Alex Wood’s strong outing helps Giants earn split with Pirates

Wood allows just one run and bullpen closes out Giants' 4-1 win in Pittsburgh.

Everything seemed to click for the Giants in their 4-1 victory over the Pirates in Pittsburgh on Sunday. Their starting pitching was sharp, the bullpen was effective, their defense made several big plays and the offense was able to put more than three runs on the scoreboard for just the third time in its last seven games.

And after the Giants dropped back-to-back games to a Pirates team that sits six games below .500, a sound and rather eventless performance was exactly what they needed. Their victory improved them to 24-16, the best record in the National League.

“Really glad we were able to pull out a win today,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said. “Proud of the way the guys played.”

San Francisco’s pitching was about as good as it could have asked for on Sunday. Starter Alex Wood danced through traffic and delivered six innings of one-run ball with six strikeouts, lowering his ERA from 1.80 to 1.75.

Wood was also responsible for what Kapler dubbed “the moment of the game.” Instead of having a pinch hitter take his place in the sixth inning, Wood insisted he hit for himself and pitch the sixth. Kapler obliged and the move paid off.

“I think he’s an excellent example of what we believe in, our philosophy on pitching,” Kapler said. “Work fast, push the pace, pound the zone with strikes and when you’re not throwing strikes, be right around the zone. Be resilient. Be ready to go back out and take down another inning.”

Wood worked like an escape artist on Sunday. Between runners on the corners with one out or a bases loaded situation with nobody out, he was able to remain calm and resolve the trouble with little damage against him.

“The ability to throw pitches in any count, he’s really prepared going into the game,” Giants catcher Buster Posey said of Wood. “I think he has a great understanding of how he wants to attack each hitter but he’s also making adjustments on the fly.”

Wood shared the sentiment with his catcher and manager. He, too, was pleased with his performance.

“I thought I made some really good changeups and I thought I commanded my heater really well, and threw some good sliders throughout,” Wood said. “I felt my command was really good.”

Wood also had some tremendous help from his defense on Sunday, particularly second baseman Mauricio Dubon. Shortly after Dubon made a running catch against the netting in foul territory in the fifth, he pump faked a throw to first before firing a spin throw to third base to pick off a runner and record the second out of the inning.

“It had a tremendous impact in the game,” Kapler said of Dubon’s defense, particularly on his spinning throw. “Just another example of how athletic Dubon can be in the biggest moments and how sometimes his instincts can work in his favor and I think that’s what happened there.”

Dubon was wearing one of three-time Gold Glove winner Brandon Crawford’s gloves on Sunday.

“Ever seen the movie Like Mike?” Dubon asked with a smile. “Somebody wears Michael Jordan’s shoes and all of a sudden he’s good at basketball.”

Perhaps more importantly than another excellent starting pitching performance — something the Giants have gotten in abundance this season — was the bullpen’s shutdown day less than 24 hours after it allowed the last-place Pirates to score six runs en route to San Francisco’s 8-6 defeat Saturday.

Lefty Caleb Baragar and righties Matt Wisler and Tyler Rogers combined for three hitless innings to help the Giants get the series split with the Pirates.

Wisler, who entered play with a 6.45 ERA and surrendered nearly a hit per inning, threw 13 sliders and no fastballs in a perfect eighth inning. Kapler thought his performance was the most significant among the Giants’ relievers who appeared on Sunday.

“He’s a guy that we started this season feeling like we were going to need to lean on him in big moments,” Kapler said. “We wanted to see how he could handle leverage innings for us. I think he’d tell you the season didn’t get off to the best start for him but we never lost confidence in him.”

Offensively, the Giants did enough for victory on Sunday and had one of their better days in a recent stretch of lackluster performances at the plate. Even so, the game wasn’t without missed opportunities. In the fourth inning, the Giants put runners on second and third with nobody out, only to strand them when Darin Ruf, Dubon and Wood all struck out, arguably the most egregious instance of the Giants’ lacking offense.

San Francisco wound up leaving 10 runners on base and went just 1-of-9 with runners in scoring position.

In the first, Mike Tauchman led off with a walk, stole second, advanced to third on an infield single and scored on an RBI groundout by Alex Dickerson, who was activated from the injured list just a few hours before the game.

The Giants also scored in the sixth inning on a wild pitch by Pirates reliever Clay Holmes that brought home Evan Longoria. The Giants’ only RBI-producing hit Sunday came on Mike Yastrzemski’s two-run home run in the ninth.

It was respectable offensive production from a Giants team that has really struggled in that department recently. The uptick is important, though, as the Giants will next take on a Reds team that has scored the second most runs in the National League, trailing only the reigning World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers. The Giants will play four games in Cincinnati, starting Monday at 3:40 p.m. PT.

“I think we have a better brand of baseball in us than we played in this series,” Kapler said. “… we have to be on our A-game.”