The Pittsburgh Pirates and San Francisco Giants will continue a three-game series on Saturday night at Oracle Park. Friday's series opener finished by a 5-3 final in favor of the Giants, who cashed in as a massive -277 favorite. Pittsburgh is out of contention at 45-68 on the season, while the Giants are 7.5 games out of a Wild Card spot at 55-57.
These teams met at PNC Park in mid-June, with the Giants taking two of three on the road.
The Pirates figured to face an uphill battle on Friday night with a tough pitching matchup against the Giants to open this current series, and indeed fell short in another loss. Rodolfo Castro went deep to get the Pirates on the board in the fourth with Ben Gamel and Greg Allen also going deep later, but the Giants still managed to maintain an advantage for nearly the entire night.
Starter Bryse Wilson went 5.1 innings, allowing four runs on six hits and two walks while striking out one in the loss. Castro also added a triple in a standout game for the Pittsburgh offense.
Pittsburgh falls into slight negative territory on the money lone overall for the season while going 58-54 on the run line. Overs are 48-54-10 for the Pirates, and only one of their last seven games has gone under the betting total.
The Pirates have struggled badly offensively, ranking third-worst in baseball at 3.61 runs per game on a .652 team OPS, also third-worst in baseball. Pittsburgh pitching is also a bottom five unit with a 4.62 collective ERA including a mark of 4.54 from a sliding bullpen.
Bryan Reynolds is having another strong season at the plate, posting a .779 OPS with 16 homers and 35 RBI. Ke'Bryan Hayes is Pittsburgh's most valuable player overall at 2.7 WAR, posting a .681 OPS with 35 RBI and 44 runs scored.
Tyler Beede will make his 26th appearance and third start of the season after going 3.2 scoreless innings against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday, allowing two hits and one run while striking out two. The 29-year-old has gone 1-1 with a 3.57 ERA across 45.1 overall innings this season.
Outfielder Canaan Smith-Njigba is out with a fractured wrist, while catchers Roberto Perez (hamstring surgery) and Tyler Heineman (strained groin) are sidelined. Starting pitcher Ma x Kranick is recovering from Tommy John surgery. The bullpen is beat up with David Bednar (lower back surgery), Blake Cederlind (Tommy John surgery), Yerry De Los Santos (strained shoulder), Nick Mears (elbow surgery) and Dillon Peters (elbow inflammation) sidelined.