PIRATES

Bubba Chandler might not have been at his very best in the Pirates' 7-6 extra-inning loss to the Giants this afternoon here at Oracle Park, but he did enough over his five innings to put his team in a situation where they could win a game and a series. 

Sure there were some mistakes, like the third-inning fastball up and in that resulted in a Luis Arraez RBI single, or the 1-0 slider that landed middle in to Heliot Ramos before he sent it out to left field for a solo homer in the fourth. There wasn't much else to gripe over, though. Chandler ultimately allowed five hits, limited the walks to just one and struck out three before exiting the game with a lead intact. 

He pounded the strike zone and, again, made sure that the free passes weren't hurting him. If anything, he forced the opposing hitters to earn their way on base and earn their run production. 

"I thought he did a really good job staying in the zone," Don Kelly said. "Stuff was electric. The fourth inning could have gotten away from him, but he found a way to get back in the zone and get through that inning." 

Getting ahead in counts helped, too. Chandler threw first-pitch strikes to 15 of the 21 batters he faced. Of the five hits he allowed, three came on 1-0 pitches in the zone. 

"The name of the game is get ahead, stay ahead," Chandler said. "Usually stuff works out in your favor. For most of the day, 0-1 was really good. The one time it wasn't, I gave up a solo homer. Pitching with a lead, pitching ahead in counts makes the game a lot easier."