Johan Oviedo pitched 6 ⅔ innings for the Pittsburgh Pirates in Thursday’s series finale against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium, allowing six hits while punching out six.

Unfortunately, two of those hits were two-run homers, which, combined with the Pirates managing only four hits of their own, contributed to a 5-2 loss, their third of the four-game series.

“I thought Oviedo did a nice job and just made a couple of bad pitches and that ultimately ended up being the deciding factor,” said manager Derek Shelton on the AT&T SportsNet postgame show. “… You have to execute every single pitch because if it’s near the middle of the plate, they’re going to do damage on it.”

Julio Urias, starting for the Dodgers, pitched six innings, limiting the Pirates to three hits while striking out eight and walking one, to pick up the win.

The Pirates’ prospects were dealt an early blow in the bottom of the first inning, as within minutes, the Dodgers had built a 2-0 lead courtesy of a Freddie Freeman home run that plated Mookie Betts, who led off with a double.

But in the top of the second, the Pirates (40-47) answered, tying the game when Nick Gonzales’ ground-ball double down the third base line scored Connor Joe, who led off with a single, and Jack Suwinski, who doubled to left field over the head of David Peralta.

But from there, the Pirates’ next hit came in the top of the eighth, a dribbling infield single off the bat of pinch-hitter Tucupita Marcano, who was quickly erased on a double play hit into by Josh Palacios.

Both Oviedo (3-10, 4.75 ERA) and Urias (6-5, 4.76 ERA) stabilized after allowing early runs.

Oviedo pitched 1-2-3 second, third and fourth innings, striking out the side in the bottom of the third, while Urias denied the Pirates any baserunners after Gonzales’ double through the top of the sixth, when Ke’Bryan Hayes drew a leadoff walk.

Hayes, activated from the injured list Thursday, led off and played third base in his first game since June 24. He went 0 for 3 with two strikeouts.

To begin the bottom of the fifth, Miguel Vargas popped up the first pitch from Oviedo into left field, but Bryan Reynolds lost track of the ball, as did Suwinski in center, resulting in a double.

Thankfully for the Pirates, Oviedo was able to retire James Outman, Austin Barnes and Betts, avoiding any damage.

Oviedo, who entered the bottom of the sixth at only 60 pitches, saw his solid start unravel, when, after Freeman led off with a double, Max Muncy hit a home run to center field to put Los Angeles up, 4-2.

In addition to their lack of baserunners, frustrations mounted in the top of the seventh when Suwinski was rung up on strikes by home plate umpire John Libka for the inning’s second out.

From the Pirates dugout, hitting coach Andy Haines took exception to the call, a changeup from Los Angeles reliever Nick Robertson, resulting in Haines’ ejection.

Oviedo came out to pitch the seventh but was replaced with two outs by Angel Perdomo after giving up a double to Betts.

Betts then came around to score on a single by Freeman off Perdomo, a run charged to Oviedo.

A ninth-inning rally was not in the cards for the Pirates, with Reynolds fouling out, Henry Davis grounding out and Carlos Santana striking out to end the game.

Thursday’s two-run loss followed Wednesday evening’s defeat at the hands of the Dodgers, also by a margin of two runs, which saw the Pirates squander bases-loaded opportunities with no outs in the top of the seventh and ninth innings.

“Overall, we played well against a good team, but we just didn’t finish the games,” Shelton said.

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