Pirates Cruise to 5-2 Win, Mangum and Triolo Do the Damage

Pittsburgh needed just one inning to build a lead it never surrendered, scoring twice in the first and never looking back in a 5-2 win over San Francisco. Jake Mangum scored twice and drove in a run on just one at-bat, while Jared Triolo quietly delivered the two biggest RBIs of the night.

The story of this game was written early and in Pittsburgh's favor. In the first inning, Oneil Cruz drew a walk that scored Horwitz, and then Mangum was hit by a pitch to bring home Reynolds — two runs in, no hits required. That kind of damage against a starting pitcher who would go on to walk five batters in five innings looks like a sign of things to come, and it was. Blade Tidwell gave up only 2 hits in those 5.0 innings, but 5 walks is a slow bleed that eventually costs you, and it cost San Francisco right from the jump.

Pittsburgh extended the lead in the sixth with a sequence that had a little bit of everything. Mangum laid down a sacrifice bunt to score Cruz, but a throwing error by the San Francisco pitcher allowed Mangum to reach second instead of being retired — suddenly the bases were loaded with opportunity. Triolo then grounded into a fielder's choice, Mangum scored, and Pittsburgh challenged the call at second. The challenge was overturned, meaning Pittsburgh got the run and avoided the double play. That's the kind of inning that breaks a game open: 4-0, and the Giants had done nothing offensively. The Pittsburgh bullpen combination of Lake Bachar (2.1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER) and Khristian Curtis (3.0 IP, 1 H, 2 ER) kept San Francisco mostly quiet, though Curtis did allow the two runs that made things briefly interesting.

The Giants made their push in the seventh. Jung Hoo Lee doubled to right to score Cox and cut it to 4-1, and then Furman grounded out to first to bring home Hill — suddenly it was 4-2, and Pittsburgh's win probability dropped from 90% to 79% on Lee's double alone. That 11-point swing was the closest San Francisco got to making this a real game. But Triolo answered in the eighth with a sacrifice fly to center that scored Mangum for the fifth and final run, pushing the margin back to three and effectively closing the door. Pittsburgh's offense didn't need to be flashy — it just needed to be efficient, and on this Thursday in September, it absolutely was.