from behind in the late innings.
“As a staff, us five guys
have to find a way to improve and really get that momentum going and give that rhythm to the game to where the offense is feeling like they’re in the dugout a lot,” Samardzija said.
Despite falling behind 2-0 in the first inning, the Giants forced their way back into the game in the top of the second when Longoria slammed the first pitch of the inning over the left-field wall. His teamleading eighth home run of the year halved the deficit, and former Pirate Alen Hanson evened the game at 2-2 with a one-out solo shot
into the right field bleachers.
A former top prospect in the Pirates organization, Hanson never hit a home run in 64 games with Pittsburgh. His game-tying blast to right field marked his fourth of the year for the Giants.
Hanson scored the tying run in the eighth inning on Jackson’s double but slowed up rounding the third base bag with a tight left hamstring. Kelby Tomlinson replaced Hanson at second base, and Bochy described the injury as day-to-day.