Isaac Mattson finishes off Giants as Pirates take advantage of extra-inning mishap for sweep
The Pittsburgh Pirates took advantage of an extra-inning mishap, then placed Isaac Mattson in a predicament.
The right-handed reliever rose to the occasion to clinch the team’s first road sweep in more than a year.
With runners on second and third in the bottom of the 10th inning, Mattson struck out Patrick Bailey and Heliot Ramos to finish off a 2-1 win over the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday afternoon at Oracle Park.
“You know he’s got the ability to strike guys out,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said of Mattson on the SportsNet Pittsburgh postgame show, “but to strike them out in that situation with second and third and one and two out, unbelievable.”
The Pirates won despite striking out 14 times, going 0 for 12 with runners in scoring position and stranding 13. They took advantage of a 10th-inning mistake by Giants reliever Ryan Walker to take the lead.
After Nick Gonzales grounded out to advance automatic runner Oneil Cruz to third base, Jack Suwinski worked a 10-pitch at-bat to draw a walk. Instead of throwing home to get Cruz out on a play at the plate on a Henry Davis comebacker, Walker threw to second base to try to turn a double play. But Suwinski beat the throw, allowing Cruz to score the go-ahead run.
“We couldn’t get that big base hit but continued to put at-bats together, especially at the end,” Kelly said. “Finding ways to scratch and claw and score a run.”
But the Pirates had a mishap of their own in the bottom of the 10th when Suwinski lost track of Casey Schmitt’s fly ball to left field. A sacrifice bunt by Mike Yastrzemski put automatic runner Brett Wisely and Schmitt in scoring position before Mattson got the strikeouts to clinch the win.
“The confidence is there,” second baseman Gonzales said of Mattson. “He attacks the zone. In those tough situations, he takes a deep breath and collects himself. That’s cool to see. The long holds, the long pauses, everything he does and the deception he has is pretty good.”
It was the fifth consecutive win for the Pirates (47-62) as they swept the three-game series. It was their first road sweep since taking three games at the Chicago White Sox from July 12-14, 2024.
The Giants (54-55) extended their losing streak to six games heading into the MLB trade deadline. They have lost 12 of their last 14 games, have dropped eight consecutive home games and are 14-26 since July 13.
A day before the trade deadline was the perfect time for the Pirates and Giants to stage a pitchers’ duel, especially given that their bullpens were depleted by deals.
Before the game, the Pirates traded Gold Glove third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes to the Cincinnati Reds for left-handed reliever Taylor Rogers and 20-year-old minor league shortstop Sammy Stafura. That left the Pirates with four infielders, so Isiah Kiner-Falefa started at third base and Liover Peguero at shortstop.
During the game, the Pirates sent lefty reliever Caleb Ferguson to the Seattle Mariners for 19-year-old righty Jeter Martinez. The Giants also dealt a reliever mid-game, sending righty Tyler Rogers (Taylor’s twin) to the New York Mets.
Giants starter Logan Webb had 11 strikeouts in 52⁄3 innings, falling one short of his season-best 12 at the Los Angeles Angels on April 18. He allowed one run on five hits and four walks on a season-high 109 pitches.
The right-hander recorded 10 strikeouts through the first four innings, including five consecutive, but it took a toll on his pitch count as it required 78 pitches. Webb had runners on the corners in the fourth when Gonzales singled, and Suwinski drew a walk, but Gonzales was stranded at third base by a fly out to the warning track in center by Davis and a strikeout of Peguero.
Burrows allowed one run on three hits and one walk while striking out seven in six innings, notching his second consecutive quality start.
The rookie right-hander retired the first nine batters he faced before Ramos led off the fourth with a single to left, advanced to second on a Willy Adames single to left and scored on Dominic Smith’s two-out single to right for a 1-0 Giants lead. With runners on the corners, Suwinski stretched out to rob Jung Hoo Lee on a line drive to left.
“It’s been really fun watching him pitch,” Mattson said of Burrows. “Mike continues to just push the envelope with the things he’s trying to do and execute, and he’s really executing at a high level.”
The Pirates answered by tying it in the fifth. Kiner-Falefa hit a leadoff single, then scored on a double to center by Spencer Horwitz. Andrew McCutchen reached on a force out, and Bryan Reynolds and Cruz drew back-to-back, full-count walks to load the bases, but Gonzales grounded into a 1-2-3 double play to end the scoring threat.
After making a spectacular catch over the short wall in foul territory in the top of the eighth, Giants right fielder Yastrzemski started the bottom of the inning by beating out a bunt. He advanced to second on a sacrifice by Patrick Bailey and to third on a groundout by Ramos. But Carmen Mlodzinski got Rafael Devers to fly out to left to escape.
Horwitz led off the ninth with a single, but Camilo Doval struck out McCutchen and Reynolds swinging and Cruz looking. With two outs in the ninth, Dominic Smith singled to center and was replaced by pinch runner Brett Wisely. But Mattson got Lee to fly out to left, setting up his extra-inning heroics.
“I think every game we fought hard up until the last inning,” Gonzales said. “Mattson doing what he does, digging deep — and we got the sweep.”
Kevin Gorman is a TribLive reporter covering the Pirates. A Baldwin native and Penn State graduate, he joined the Trib in 1999 and has covered high school sports, Pitt football and basketball and was a sports columnist for 10 years. He can be reached at kgorman@triblive.com.
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