PITTSBURGH — The only thing as consistent as blown leads this week at PNC Park has been Matt Chapman’s power swing.
Both came through again Thursday afternoon to make the Giants’ highly anticipated showdown with Paul Skenes a distant memory by the time they jetted off to New York riding the high of back-to-back comeback wins, taking their third road series of the season in improbable fashion.
A three-run blast from Chapman into the shrubbery beyond center field — his third homer in as many games — ignited the Giants’ eighth-inning rally that resulted in five runs, with the knockout blow coming from Brett Wisely, who delivered a two-out single off Aroldis Chapman to drive home the go-ahead run.
The Giants prevailed, 7-6, despite trailing by four after the sixth inning, when the Pirates’ 21-year-old flame-throwing sensation departed the game. It mirrored the five-run comeback they mounted the previous night after the Pirates built a five-run lead behind another heralded young starter, Jared Jones.
“It’s huge,” Chapman said of the team’s resilience. “Especially after dropping the first one, to come back and beat those two pitchers they threw at us was huge.”
Manager Bob Melvin called his team’s never-quit attitude the past two games “incredible.” The Giants had not come back to win after trailing by four or more runs in consecutive games since April 26 and 27, 1998, and never in franchise history had done it in back-to-back games on the road.
“There’s just so many things to love and guys to feel good about across the board,” Melvin said. “To win these two games, it took everybody.”
A grand slam from Joey Bart put the Giants in a four-run hole when they saw the last of Skenes’ triple-digit heaters after the sixth inning. It looked like the ultimate revenge for the forsaken former No. 2 overall pick, who was designated for assignment and shipped to Pittsburgh a week into the season, but the Giants got the last laugh.
Chapman’s home run was the third in as many games for the third baseman, who went 5-for-14 over the course of the three-game series to raise his OPS to .753. That figure was below .600 as recently as last Wednesday, but Chapman has notched nine extra-base hits in the six games since while driving in eight runs and scoring 12.
“I just want to continue to ride this good feeling that I have and take good at-bats,” Chapman said. “When you’re able to put together good at-bats, it feels like it’s just contagious, so (I’m) just trying to set the tone.”
Along with his homer, Chapman supplied multiple defensive highlights at third base in addition to Patrick Bailey’s ninth-inning caught stealing of Ji Hwan Bae, with Marco Luciano applying a no-look tag to erase the potential tying run from the base paths.
“That’s the impact he has,” Melvin said of Chapman. “He can take over a game. When he does it offensively, typically he’ll show up defensively. The past two nights have been pretty special.”
Before the past two days, the Giants had not won a game they were trailing by five or more runs since June 15, 2021, when they erased a 9-0 deficit against the Diamondbacks. And on Tuesday, to begin the series, they blew a four-run lead in the ninth inning for the first time since Aug. 14, 2020, against the A’s.
Somehow, it ended in the Giants’ third road series win of the season, and they will have another chance to improve their record to .500 for the first time since the fourth game of the season Friday night at Citi Field, when they begin the second leg of the their road trip against the Mets.
“The offense keeps taking me off the hook,” said Mason Black, who surrendered the grand slam to Bart, raising his ERA to 8.79 in four appearances with four earned runs on three hits, two walks and a hit batter over 2 ⅔ innings of relief following opener Erik Miller.
“Good teams find a way to win, and I think we’re seeing that right now,” Black continued, “although it might be in spite of me. It’s good to see.”
The undeniable draw Thursday was the starting pitcher on the opposite side, the Pirates’ rookie phenom who became the quickest No. 1 overall pick to reach the majors in 35 years when he debuted to much fanfare earlier this month. A paid attendance of 23,162 showed up for the weekday matinee, more than 10,000 additional fans than had been on hand for either of the first two games of the series.
Four of Skenes’ 93 pitches touched triple digits, the second of which Luis Matos poked past first baseman Rowdy Tellez for a single to lead off the game. The Giants would put another six men on base against him and pushed one run across, more success than the Cubs had five days earlier over six no-hit innings at Wrigley Field.
“The objective was to try to nick them up a bit and get their pitch counts up and get them out of the game,” Melvin said of his team’s approach the past two games against the Pirates’ pair of young starters. “We stayed after it. It’s not like we killed him or anything, but he only struck out three and we made him throw some pitches.”
Skenes’ electric arsenal had produced 18 strikeouts over his first 10 major-league outings.
“I thought it was a very tough at-bat,” said Chapman, who attended the same Southern California high school. “Obviously, we made the comeback later in the game. But he’s got really good stuff. The future’s bright for that guy. It’s exciting to see somebody from the same high school go out there and have success as quickly as he has.”
Up next
The Giants head to Queens to finish their brief two-city trip with three games against the Mets at Citi Field.
LHP Kyle Harrison (4-1, 3.60) will be opposed by RHP Christian Scott (0-2, 4.32) Friday in the series opener (3:40 p.m. PT), followed by RHP Jordan Hicks (4-1, 2.38) vs. RHP Luis Severino (2-2, 3.48) on Saturday (10:40 a.m. PT) before RHP Logan Webb (4-4, 3.03) faces old friend LHP Sean Manaea (3-1, 3.11) to close the road trip.
OF Michael Conforto (hamstring) is likely to be inactive for his second consecutive return trip to the ballpark he called home for the first seven years of his career.
“There’s always next year,” said the outfielder sidelined since he strained his left hamstring running to first base May 11.
While Conforto has progressed to participating in full baseball activities, the Giants don’t want to him to re-injure the hamstring.
“The hard part is simulating getting out of the batter’s box, so he’s going to have to run some bases hard before we’re comfortable putting him back out there,” Melvin said. “That kind of was his goal, to get in one of those games. … I know he’s digging for it. But that might be tough.”
