Morton’s 7 shutout innings lead Pirates past punchless Giants 2-0

Morton, Pirates beat Giants 2-0

PITTSBURGH — Charlie Morton allowed three hits over seven innings, and the San Francisco offense again struggled in rainy Pittsburgh during the Pirates’ 2-0 victory over the Giants on Saturday night.

Morton (2-2) struck out six while pitching his second scoreless outing in his past three starts. He only allowed one runner to advance past first base.

Acquired from the Atlanta Braves in the Nate McLouth trade last month, Morton pitched six shutout innings July 3 at Florida. He had pitched as many as seven innings only twice in 20 previous major league starts.

John Grabow pitched a perfect eighth and Matt Capps worked out of a two-on, none out jam in the ninth to earn his 20th save.

Edgar Renteria had two hits San Francisco, which did not have an extra-base hit and has scored only one run — an unearned one, at that — in 23 innings during the first two games of this series. The Pirates won Friday, 2-1 in 14 innings.

Andrew McCutchen had two hits and Ryan Doumit had an RBI and scored a run for Pittsburgh, which has won the first two games after the All-Star break after entering it having lost four in a row and seven of eight.

Barry Zito (5-10) nearly matched Morton but was the hard-luck loser, allowing two runs on six hits without a walk. He struck out four in 6 1-3 innings.

Pittsburgh got the only run they would need in the first. McCutchen led off with a single to center, and after Freddy Sanchez grounded into a fielder’s choice and Garrett Jones doubled, Doumit hit a sacrifice fly to left.

Jones’ hit was the only extra-base hit of the game.

Including Doumit’s sacrifice fly, Zito would then retire 15 in a row. The Pirates would not get to him again until the seventh, when singles by Doumit, Delwyn Young and Andy LaRoche made it 2-0<.

NOTES: The start was delayed 11 minutes by rain, and there was another 13-minute delay to the start of the sixth inning. The start was delayed by 45 minutes Friday night. … Grabow’s appearance was his record-setting 189th at PNC Park. … The fireworks night crowd of 37,023 was the third sellout of the season for the Pirates, who are 13-2 when playing in front of home crowds of at least 20,000. … Zito has lost all three of his starts against Pittsburgh.