SAN FRANCISCO -- For someone like Derek Shelton, almost always laughing or light-hearted, to apply the term 'frustrating' to one of the Pirates' performances, it's probably the equivalent of Lloyd McClendon uprooting first base.
For Shelton to use the term 'very frustrating,' we might be up to Jim Leyland upending the food table.
Both of those occurred, of course, in the past week, an ugly collapse against the first-place Mets in a homestand finale, then an uglier all-around three-game sweep at the hands of the National League-worst Diamondbacks in Phoenix. And as grotesque as those were in their own right, they stood in painfully stark contrast to the solid week's showing against New York that preceded it.
So, once the charter flight touched down at SFO late Wednesday night, Shelton offered to his players ... a sincere hope that they'd enjoy their free day here Thursday.
And by the next day, in facing the National League-best Giants ...
"It was a good response for us," Bryan Reynolds would muse late Friday night after his two-run moon shot into McCovey Cove helped the Pirates prevail, 6-4, at Oracle Park. "We had the off-day to clear our heads a little bit and hit the restart button. It was good to come out here against a good team and get a win."
Funny game, this baseball.
Chad Kuhl fanned eight, the bullpen took it up, and the offense ... man, other than Reynolds' home run and Gregory Polanco's earlier RBI triple, probably the best way to explain it is that the Pirates got back to doing what Shelton's expected throughout: Play hard.
Fast-forward to the Pittsburgh seventh, right after San Francisco had tied it, 3-3:
Say what one will about the Giants' butchery here, but give it up for Adam Frazier busting it from second to score. No way he could/should have anticipated what was to come.pic.twitter.com/m3a0BnTyiz
— Dejan Kovacevic (@Dejan_Kovacevic) July 24, 2021
Bases had been loaded to open the inning, and Adam Frazier worked a full-count walk to reclaim the lead, 4-3. But Ke'Bryan Hayes chopped into a 6-2 forceout, Reynolds struck out on three pitches, and it looked like another one of those soul-sucking scenes that've been all too common this summer. Not to mention how it looked when cleanup man Ben Gamel bounced innocuously right to first baseman LaMonte Wade Jr.
Three runs, no hits.
That whole scene moved Shelton so much that, before taking any questions in his postgame access, he opened with this, which I'll share uncut: "That’s a good win for our club, to bounce back after Arizona, where we didn’t play well, and really do a lot of things well. The one thing I really want to point out is that you don’t score three runs very often without a hit. What you saw in that inning is something that really important for us organizationally. You see Jacob Stallings go hard into second. They don’t turn a double play. You see Ke’Bryan bust his butt on a ground ball where it could've been a double play. You see Frazier score from second on that. You see Gamel go hard down the line. I think it’s a testament to our group because we'd just given up two runs, given up the lead, then they came right back and they really played hard. Kudos to these guys."
Rewinding to how those bases were loaded, and adding context to Shelton's remarks: Stallings worked a leadoff walk, Newman grounded to the shortstop, but Stallings beat the play at second because there'd been a hit-and-run, and Newman beat the relay to first.
Gabe Kapler, the Giants' manager, said that Thairo Estrada, filling in at short for injured Brandon Crawford, would've been "best served" to simply fire across to first and record the sure out.
Of the bigger-by-a-mile blunder committed by Wade, Kapler said, “I think LaMonte had some time there. He’s been so good for us at first base, so instinctive, so quick. In this particular case, I think he had a little bit more time than he realized and fumbled with it a little bit and wasn’t able to complete the play. He’s a human being.”
The Giants, it's fair to note, were fresh off back-to-back dramatic rallies to beat the archrival Dodgers in Los Angeles, and their own charter flight didn't touch down at SFO until the wee hours of Friday morning. Undoubtedly as a reaction, Kapler had warned in the afternoon of the Pirates, “We’ve got to remember that this is a good baseball team, independent of record. You just can’t let off the gas at all.”
Sound familiar?
GETTY
The Giants' Mike Yastrzemski objects to being rung up for the final out on a Richard Rodriguez strikeout Friday night in San Francisco.
MORE FROM THE GAME
• Kuhl was dynamite ... until he wasn't.
Got his first six outs by way of strikeouts, then fanned two more in the third inning for a career-high eight. And that'd be it. No more Ks, and the Giants got around to firm contact in the sixth with a booming double by Buster Posey and a roped two-run home run by Alex Dickerson, both to right, to tie, 3-3. Shelton took the ball right then.
