Giants fall apart in ugly loss to Pirates

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SAN FRANCISCO — This time, there was no late collapse. Just a complete one. 

The Giants played poorly in just about every respect Thursday night, losing 10-5 in the first of four games with the Pittsburgh Pirates and falling to 0-3 on what seemed to be an important homestand. On a day their manager once again preached urgency, the clubhouse presented a poor start, bad defense, just three hits in the first eight innings and a shaky bullpen. They are seven games behind the Diamondbacks and Dodgers. 

Here’s what you need to know … 

— The Pirates aren’t exactly dripping with power hitters, but a couple of right-handed bats got to Andrew Suarez in the second inning. Elias Diaz got a hanging curveball and crushed a two-run shot into the bleachers. One pitch later, Josh Bell did the same on a slider that didn’t have much depth. 

— Those were the only runs Suarez gave up, but he did pitch through a lot of traffic. The rookie gave up seven hits in his five innings of work. He has allowed 17 hits over 10 innings in his last two starts. 

— The Giants didn’t have a hit until the fifth. They seem to do that a lot. Austin Slater lined a single into left-center and then Alen Hanson put one in the gap for an RBI triple. Steven Duggar’s single brought Hanson jogging home. 

— Mark Melancon had brutal luck in the seventh. He faced six hitters and got four grounders to infielders and a bloop to shallow left. The bloop was an RBI double, and two of the grounders went for errors (from Joe Panik and Evan Longoria) that got the Pirates going. To make matters worse, Derek Law came in and cashed in two of Melancon’s runners by immediately allowing a homer. 

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