Pittsburgh snaps losing streak at San Francisco

Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO

Clint Hurdle exhaled and enjoyed a quiet moment after finishing up his postgame duties with the press corps.

“It beats the heck out of losing,” the Pittsburgh skipper said with a smile.

His Pirates were winners again, for a night anyway. They pitched. They played solid defense. They produced the timely hits that had been missing during this skid.

And they did it against the defending World Series champions with a sellout crowd cheering against them.

Charlie Morton and Jose Veras combined on a six-hitter, Ryan Ludwick hit a pair of RBI singles and Pittsburgh snapped a 10-game losing streak with a 5-0 win over the slumping San Francisco Giants on Monday night.

“All in all, it was one of the better games we’ve had the last couple weeks,” Hurdle said. “It’s a good start. It’s all we could do tonight to go play a complete ballgame.”

Garrett Jones doubled among his four hits and scored twice to help back Morton (9-6), who improved to 6-2 on the road this season.

The Pirates battered Giants All-Star Ryan Vogelsong (9-2), who lost for the first time in 13 starts since May 26. His only other loss came the day after San Francisco lost its catcher and reigning NL rookie of the year Buster Posey to a season-ending broken leg on May 25.

The reigning champs are mired in their own funk of late, losing for the ninth time in 11 games with another night of missed chances on offense.