PITTSBURGH _ On a day when an Austin Slater home run looked like an out, and when a routine fly ball turned into a base running misadventure for Brandon Belt, the Giants beat the Pittsburgh Pirates with a fittingly wild finish.
Denard Span raced home on a wild pitch from Daniel Hudson with two outs in the 11th inning, providing the go-ahead run in 2-1 victory Saturday at PNC Park. Sam Dyson, acquired in a trade on June 6, registered his first save with the Giants. With Mark Melancon on the disabled list, Dyson allowed a one-out single to Jose Osuna, but got dangerous Andrew McCutchen on a ground out and struck out David Freese.
It was Giants' fifth win in a row, matching their season high.
So ended an unusual sequence of events. The first oddity of the day came in the sixth inning. With the Giants still in search of their first hit against Chad Kuhl, rookie Austin Slater led off by mashing a ball toward dead center field.
Outfielder Andrew McCutchen, a former Gold Glover, raced back and crashed against the wall with a spectacular leap. And then? Well, it took a few moments to sort out.
The Pirates home crowd erupted in cheers, apparently believing McCutchen had made a terrific catch. The ovation lasted for so long that even Slater wasn't so sure. He slowed as he rounded the bases and looked to second base umpire Dan Iassonga for guidance.
The catch was only an illusion: Not only did Slater's blast clear the wall, McCutchen never so much as touched it.
But that wasn't even the strangest play of the day.
With one out and Brandon Crawford at the plate in the seventh inning, Belt bolted for second on an apparent hit-and-run. Crawford hit the pitch from Tony Watson for an ordinary fly ball to center _ but nothing was ordinary after that.
Belt, perhaps deked by an infielder, slid needlessly into second base at a time when he should have been in retreat. As he popped up from his slide, he realized McCutchen had caught the ball.
Unaware that the footwork of his pop-up slide had taken him a half-step beyond the bag, Belt made took a direct back to first base. The Pirates noticed the slip-up, though, and immediately called for a replay review, arguing that Belt should be out for not re-touching second on his way back to first.
After a 3-minute examination of the angles, the MLB replay officials agreed.
In a less dramatic development, Giants starter Matt Moore delivered a solid outing amid an otherwise lousy season. He entered this game with an 8.39 ERA on the road _ worst in the majors _ but allowed only one-run over 52/3 innings.
Moore tied a career high with six walks, but half of those came during his shaky first inning. He rebounded to allow only a run-scoring single to Josh Bell in the third. Moore got relief help from George Kontos, who entered with two out in the sixth to strike out Josh Harrison with the bases loaded.
