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.
Mounting a five-run comeback the previous night, the Giants overcame deficits of at least four runs in consecutive games for the first time since April 26 and 27, 1998.
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.
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.
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 undeniable draw Thursday was Skenes, the Pirates’ rookie phenom. 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.
Right off the bat, the Giants did more damage against Skenes than the last team that faced the former No. 1 overall pick in last summer’s amateur draft.
Leading off, Luis Matos saw three pitches and poked the fourth — a 100.1 mph fastball — past first baseman Rowdy Tellez and, upon reaching first, slapped his hands together in celebration.
The one hit was more than the Cubs managed against Skenes over six innings at Wrigley Field five days earlier, and San Francisco put another six men on base and pushed one run across before activity began to stir in the Pittsburgh bullpen. They struck out only three times against Skenes’ electric arsenal that had produced 18 strikeouts over his first 10 major-league innings.
Up next
The Giants head to Queens to finish their brief two-city trip with three games against the Mets at Citi Field.
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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.”
