Black makes relief appearance for Giants
After making three starts, former Valley View standout Mason Black had his first career Major League relief appearance for the San Francisco Giants during Thursday afternoon’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park.
Black pitched 2⅔ innings and allowed four runs on three hits — one a grand slam — with two walks, two strikeouts and one hit batsman. He threw 51 pitches, 30 for strikes.
He stood to suffer the loss until the Giants took him off the hook by rallying for five runs in the top of the eighth to erase a four-run deficit and win, 7-6.
It was a bullpen game for the Giants. Black relieved starter Erik Miller with a runner on third and two outs in the bottom of the second. He got Joey Bart to ground out to shortstop to end the inning.
After throwing a perfect bottom of the third inning, Black ran into trouble in the fourth. With the score tied at 1, he walked Connor Joe to lead off the inning. He struck out Oneil Cruz looking, but walked Nick Gonzales and hit Jared Triolo to load the bases. Bart then hit a 1-0 pitch 434 feet off the batter’s eye in center field for a grand slam and a 5-1 Pirates lead.
Andrew McCutchen and Bryan Reynolds opened the bottom of the fifth with singles. Black got Joe on a fly out to right before being replaced by Taylor Rogers.
