Pirates Come From Behind in Walk-Off Win Over Giants

PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates fell behind early to the San Francisco Giants, but made a late comeback and won 5-4 on a walk-off in the series opener at PNC Park.

It is back-to-back wins for the Pirates, who won 9-5 in the series finale over the Colorado Rockies on Aug. 3, after losing 17-16 on Aug. 1 and 8-5 on Aug. 2.

The Pirates have now10 of 13 games, with a sweep over the Detroit Tigers, July 21-23, taking two games out of three over the Arizona Diamondbacks, July 25 and 26, both at PNC Park, plus a sweep of the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park, July 28-30.

It is also four wins for Pittsburgh over San Francisco, as they swept them at Oracle Park, July 28-30.

Right-handed pitcher Johan Oviedo made his first start of the season for the Pirates and his first since Sept, 27, 2023, as he worked back from Tommy John surgery and lat problems.

He had a tough start, as he loaded the bases in the top of the first inning, by allowing a leadoff single to Giants left fielder Heliot Ramos and walking both first baseman Rafael Devers and shortstop Willy Adames.

Oviedo struck out third baseman Matt Chapman, then gave up a single to designated hitter Dominic Smith, scoring Ramos and putting the Giants up 1-0.

He then walked second baseman Casey Schmitt, bringing home Devers and doubling the lead for San Francisco at 2-0.

Oviedo got out of the inning with back-to-back strikeouts of center fielder Jung Hoo Lee and catcher Patrick Bailey, which ended his outing after 43 pitches.

First baseman Spencer Horwitz led off with a double for the Pirates in the bottom of the first inning and would score off of back-to-back ground outs from left fielder Tommy Pham and second baseman Nick Gonzales, halving the deficit at 2-1.

Right-handed relief pitcher Yohan Ramírez came in for Oviedo and threw 2.2 scoreless innings, allowing three hits and posting two strikeouts for the Pirates.

Pirates desingated hitter Andrew McCutchen hit a double in the bottom of the fourth inning that put him at 2,240 hits in his career, placing him at 177th all-time in MLB history, moving ahead of first basemen John Olerud (1989-2005) and Fred Tenney (1894-1911).

Peguero hit a hard ground ball at Chapman, who made a nice play and threw it to Devers at first base, but he couldn't come up with it. Peguero then moved to second base and McCutchen to third base, putting runners in scoring position for the Pirates with one out.

Pittsburgh failed to bring any runs home, as right fielder Jack Suwinski grounded to Devers, who threw McCutchen out at home and then catcher Joey Bart struck out.

Right-handed relief pitcher Kyle Nicolas allowed back-to-back walks to Adames and Chapman in the top of the fifth inning. He struck out Smith and got Schmitt to fly out, but allowed a triple to Lee, scoring both Adames and Chapman and extending the Giants' lead to 4-1.

Peguero would leadoff with a walk in the bottom of the eighth inning and then Suwinski hit a two-run home run on a fastball down the middle, cutting the deficit to just 4-3.