Pirates' mishaps in 7th inning prove costly as Giants rally for comeback win

The way the Pittsburgh Pirates blew a lead against the San Francisco Giants had their fans ready to blow a gasket.

Austin Hedges, the veteran catcher starting for his defense, allowed a passed ball that put the tying run at third base and the go-ahead run at second. Rookie right fielder Henry Davis, the 2021 No. 1 overall pick as a catcher, allowed the winning run to score on an error.

The Giants scored three runs in the seventh inning against Colin Holderman, taking advantage of both seventh-inning mishaps for a 6-4 comeback win Friday night before 33,813 at PNC Park.

It was an ominous start to the second half of the season for the NL Central fourth-place Pirates (41-50), who lost for the eighth time in 10 games and remain 8 ½ games back in the division standings.

Pirates manager Derek Shelton harped on Holderman (0-1) giving up a walk to J.D. Davis with one out in the seventh inning after the Pirates had scored two runs in the sixth to take a 4-3 lead.

“I mean, we can’t walk a guy in the middle of the inning,” Shelton said. “We didn’t execute pitches. We continued to battle back offensively and took the lead. We gotta get a shutdown inning there, and we didn’t execute.”

Holderman couldn’t hold the lead, giving up a leadoff double to Wilmer Flores before walking Davis. Both runners advanced on a passed ball that got past Hedges.

“They called that a passed ball?” Shelton said. “So (Hedges) is set up away and (Holderman) misses off the plate in at 98 (mph)? That’s a wild pitch. That pitch has got to be executed better. It’s not a passed ball.”

Regardless, Patrick Bailey lined a single to right field to score Flores to tie the score, and J.D. Davis got the green light to go home for the go-ahead run when Henry Davis bobbled the ball. The Giants increased their lead when Bailey stole second base then scored on a Luis Matos single off lefty Ryan Borucki for a 6-4 lead.

“You’d like to come back from the break and have a good start,” Holderman said. “Getting ambushed by Flores – it was barely fair – and then a ground ball got through and I probably shouldn’t have walked the guy. I’d like to have some pitches back, but, at the end of the day, they get paid, too. Things had to happen right for me to get my outs.”

Shelton pinch-hit in the bottom of the seventh for Hedges, who struck out twice, but said there are no plans to reconsider whether Hedges should remain the Pirates’ starting catcher.

“No,” Shelton said. “Not right now were not.”

The Giants (50-41), who won their third consecutive game, took a 2-0 lead in the fifth when Brandon Crawford hit a leadoff single, Austin Slater doubled and Michael Conforto hit a one-out single down the right-field line to score both runners.

The Pirates answered with Ji-Man Choi driving Ross Stripling’s 1-2 fastball 404 feet to the bullpen in left-center for a leadoff home run to cut it to 2-1. Jared Triolo followed with a single to right, advanced to third on Tucupita Marcano’s single to center and scored to tie the score when Stripling was called for a balk while facing Hedges.

The score didn’t stay tied for long. Matos singled, reached third on Casey Schmitt’s double to left and scored on Crawford’s groundout to short to give the Giants a 3-2 lead in the sixth. Slater worked a full count, but Pirates starter Rich Hill got him swinging at a cutter above the letters to end the frame.

Pitching on a humid 85-degree night, the 43-year-old Hill gave the Pirates a quality start by allowing three runs on seven hits and two walks while laboring through 91 pitches over six innings while mixing in a split-finger fastball he worked on over the break.

The Pirates rewarded Hill by rallying in the bottom of the sixth, as Bryan Reynolds hit a leadoff single off Giants lefty Sean Manaea, who then walked Henry Davis and Carlos Santana to load the bases with no outs. Choi hit a sacrifice fly to right to score Reynolds to tie it at 3-3 and advance Davis, whose head-first slide into third beat Conforto’s throw.

With runners on the corners and one out, Giants manager Gabe Kapler turned to righty Mauricio Llovera (1-0). Triolo worked a full-count walk to load the bases, and Marcano hit a line drive to center for sacrifice fly that scored Davis, who beat the throw by Matos to slide past catcher Patrick Bailey to give the Pirates a 4-3 lead.

“Unfortunately we came up on the short end,” Hill said. “We have to start winning ballgames. The urgency is something that I always harp on and bring out there when I go to pitch.”