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Pirates get past Giants

2 min read

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Joe Musgrove made some adjustments to his delivery, and he's enjoying the results.

Musgrove pitched five shutout innings and hit a triple, Jacob Stallings homered and the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the San Francisco Giants 4-2 on Thursday.

The Pirates took three of four in the series, and have won 14 of their last 20 games in San Francisco dating to 2014.

Evan Longoria homered for the Giants, who've lost four of five.

Musgrove (10-12), who missed his last start with right foot discomfort, has been working with assistant pitching coach Justin Meccage on shortening his delivery.

"I'm trying to eliminate a couple of steps in the backswing here and just make it a little bit shorter motion," Musgrove said.

"I used to be a lot shorter in the back and over the years I've gotten longer, but that comes with the rigors of a long season. Sometimes your arm's not feeling great and you've got to make up for it and you've got to find the adjustment to make it feel better."

Musgrove struck out seven, gave up four hits and walked none. The right-hander threw 18 of 19 first pitches for strikes.

"That's sick. That put him in play for everything else," Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. "The curveball and slider played off each other. His fastball command was good with the two-seamer and four-seamer, only one three-ball count."

Starting at /week.