PITTSBURGH — Twice, Jacob Stallings stepped to the plate with the chance to change Saturday night’s game against the San Francisco Giants. Twice, the Pirates catcher came through.
The first came in the bottom of the seventh. The Pirates were trailing by four runs entering the inning, but made an uncommon rally. A walk, a hit by pitch, a single, another hit by pitch and a wild pitch netted them two runs before Stallings got to the plate, making it a two-run game with runners on second and third. Stallings came through with a two-out double to left, scoring Kevin Newman and Bryan Reynolds to tie it.
His night wasn’t done. Adam Frazier singled to lead off the ninth. Two batters later, Reynolds rattled one into the corner in left field. Frazier was sent around third, but was thrown out on a clean relay from the outfield. That meant Stallings was up again with two outs and a chance to make the difference. This time, he left no doubt.
Stallings caught a fastball in the zone and smoked it to left, deep over the wall. Reynolds trotted home and the Pirates came streaming out of the dugout to celebrate.
The Pirates (17-22) snatched victory from the jaws of defeat with their second walk-off win in a row, taking this one, 8-6.
Stallings’ efforts erased what appeared to be a game of missed opportunities for the Pirates.
Left-hander Tyler Anderson, who started on the mound, should have gotten out of the first inning with only one run scored against him, but a two-out, infield popup landed between all the Pirates infielders. With the inning unnecessarily extended, the next batter, Brandon Crawford, roped a two-run homer to right to make it a three-run game.
On offense, the Pirates had leadoff singles in the third and fourth innings that were immediately erased by double plays. They scored two in the fifth inning, but left fielder Ka’ai Tom was thrown out attempting to take home on a sacrifice fly, ending the inning. Center fielder Bryan Reynolds looked to have led off the sixth inning with a double, but was thrown out trying to take second. In theory he would have scored on a double from right fielder Gregory Polanco two batters later.
All the while, the Giants were taking full advantage of the Pirates’ mistakes and misfortune. That Crawford home run is a perfect example. Another came in the sixth inning, when Mike Tauchman ripped a two-run homer to right, immediately after the Pirates had finally scratched two runs across for themselves.
The key for the Pirates was stopping the bleeding when they did. Anderson’s first inning was a struggle, though it wasn’t entirely his fault. But he bounced back, even if it wasn’t pretty.
Anderson walked a batter in the second, who advanced on a sacrifice bunt. Then he struck out the last two hitters. The third was rough, as the Giants scored again on two singles and a double, but Anderson weathered that storm without taking more damage than that. He fought his way through the fourth and fifth before eventually exiting.
It was certainly not his best outing of the season, but it was a commendable level of fight.
More important than that was lefty reliever Chasen Shreve’s efforts in the seventh. Right-hander Kyle Keller had allowed two runners to reach base before ceding the mound to Shreve. The lefty walked the first batter he faced, loading the bases with one out. Then he got Mauricio Dubon to ground out to third baseman Erik Gonzalez, who stepped on the bag and threw home, trapping Darin Ruf in a rundown to end the inning.
At the time, it was still a sizable Giants lead. As it turned out, it mattered a lot. Limiting the Giants to six meant Stallings could tie the game in the seventh. Limiting the Giants the rest of the way meant he could win it in the ninth.
Stallings, at least, didn’t miss his chance.
