PITTSBURGH _ It got tense, and it had its low points.
But it ended up as a rare victory.
Rare in its result and rare in how it came together.
The Padres, who entered the game with a problem putting the ball in play, did just that in crucial situations on Friday in knocking off the Pirates, 3-2, at PNC Park.
In beating the leaders of the National League Central, the Padres got another quality start from Tyson Ross (3-3) and the final three innings worked by their top three relievers, including the last four outs by Brad Hand for his 13th save.
The Padres did not have a hit in the final four innings and had just six all night.
What they did have early were clutch hits. And an RBI off a ground ball.
That might not seem celebration-worthy, but the Padres are contact-challenged.
They entered the game ranked 28th among the major leagues' 30 teams in percentage of swings that resulted in a ball put in play (35 percent) and 27th in percentage of pitches put in play (16.9 percent). Their 28.7 percent rate of swings and misses was third-highest.
They were eighth in the majors with a .307 batting average on balls put in play, but they had put the eighth-fewest balls in play.
So it was kind of a big deal, in a baby-step kind of way, when Raffy Lopez's grounder to second base scored Eric Hosmer from third base in the fourth inning to tie the game at 2. Yes, it was a tailor-made double-play ball that second baseman Adam Frazier bobbled and had to settle for the out at first. But it wasn't a strikeout and, thus, had the chance to make something happen.
Right before that, Hosmer's double scored Travis Jankowski, who had singled.
In the sixth, after Hosmer reached out and slapped a two-out double down the left-field line, Franchy Cordero lined a single the opposite way to left field to score Hosmer.
The Padres did strike out eight times. Not at all coincidentally, just four of those came in the first five innings, when they did their scoring.
Ross was not dominant, not even as sharp as usual. But he did what he almost always does _ get through six innings and allow three or fewer earned runs.
That's the definition of a quality start, an oft-derided statistic that certainly does not imply excellence on its own.
But the Padres have just 14 of them, seventh fewest in the majors. Ross on Friday turned in his sixth in nine starts.
He allowed a run in the first and another in the third, got himself in trouble with four walks and five hits but worked out of trouble in the fourth, fifth and sixth before giving way to the Padres' high-leverage arms.
Kirby Yates and Craig Stammen made it interesting.
Yates reached a 10-game (91/3 innings) scoreless streak the hard way, hitting Gregory Palanco with one out in the seventh and having Polanco steal second and take third on a wild pitch. Two strikeouts got Yates out of the inning.
Stammen came in to start the eighth, got two quick outs and then was the victim of a line drive single off his rear end and a single off a dribbler to the left side. Stammen then walked Frazier to load the bases.
Hand came in and got Polanco on a grounder to shortstop.
Corey Dickerson led off the ninth with a double, but Hand struck out the next two batters and got the last out on a grounder to second.
