Giants score 5 runs in 10th for series sweep as Pirates continue freefall

The Pittsburgh Pirates are plunging toward last place in the NL Central, a freefall for which they don’t seem to have any answers.

The Pirates tied San Francisco in the eighth inning but left the bases loaded, allowing the game to go into extra innings.

Joc Pederson’s sacrifice fly gave the Giants the lead, and Michael Conforto and Patrick Bailey added two-run doubles in a five-run 10th inning to sweep their three-game series with a 8-4 win Sunday afternoon before 21,642 at PNC Park.

It was the 10th loss in 12 games for the Pirates (41-52), who are playing at a .333 winning percentage since finishing April with a 20-9 record and atop the National League standings.

Asked if their play over the past 2 1/2 months has been disheartening, Pirates manager Derek Shelton didn’t hesitate to say “yes.” Shelton then was asked if he’s surprised by their downward spiral.

“I don’t know if it surprises me,” Shelton said. “It’s just, we have to play better.”

That’s especially true of their offense. The Pirates went 2 for 10 with runners in scoring position and stranded 11 runners. They tied the score in the eighth on Jared Triolo’s sacrifice fly and had the bases loaded before Jason Delay struck out to end the inning.

“That was the difference in the game,” Shelton said. “We got ourselves into situations to score and did not have quality at-bats when we had those guys there.”

The Giants started the 10th with a Wilmer Flores single to right off Yerry De Los Santos (0-1), advancing automatic runner Casey Schmitt to third. Schmitt scored on Pederson’s sacrifice fly to center to give the Giants a 4-3 lead.

After J.D. Davis drew a walk, Conforto doubled to right field to score Wilmer Flores and Davis, who slid underneath a high relay throw from second baseman Nick Gonzales to catcher Jason Delay to make it 6-3. Bailey launched a long fly ball to left-center for a double that drove in Conforto and Mike Yastrzemski to give the Giants an 8-3 lead.

In the bottom of the 10th, Henry Davis singled to score automatic runner Andrew McCutchen to cut it to 8-4. But with runners on second and third, Gonzales grounded out to end the game.

It started in similar fashion, as both pitchers got out of jams in the first inning.

Osvaldo Bido had runners on the corners after giving up a leadoff single to LaMonte Wade Jr. and a two-out single to Conforto but got Yastrzemski swinging at a full-count slider to escape.

Giants lefty Alex Wood gave up back-to-back singles to Connor Joe and Bryan Reynolds before getting McCutchen to ground into a 6-4-3 double play. Carlos Santana drew a walk to put runners on the corners, but Henry Davis popped up to Wade, who made a catch in foul territory against the protective netting along the first-base line.

Wood had no such luck in the second, which Triolo led off with a single but got the stop sign from third-base coach Mike Rabelo on Delay’s double down the right-field line. Joe walked to load the bases for Reynolds, who hit a soft bouncer to short that Brandon Crawford scooped and shoveled to Brett Wisely but not in time to get Joe out. Triolo scored to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead.

Bido found himself in the same predicament in the third. Wisely singled, Wade drew a walk and Bido hit Pederson with a pitch to load the bases with no outs. J.D. Davis singled to right to score Wisely, where Henry Davis bobbled both the scoop and the ball out of his glove for an error that allowed Wade to score the go-ahead run for a 2-1 lead.

It was the second error in right field in this series for Davis, who was selected with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2021 MLB Draft as a catcher out of Louisville. He bobbled the ball on Bailey’s RBI single that allowed J.D. Davis to score the go-ahead run in Friday’s 6-4 loss.

Bido walked Yastrzemski to load the bases again, then gave up another run when Luis Matos hit a grounder to second to drive in Pederson for a 3-1 Giants lead. That was it for Bido after giving up four hits and two walks in 2 2/3 innings. Lefty Ryan Borucki got Blake Sabol swinging for the final out.

Henry Davis did his best to make up for his mistake in the sixth, when he hit a leadoff double to right-center, stole third base and scored on Triolo’s groundout to short to cut the Giants’ lead to 3-2.

The Pirates loaded the bases with no outs against righty reliever Tyler Rogers in the eighth, when McCutchen hit a leadoff single through the middle, Santana worked a full-count walk and Davis drew a walk. Triolo’s sacrifice fly to right drove in McCutchen to tie the score at 3-3 and Davis tagged to third base, providing a potential turning point.

“In the moment we felt that was that,” said Triolo, who had his first career multi-RBI game and has either tied the score or given the Pirates the lead with four of his last six RBIs. “But then they changed the pitchers after that and brought in a good reliever in their bullpen. We just couldn’t string together an at-bat.”

The Giants turned to Rogers’ twin brother, lefty Taylor Rogers. With first baseman Wilmer Flores and third baseman J.D. Davis playing on the grass, Tucupita Marcano fouled off a pair of bunt attempts, then went down swinging at a 2-2 sweeper that broke low and inside for the second out.

“Triolo has a really good at-bat and gets the sac fly and then we don’t get a bunt down,” Shelton said. “We have to execute in that situation. If you run the safety squeeze correctly, there’s no way to defend it. The ball’s just got to get on the grass, and we didn’t get it down.”

The Pirates got a break when home plate umpire Jansen Visconti ruled Gonzales was hit in the shin by a pitch, even as Giants manager Gabe Kapler argued — and replays showed — that the ball bounced before it hit him. But Rogers got Delay to go down swinging at another sweeper to leave the bases loaded.

All-Star closer David Bednar retired the side in order in the ninth, but Giants righty Ryan Walker did the same to the top of the Pirates’ order, sending the game into extra innings.

“We have to continue to go, but we have to execute,” Shelton said. “That’s the main thing, and we had opportunities to win that game today and didn’t execute.”