PIRATES

When the Pirates turned to a rested Isaac Mattson while holding a two-run lead in the sixth inning this afternoon, the decision was made with the idea that he would navigate through the middle of the Giants' order and pass the baton along to the next reliever. 

There's certainly a high level of belief in a pitcher like Mattson, who produced 15 consecutive scoreless appearances before struggling to the tune of five earned runs allowed in an appearance against the Cardinals on April 30. On this day, however, he wasn't able to get the job done, allowing two earned runs on three doubles by Rafael Devers, Heliot Ramos and Matt Chapman in what spiraled to become a 7-6 loss to the Giants in 12 innings here at Oracle Park. 

"Going back to the last outing at home, I just felt like I wasn't in the zone enough. Too many walks and put myself in a bad spot," said Mattson, who was replaced by Mason Montgomery after the Chapman double tied the game. "The outing in Arizona, I felt like I came in, executed when I needed to, picked up a teammate and tried to do my job there. And then here, just kind of wearing it on the chin more than anything else. Didn't execute as much as I'd like to as far as the pitches I wanted to throw. I still feel like I could have done better in that spot, but in the same way I felt like I picked up Monty (in Arizona), Monty came in and did a great job getting us out of that inning and keeping the game where it was.” 

Mattson simply struggled to locate his pitches in two-strike counts. He was a strike away from punching out all three hitters that doubled, but he couldn't execute a fastball in the zone and was punished for it. 

He wasn't the only bullpen arm who factored into this loss, though. Montgomery, Dennis Santana and Gregory Soto managed to keep the Giants scoreless to force extra innings, but Yohan Ramirez and Justin Lawrence, two relievers who have had their share of struggles this season, combined to allow three runs (one earned) on three hits with four walks. Ramirez had three of those walks in his two innings and also hit two batters to load the bases in the 10th inning. 

“I don't want to speak for everybody, but I think as a bullpen we definitely left some things on the table that we can get better at," Mattson said. "Just being able to focus on the day that we have right in front of us (is important). Try not to get too sped up, take it day-by-day and get better." 

The Pirates had plenty of opportunities to secure a third straight series win and finish off the road trip with a winning record. There were squandered offensive chances -- they went 2 for 15 with runners in scoring position and left 13 on base -- and opportunities on the mound to close the door with two separate two-run leads. Mattson gave up one of those in the sixth and Ramirez saw the other disappear in the 10th. 

“We can always look back on tough moments,” Don Kelly said. “We had chances to win. Sometimes you focus on one thing or another. There were so many opportunities in that game for us to score more runs, hold them. Unfortunately it just didn’t go our way.”

These are the collective performances that can be magnified over the course of a 162-game season. The bullpen has put forth better efforts in the past and has helped this team win games, but there have also been some outings that have cost the team wins. Mattson said the key for this group moving forward is to simply make sure that they're minimizing the bad ones. 

"It's not ideal when you go out and you give up five runs or three runs," Mattson said. "As relievers, you're gonna have bad outings and just trying to find ways to minimize within those instead of giving up five, giving up two, something like that. That's kind of the mindset, when it does happen to be that day where you don't have your A-plus stuff, just do your best to minimize and be able to give the ball to the next guy with the lead."