Pirates Drop Giants 4-1, Snap Streak

The Pittsburgh Pirates salvaged a 4-1 win before heading off to Arizona.  The Bucs scored both of their runs off San Francisco starter Ryan Vogelsong in the second inning. Garrett Jones got the offense started when he led off with a towering solo bomb.  Alex Presley added the second with an RBI single.

And then with the bases drunk and two down, Alex Presley nearly got all of a perfectly placed dribbler between the pitchers mound and first base.

Vogelsong’s first reaction was to field it, but the thirtysomething’s age caught up with him. He was then fucked to cover first base as the Pirates scored their second run.

"“It froze me for a second,” he said. “It was just kind of in the perfect spot in between. But the fact that I walked the No. 8 hitter, that changes the whole thing. If I get him out, then I’ve got (Kevin) Correia hitting with two outs.”"

Kevin Correia, Jared Hughes, Jason Grilli, and Joel Hanrahan shut down the Giants holding them to five hits and one run.   The Bucs pitchers sent their strand rate through the roof after leaving nine more baserunners stranded.

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Clint Hurdle has huge balls.  A no out squeeze play with Josh Harrison at the plate, Casey McGehee on third and Neil Walker on first.

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Andrew McCutchen was robbed.

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Seeing Vogelsong’s success last season was great.  Yeh, right.  It was downright painful.

So watching Correia and Grilli return the favor, even if just for one day, felt absolutely perfect.  Correia was with the Giants from 2003 to 2008.  The right hander held the Giants to just three hits and a free pass in his six innings.

The Giants former first-rounder Jason Grilli made it sting for Giants fans with a heart pumping eighth inning.  Grilli had a few mistake pitches that took our breath away, after giving up an Angel Pagan lead off triple.

Why Pagan didn’t score on a sharply hit grounder to Casey McGehee at first is beyond us.  Pablo Sandoval then worked a walk off the Pirates set-up man which brought up Buster Posey.  Unlike us, Grilli didn’t have pee in his pants and three pitches later (corner, corner, missed—but still got him)

Pagan had a front row seat to it all when Grilli completed the Houdini act by getting Nate Schierholtz on a fly ball.

After firing his first pitch for a strike, we thought Joel Hanrahan would cruise. But after some nail biting, Hanrahan kept the Giants off the scoreboard to earn his first save, leaving two Giants runners stranded.