A major baserunning gaffe and a wide-throw on a wild pitch proved costly as the Pirates fell to the Giants 7-5 on Wednesday afternoon.
With the Pirates (57-50) ahead 5-4 with one out in the sixth inning and Travis Snider and Gaby Sanchez on second and third, Chris Stewart walked. Snider didn’t realize first base was unoccupied and started walking towards third. The Giants realized what was happening and tagged out Snider for the second out. Sanchez saw the play unfold and tried to get into a rundown to allow the runners to advance, but was tagged out for the final out of the inning. It goes into the books as a walk/double play.
The bottom of the seventh inning brought more mental errors after the Giants (58-50) tied the game at five and had runners on the corners with one out. Reliever Justin Wilson uncorked a wild pitch that quickly bounced off the backstop and back at Stewart. Stewart had time to get the relay to Wilson for the tag at home, but his throw went wide and towards second base allowing the Giants to take the lead. They would add another run in the eighth against Jeanmar Gomez to extend their lead.
The Pirates were unable to recover from the baserunning debacle and went down quietly.
Starters Tim Lincecum and Charlie Morton didn’t have their best stuff on the day allowing a combined total of nine earned runs in 8 1/3 combined innings of work.
Josh Harrison and Jordy Mercer contributed to the Pirates offensive effort with home runs.
Final Score: Giants 7, Pirates 5.
The loss combined with a Brewers victory drops the Pirates to two games back in the NL Central.
Starters Lines
Morton (ND): 5 IP, 9 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 2 K’s, 1 WP, 1 HBP. 95 Pitches (54 Strikes).
Lincecum (ND): 3 1/3 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 2 K’s, 2 HR, 2 WP. 78 Pitches (46 Strikes).
The Pirates will now travel to Arizona for a four-game set against the Diamondbacks.
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(Photo Credit: Denis Poroy/Getty Images)
