When it came to hitting home runs, the Pittsburgh Pirates went flying solo three times on long balls by Rodolfo Castro, Ben Gamel and Greg Allen.

When it came to playing small ball, the Pirates came up empty.

Trailing the San Francisco Giants by one run in the top of the eighth inning, the Pirates bunted into a forceout at third and then left the bases loaded as they went 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position.

Mike Yastrzemski homered and had three RBIs to lead the Giants to a 5-3 win Friday night at Oracle Park. The Pirates dropped to 2-6 on their 10-game road trip to Baltimore, Arizona and San Francisco.

“I don’t think there’s one common theme to it,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said on the AT&T SportsNet postgame show. “The one thing that hurt us is that we walked six guys and three of those guys came in to score. When you’re playing close games like that, you can’t give up free passes that end up resulting in runs.”

The Pirates threatened to tie the game in the eighth, when pinch hitter Josh VanMeter and Gamel hit back-to-back singles before Castro bunted into a forceout at third.

Castro’s bunt was fielded by pitcher John Brebbia, who threw to third baseman Wilmer Flores to force out VanMeter. Oneil Cruz drew a walk to load the bases against lefty Alex Young, who got Allen to strike out and Tucupita Marcano to ground out to escape unscathed.

“They made a really good baseball play on the bunt,” Shelton said. “Rudy put down a pretty good bunt. The pitcher made a good play. Flores made a really good play at third. We didn’t get a run across with the bases loaded. That ended up costing us and affecting the end of the game. We’ve got to capitalize. We’ve got to get at least one there.”

Yastrzemski hit Bryse Wilson’s first pitch of the second inning, driving a sinker 384 feet to left field for his 12th home run and a 1-0 Giants lead. Brandon Crawford and Thairo Estrada followed with back-to-back singles to left and both advanced on LaMonte Wade Jr.’s sacrifice bunt. Crawford scored on a Luis Gonzalez sacrifice fly to left to make it 2-0, but Marcano’s throw to third caught Estrada in a rundown before he was tagged out by Cruz.

The Giants had the bases loaded in the third when Yastrzemski hit a high bouncer to first that Michael Chavis made a leaping backhand stop. But Chavis threw off his back foot and delivered a one-hopper to the plate that bounced off the chest protector of catcher Jason Delay, allowing Austin Wynns to score from third for a 3-0 lead.

Castro put the Pirates on the board with two outs in the fourth, crushing Carlos Rodon’s full-count 97-mph fastball 409 feet to left field for his second home run of the season to cut it to 3-1.

The Giants increased their lead to 4-1 in the fifth when Brandon Belt drew a walk, advanced to second when Flores grounded out to short — where Cruz went down to one knee for a fantastic backhand stop and one-hop throw to first. Belt scored when Yastrzemski hit a line drive to center that died in front of Bryan Reynolds.

“He got a good read on it, a good break on it and he went back to the warning track,” Shelton said, “but the wind knocked it down.”

The Pirates got another two-out solo shot from Gamel, who drove a Rodon 98-mph fastball to the opposite field with a 397-footer to left-center for his fifth homer to cut it to 4-2 in the sixth. It was Gamel’s first homer since July 5 at Atlanta, and only the fifth of his career against a lefty.

Rodon (11-6) had allowed seven homers all season, giving up two in a game only once — a 7-3 loss at Arizona on July 26. Castro followed with a triple down the left field line but Rodon got Cruz swinging for his seventh strikeout on his 110th pitch. Rodon allowed two runs on six hits without a walk while striking out seven.

“I thought we did a good job with him,” Shelton said. “This guy is one of the better pitchers in the National League, and we were able to run his pitch count up. We had consistent at-bats and gave ourselves a chance to win the game.”

The Giants replaced Rodon with lefty Thomas Szapucki, who was recalled from Triple-A Sacramento on Friday. Allen drilled Szapucki’s 2-0 sinker 367 feet to left to lead off the seventh inning with another solo home run, his first as a Pirate and first since Aug. 23, 2020, while playing for Cleveland against Detroit.

Allen became the 21st different Pirates player to homer this season, which matched the Giants for the highest total in the majors. Only five times in franchise history have the Pirates had more players homer in one season: 23 in 1951, 2001 and 2021; and 22 in 2000 and 2003.

That made it a 4-3 game. Marcano put the Pirates in scoring position to tie it by hitting a single to center, advancing to second on a wild pitch and reaching third when Kevin Newman grounded out to short — a call the Pirates challenged but was upheld after a video review. Brebbia got Reynolds to fly out to strand Marcano at third.

Allen, who went 2 for 4, took the blame for striking out with the bases loaded in the eighth inning.

“It’s just situational hitting,” Allen said. “I’ve got to do a better job of putting the ball in play, just giving us a chance to at least cash in one there and tie the game up. That’s on me as a player. I’ve got to do a better job.”

Evan Longoria drew a two-out walk and scored from first when Gonzalez doubled to left in the bottom of the eighth off Austin Brice, who was promoted from the taxi squad when rookie Yerry De Los Santos was placed on the 60-day injured list with a right shoulder strain. That gave the Giants an insurance run for a 5-3 lead, but the Pirates had only themselves to blame for failing to capitalize.

“Situational hitting is a big part of the game, whether it’s moving runners over and cashing runners in when they’re in scoring position,” Allen said. “It’s an element of the game that good teams and teams that win do well. It’s something we have to stay on top of.”

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