Joey Bart broke an eighth-inning tie with a bases-loaded single, three Pittsburgh pitchers combined on a two-hitter and the Pirates continued San Francisco starter Justin Verlander’s hard-luck season with a 3-1 road victory over the Giants on Tuesday night.
After Verlander and Pittsburgh starter Bailey Falter dueled to a 1-1 tie through five innings, the game remained deadlocked into the eighth, when singles by Nick Gonzales, Tommy Pham and Ke’Bryan Hayes filled the bases against Tyler Rogers (4-3).
Bart then singled to left field to give the Pirates the lead and Liover Peguero’s grounder to third plated Pham with a second run, producing a 3-1 lead.
Braxton Ashcraft (3-1) fired his third consecutive perfect inning to preserve the two-run advantage into the ninth before Dennis Santana struck out two of the three batters he faced for his sixth save. The two Pittsburgh relievers retired all 12 batters they faced.
The earlier scoring had come on solo home runs by the Giants’ Willy Adames, his 16th, in the fourth and Peguero, his first of the season, in the fifth.
Coming off his first win as a Giant after opening the season with eight losses and eight no-decisions among his 16 starts, Verlander left after five innings having limited the Pirates to just the one run on six hits. He walked one and struck out seven.
The veteran has now allowed two or fewer earned runs in 10 of his 18 starts, with just one win to show for it.
Falter was even stingier in his five innings, giving up just two hits, including Adames’ homer. He walked four and struck out one.
Pham had a double and two singles, while Bart and Spencer Horwitz collected two singles apiece for the Pirates, who won for the seventh time in their last eight games.
Casey Schmitt had San Francisco’s only other hit, a fourth-inning double, as the Giants dropped their fifth straight.
–Field Level Media