The story's the standard: Kuhl has the stuff. Kuhl can't always command the stuff. Both of the pitches on the Posey/Dickerson boomers were dead-red.
I asked Kuhl about that wild opening.
"It probably looked good, but it was just one of those things where I got a ton of swings and misses," he replied. "I really wanted some early action. I’ll take quick outs over strikeouts any day. But the slider was working, and we just stuck with it. It didn’t matter what count, if it was 2-0 or 0-2, I just had such a good feel for it that we rolled with it."
• The bullpen had a bit of an odd night, on one hand getting zeroes from Chris Stratton, Clay Holmes and David Bednar, and one hollow run conceded by Richard Rodriguez ... but on the other hand, everyone other than a dominant Holmes putting people aboard.
"We'd prefer not to walk the leadoff hitter like we did," Shelton replied when I raised this. "But once they got into situations, they really buckled down and executed pitches. Stratton did it. Holmes was really good tonight. That ball was coming out hot — 97-98 mph -- probably the best stuff we’ve seen out of him in a month. Richie gave up the one, but was able to come back and execute pitches. For Richie, there were three or four good sliders tonight, which we have not seen a lot of."
Believe it or not, Shelton's underplaying Holmes' outing. It was a wow.
• Reynolds, plainly hellbent to prove 2020 never occurred on this plane of reality, is now up to 18 home runs, most of any center fielder in the league.
"I was just looking for something elevated because I'd been chasing down that at-bat," he said. "Was trying to get something up. The slider was up."
It eventually was down, of course, once it got wet.
• More from the baseball-is-a-funny-game department, the Pirates are now 18-8 in their past 26 games against the Giants dating back to April 15, 2012. Take it from someone who's covered most of those: I have no idea, either.
• Still more: The Pirates are 3-2 against the Giants this season, 4-3 against the Mets, giving them a winning record against two of the league's three first-place teams.
THE REST
• Max Kranick was optioned back to Class AAA Indianapolis to clear space for Luis Oviedo's eternal stint on the IL, which I'm sure had nothing at all to do with his Rule 5 status. He did some starting in his equally eternal rehab stint, but Shelton said that was simply to ensure a more controlled setting there.
• Had a good talk with Colin Moran at batting practice. He's predictably bummed at having missed all this time but hopeful he'll be back soon. Really rotten luck has ruined what could've been a cementing season for him in the bigs. Maybe he'll still be able to salvage some of it.
• I had to ask Moran, by the way, how he was visibly the only player in the Pirates' dugout who knew Jacob Stallings' grand slam against the Mets would, in fact, clear the fence. While everyone else was watching the ball, Moran was climbing the railing and bolting toward Stallings.
"The sound," came the simple explanation. "I knew he got it."
• If you liked what you saw of Bednar in that scoreless eighth inning here, and you liked what you saw of his brother Will pitching for Mississippi State in the College World Series, you'll love the folks:
Andy and Sue experienced every baseball couple's dream by having one son pitch for the Pirates, the other signed by the Giants on this very day after being San Francisco's 14th overall pick in the recent draft.
Good people. Hope that comes across. Could be a fun storyline to follow for years to come.
THE ESSENTIALS
THE LINEUPS
Shelton's card:
1. Adam Frazier, 2B
2. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
3. Bryan Reynolds, CF
4. Ben Gamel, LF
5. John Nogowski, 1B
6. Gregory Polanco, RF
7. Jacob Stallings, C
8. Kevin Newman, SS
9. Chad Kuhl, RHP
And for Gabe Kapler's Giants:
1. LaMonte Wade Jr., 1B
2. Mike Yastrzemski, RF
3. Buster Posey, C
4. Alex Dickerson, LF
5. Donovan Solano, 2B
6. Jason Vosler, 3B
7. Thairo Estrada, SS
8. Steven Duggar, CF
9. Johnny Cueto, RHP
THE SCHEDULE
Two more out here. The Saturday sandwich game, at 9:05 p.m. Eastern, has Wil Crowe (1-5, 6.12 ERA) against righty Kevin Gausman (9-3, 1.84) in what would appear to be an epic mismatch.
IN THE SYSTEM
THE CONTENT
Visit our team page for everything.