A scoreless game came down to the 2023 National League saves leaders pitching the ninth inning, and San Francisco’s Camilo Doval escaped a bases-loaded jam against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
David Bednar wasn’t as fortunate.
Patrick Bailey hit a three-run home run to lift the Giants to a 3-0 walk-off win Friday night at Oracle Park to hand the Pirates (13-14) their third consecutive loss and drop them below .500 for the first time this season.
The ending spoiled Quinn Priester’s best start for the Pirates. The rookie right-hander mixed his sinker and slider to keep the ball on the ground and the scoreboard filled with zeroes, recording six strikeouts and holding the Giants to three hits in six shutout innings.
Pirates manager Derek Shelton called it a “really, really solid outing.”
“He was really good. He was in control,” Shelton said of Priester on the SportsNet Pittsburgh postgame show. “Had a little bit of traffic there in the sixth but, other than that, he really attacked the zone and went right after people (with) execution of all four pitches.”
But the Pirates went 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position and left 11 runners on base through nine innings, a sticking point for Shelton.
“We hit some balls hard. We hit a lot of balls hard early,” Shelton said. “We just did not execute with runners in scoring position. We have to get runners in. We left, what, 11 guys on? We cannot do that. We have to put the ball in play. We have to drive runners in. We gave ourselves opportunities. It wasn’t like there was not opportunities to score runs; we just didn’t execute on those opportunities.”
The Giants took advantage with runners on second and third against Bednar (1-2) in the final frame. Michael Conforto drew a bases-loaded walk and Matt Chapman followed with a single up the middle. Both runners advanced on a wild pitch, putting them in scoring position for Bailey with no outs. Bailey then hit Bednar’s 1-1 fastball 378 feet to right field for the win.
Giants rookie left-hander Kyle Harrison answered with a similar performance to Priester, getting seven strikeouts without a walk while giving up five hits in six scoreless innings.
The Pirates had two runners in scoring position in the first inning, when Ke’Bryan Hayes hit a two-out single to right field and Connor Joe doubled to left. But Harrison got Edward Olivares to ground out to third to escape the jam.
After giving up a pair of singles in the second inning, Priester got Tyler Fitzgerald to ground out to second. That was the start of Priester retiring 11 consecutive Giants until the sixth, when Jung Hoo Lee hit a one-out single to center and LaMonte Wade Jr. drew a walk. Priester recovered, striking out Jorge Soler and getting Conforto to ground out to first.
“To get through that inning, he had to go through the heart of their order,” Shelton said. “He just continued to make pitches.”
Despite getting a hit in each of the first four innings, the Pirates couldn’t generate another rally. Harrison retired the final nine batters he faced before being replaced by righty Ryan Walker in the seventh. The Pirates rallied with two outs, as Michael A. Taylor hit a full-count single to left, Henry Davis worked an eight-pitch walk and Andrew McCutchen was hit by a pitch. That loaded the bases for Bryan Reynolds, who went down swinging on a 2-2 slider to leave the runners stranded and the game scoreless.
Submariner Taylor Rogers retired the first two batters of the eighth before pinch hitter Jack Suwinski reached on an error by Chapman, as the four-time Gold Glove winner fumbled a routine grounder. But Rogers got Triolo to ground out to end the frame.
Nick Ahmed hit a one-out bloop single to right off Chapman, but was picked off at first in a 1-3-6 rundown. That was a big play for the Pirates, taking a runner out of scoring position for the Giants as Lee and pinch hitter Wilmer Flores drew back-to-back four-pitch walks. Soler hit a sharp grounder down the third base line that saw Hayes make a spectacular snag and then touched the base to end the inning.
Doval (2-0) came on in the ninth, only for Oneil Cruz to hit a leadoff single to center and race to third on Taylor’s single down the right field line. After Doval got pinch hitter Rowdy Tellez swinging at a slider, McCutchen drew a full-count walk to load the bases. But Reynolds hit a comebacker to Doval, who turned a 1-2-3 double play.
“We’ve pitched well. Our starting pitching has been good,” Shelton said. “We’ve got some work to do. We’ve got to figure this out.”
Kevin Gorman is a TribLive reporter covering the Pirates. A Baldwin native and Penn State graduate, he joined the Trib in 1999 and has covered high school sports, Pitt football and basketball and was a sports columnist for 10 years. He can be reached at kgorman@triblive.com.