Late game rally earns Pirates series win in San Francisco

Noah Hiles, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Jul 30, 2025

Published in Baseball

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SAN FRANCISCO — The Pirates earned their third straight series win Tuesday evening, thanks to a 3-1 victory over the Giants at Oracle Park. Braxton Ashcraft was the game’s winning pitcher, improving to 3-1. Tyler Rogers suffered the loss, dropping to 4-3. Dennis Santana recorded the save, his sixth of the season.

Willy Adames opened the scoring in the bottom of the fourth inning, tagging Bailey Falter for a solo home run. Liover Peguero responded with a long ball of his own the following frame against Justin Verlander. Those two blasts would be the only damage allowed by the game’s two starters.

After a few quiet frames from both bullpens, Pittsburgh took its first lead of the night in the top of the eighth on a well-placed, one-out bases loaded single to left field by Joey Bart. Peguero followed Bart’s go-ahead knock with a groundout to third base, plating an additional run. Both runs were surrendered by Rogers.

Ashcraft was the hero of the day on the mound, throwing three perfect innings of relief. The rookie right-hander inherited a tie ballgame and left with his club ahead by two runs. Santana then finished the job in the bottom of the ninth, retiring the challenging trio of Rafael Devers, Adames and Matt Chapman to secure the Pirates seventh win over their last eight games.

It was over when…

Peguero drove home Tommy Pham to give the Pirates a two-run lead in the eighth inning.

On the mound

Falter followed a strong showing earlier in the week with another solid outing, allowing just one run, which was earned, over five innings. Falter struggled a bit with his control, issuing four walks, but was able to dance out of a few jams. In the end, he threw 70 pitches, 43 for strikes, before Braxton Ashcraft took over in the sixth.

Verlander, meanwhile, matched Falter’s production, surrendering just one run on six hits over five innings. The veteran right-hander tallied seven strikeouts, six more than Falter, and only walked one batter. He too left the contest with a no decision.

At the plate

Peguero’s homer marked his first in the big-leagues since September 9, 2023. The blast traveled 392 feet with an exit velocity of 103.2 mph.

The Pirates tallied 12 hits total Tuesday evening, 10 more than the opposition. Tommy Pham led the charge with a three-hit night, while Spencer Horwitz and Bart both contributed multi-hit efforts as well.

Most valuable player

Peguero, who tallied his first home run and first two RBIs of the season, leading the Pirates to victory.

Up next

The Pirates and Giants will conclude their three game series Wednesday afternoon at Oracle Park. Mike Burrows (1-3, 4.15) will face off against Logan Webb (9-8, 3.38) on the mound. First pitch is scheduled for 3:45 p.m. The game will be televised on SportsNet Pittsburgh. The audio broadcast can be heard on KDKA Radio 100.1 FM/1020 AM.

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