Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
It went from Ruf’s game to a rough game.
Darin Ruf’s power — with his bat and arm — was forgotten when the Giants’ bullpen imploded in the seventh inning. The Pirates scored four in the frame off Sam Selman and Camilo Doval to tie it, then got a walk-off homer from Jacob Stallings off Jake McGee in the ninth as the Giants fell 8-6. They had led 6-2 in the seventh inning; they are not acquiring the taste for these hard-to-swallow defeats, even as they keep experiencing them.
The Giants (23-16) dropped a second straight against a poor Pirates team, Friday’s coming in 11 innings, and are 9-12 away from home, which they will want to improve upon. They’re a game up on the Padres and 1.5 on the Dodgers before either NL West rival had finished play Saturday.
McGee was working on a back-to-back, which Gabe Kapler wants to avoid, but he was left without much choice. The Giants could have lost a batter sooner, but Bryan Reynolds’ double resulted in a Mike Tauchman-Brandon Crawford-Curt Casali relay to nail the game-winner at home. It did not save the game for long.
The bullpen melted down in the seventh, when Selman and Doval needed a compass to locate home plate. The Pirates scored four to tie it by sending nine to the plate but just posting two hits. Selman got two outs but walked one and hit one, leaving a jam for Doval to navigate out of, and he couldn’t. A Kevin Newman single scored one; Reynolds was plunked; another scored on a wild pitch; and Jacob Stallings finally doubled past Evan Longoria to knot it at 6-6.
Rubber-armed Tyler Rogers had pitched in back-to-back games, and McGee was forced into action because Johnny Cueto did not give them length in his second start back from the injured list, they needed to depend upon a bullpen that let them down.
It is hard to envision the seldom-used Selman lasting too much longer before getting sent down to Sacramento, and Doval, whose ERA now stands at 8.38, might need some time at Triple-A, too.
Lost in the bullpen frustration was the Ruf exhilaration. He’s on the lineup — and on the Giants’ roster — because of the power he brings to the plate. Usually that power involves his swing, but not always.
The Giants outfielder drilled a first-inning homer for the club’s first run, then threw out a pair of baserunners, including a strike to the plate to catch Ka’ai Tom in the fourth inning to preserve what was then a two-run lead.
He was everywhere on a day when his right field placement raised eyebrows. Mike Tauchman, the better outfielder, was moved to left because of its spaciousness in Pittsburgh and because the glare in left can be difficult to manage. Ruf finds his way to playing time because he consistently works good at-bats, not because he is much of a fielder.
The 34-year-old, who had spent three years in the KBO before returning to the majors last year, had not recorded an outfield assist in MLB since 2013. He then picked a couple up in back-to-back innings.
The first was more impressive, a flyball to medium right field, which Ruf camped under and got a good crow-hop. He unleashed, if not a bullet, a well-placed, one-hop laser to Curt Casali, who applied the tag with time to spare. The fifth-inning double play got Zack Littell — who had just relieved Johnny Cueto — out of danger and kept a 4-2 Giants lead intact.
Running out of RUF puns. Open to your suggestions#SFGiants pic.twitter.com/Vh6PaYS7nG
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) May 16, 2021
The Pirates had gone silently until scoring a pair in the fifth, and the sixth opened with more Pittsburgh power. Bryan Reynolds drilled what looked to be extra bases off the right-field wall, but Ruf played it well and came up throwing. A shifted-over Evan Longoria caught it toward first base, but his swipe tag — upon further review — was in time. It took eight years for Ruf to record another outfield assist, and then he recorded them on consecutive at-bats.
Lost in his right field prowess is a bat that swatted his fifth homer of the year — off 2020 Giant Tyler Anderson — and Ruf got on base three of five times. The Giants’ scuffling offense was ready to see a lefty on the mound.
Anderson, who had a nice season last year before an excellent start to his Pittsburgh career, had not allowed more than three runs in a start this season. The Giants had tagged him for four by the third.
After Ruf’s blast, Crawford added his second, a two-run shot, in as many nights and now has a Giants-best nine in 33 games; he had eight in 54 games last year. The Giants pushed another across in the third, with Ruf doubling and Mauricio Dubon singling him in.
Cueto was not quite himself for a second straight game off the injured list, but he pitched to contact plenty and the defense behind him bailed him out often. In all, Cueto allowed two runs on eight hits in 4 1/3 innings, in which he struck out two without a walk.
It wasn’t just Ruf. In the fourth, strong arms by Crawford and Dubon, playing second, came together for one double play on a ball Jacob Stallings hit into the shortstop hole. The next batter, Gregory Polanco, looped one into shallow center, and Dubon was a center fielder playing center. He ranged out and made a nice backhanded running catch to end the inning.
A frame earlier, it was an Adam Frazier bullet to Longoria, the third baseman nabbing it and relaying immediately to first to double off Anderson.
Their defense was great, their hitting solid enough, their bullpen full of holes. And the last mattered most.