Pirates bullpen blows Johan Oviedo's strong start as Giants score twice in 8th for win

Johan Oviedo came into his first start of the second half with six consecutive losses, a streak the Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander desperately wanted to end against the San Francisco Giants.

Oviedo delivered a strong start, tying his career high with 10 strikeouts while allowing only one hit before exiting with the score tied after striking out the side in the seventh inning.

Even his best wasn’t good enough.

The Giants rallied to score two runs in the eighth inning against the Pirates’ bullpen for a 3-1 win Saturday night before a fireworks crowd of 34,236 at PNC Park. There was a 40-minute delay because of inclement weather before the start of the game.

It was the Pirates’ ninth loss in 11 games and a rough way to waste a quality start by Oviedo, who became the fifth Pirates pitcher to go seven innings and allow one hit or fewer, the first since Francisco Cordova’s nine no-hit innings against the Houston Astros on July 12, 1997.

“It’s extremely frustrating,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “Ovi threw the ball great. … He was in command of the game and obviously it’s frustrating that we weren’t able to push more runs across.”

The Pirates (41-51) unraveled after Oviedo exited, as Carmen Mlodzinski gave up a one-out walk to LaMonte Wade Jr. and a single to right to Joc Pederson.Shelton turned to All-Star closer David Bednar in hopes for a five-out save. Bednar struck out J.D. Davis for the second out before disaster ensued.

Michael Conforto hit a line drive to right field to score pinch runner Casey Schmitt to give the Giants a 2-1 lead. Right fielder Henry Davis’ throw to the plate was off target, so catcher Jason Delay cut it off and threw to second base to try to pick off Conforto. Delay made an errant throw to second and shortstop Tucupita Marcano missed the tag, allowing Pederson to score for a 3-1 Giants lead.

“After watching the replay, once he’s by him, once he swiped on the tag, he’s not going to chase him to the bag,” Shelton said. “So, it’s probably a situation there where we just have to hold the ball.”

The only hit Oviedo gave up went for a home run, when he left an 0-2 fastball over the middle of the plate and Mike Yastrzemski smashed a 414-foot shot to right-center for his 11th home run and a 1-0 Giants lead in the top of the second inning.

Davis answered by driving Alex Cobb’s first-pitch sinker 422 feet to left for his second home run, a no-doubter that tied the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the second. Davis’ second career homer had an exit velocity of 108.1 mph, the third-hardest hit of the season for the Pirates.

Oviedo hit a batter and gave up three walks, including a pair of free passes in the sixth. After a mound visit by Pirates pitching coach Oscar Marin, Oviedo got Yastrzemski to ground out to first to escape without damage.

Oviedo then struck out the side in the seventh, getting Patrick Bailey swinging on a 2-2 curveball, Blake Sabol on a full-count fastball and Brandon Crawford on a 2-2 fastball. Oviedo’s 107 pitches (74 strikes) also were a career-best, as he matched his 10 strikeouts in a 3-0 loss at St. Louis on April 14.

Getting ahead in the counts was key for Oviedo, who threw first-pitch strikes against 19 of the 26 batters he faced. The Giants started chasing and went down swinging on all 10 strikeouts.

“They were swinging earlier and as soon as they got to two strikes, I would just try to execute good pitches, trying to not do too much,” Oviedo said. “Thankfully, we got some strikes.”

Giants All-Star Alex Cobb allowed one run on four hits and two walks with five strikeouts in six innings. The closest the Pirates came to scoring again came in the fifth inning, when Jared Triolo hit a leadoff single and advanced to second on an Austin Hedges bunt, but Bryan Reynolds hit a liner off Cobb’s foot that bounced to Wade Jr. at first base for the final out.

“Reynolds hits a rocket off Cobb’s foot and (if) it’s a base hit, we’re talking about a different game,” Shelton said. “Right now, we’re not having that ball get through for us.”

Lefty Taylor Rogers replaced Cobb in the seventh and gave up a one-out walk to Triolo and a single to right to pinch hitter Connor Joe but struck out Jack Suwinski and got Reynolds to fly out to left to keep the score knotted.

The Pirates tried to rally in the bottom of the ninth against All-Star closer Camilo Doval. Marcano hit a leadoff single, then advanced to second on a wild pitch. But Doval got Triolo to ground out to second, pinch hitter Josh Palacios to pop up to second and Suwinski to ground out to short to earn his 28th save.

“As a team, we always try to push as hard as we can,” Oviedo said. “One of the things that I know about this team is that we’re never going to give up. We didn’t get the results that we wanted, but as always, we’re going to come back tomorrow and give 100%.”