Pirates’ Offense Struggles Again in Loss to Giants

San Francisco– It was the same song and dance for the Pittsburgh Pirates Sunday afternoon at Oracle Park in San Francisco. 

Jared Jones struggled at times but kept the team in the game.

Unfortunately for the Pirates, the offense continued to struggle, managing five hits in a 3-2 loss. 

The Pirates scored three times in the 10th inning of Saturday’s 4-3 win but managed a total of two through the series’ other 27 innings.

Jones was cruising along, throwing just 22 pitches through two scoreless. Then, the bottom of the third happened. Jones gave up homers to Thairo Estrada and Mike Yastrzemski back to back to make it 2-0 Giants. He then gave up consecutive singles to No. 9 hitter Tyler Fitzgerald and leadoff man Jung Hoo Lee to put runners at the corners with still nobody out. Lamonte Wade Jr. drove home Fitzgerald with a sac fly to make it 3-0. 

The Pirates got something going in the fifth, scoring on an RBI groundout by Jared Triolo set up by Rowdy Tellez’s second extra-base hit of the season– a one-out double.

Jones’ (2-3) day ended after five innings. He gave up three runs on six hits, with two of those being homers, also walking one and striking out three. 

For the Giants, Keaton Winn (3-3) got the win, throwing six innings and allowing just one run on three hits, walking one and striking out five. 

The Pirates fought in the ninth. A two-out single by Jared scored Tellez. But Joey Bart grounded out with runners on first and second to end the game. Tellez finished the game with a pair of doubles and drew a walk.

Up Next

The Pirates are now 14-15 and will remain in the Bay Area for three games with the Oakland A’s. The first one is Monday night, scheduled for 9:40 PT. Bailey Falter (2-1, 3.33 ERA) is scheduled to go against Joe Boyle (1-4, 7.06 ERA).