Pittsburgh Pirates batters struck out 17 times Friday night at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla.

All 11 batters who stepped to the plate whiffed at least once.

On the other side, four Pirates pitchers combined to record six scoreless, hitless innings against the Tampa Bay Rays, a team in the middle of the American League wild-card chase.

The result was the second consecutive extra-inning game for the Pirates, who lost 4-3 in the 10th after defeating the Chicago Cubs on Thursday at PNC Park.

The decisive blow Friday was pinch-hitter Harold Ramirez’s one-out single off Pirates relief pitcher Yerry De Los Santos. The hit scored Vidal Brujan, the free runner who scored from third after stealing the base without a throw. Pirates catcher Tyler Heineman did not appear to have a secure grip on the baseball.

“He got a good, not great, jump,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said of Brujan. “I think if we execute the throw, we probably throw him out.”

Shelton said regular closer David Bednar was unavailable Friday after throwing 14 pitches in the ninth inning and striking out two batters Thursday.

The Rays (38-32) won for only the fourth time in their past 13 games. The Pirates (29-41), playing their first game in St. Petersburg in eight years, had won four of their previous five this week.

The Pirates failed to score in the top of the 10th, even though they had runners on the corners with no outs: free runner Heineman and Hoy Park, who was on first after an infield single.

Jack Suwinski struck out for the third time, Bryan Reynolds popped out to third and Michael Chavis struck out. Suwinski, who is hitting only .212, hasn’t homered since he hit three of them last Sunday. Reynolds’ average with runners in scoring position this season fell to .119 (5 for 42).

”We battled back and gave ourselves a chance to win and had an opportunity in the 10th and just didn’t capitalize on it,” Shelton said.

With Ke’Bryan Hayes out of the lineup after colliding with Cubs catcher Willson Contreras on Thursday, the game marked the first time since 1937 that the Pirates used six left-handed hitters against a left-handed starter. That supposed advantage didn’t help Rays starter Jeffrey Springs, who surrendered three home runs.

Before the game, Springs had allowed left-handed batters to hit .292 against him — 61 points higher than right-handers. But right-handed batters Chavis (his eighth) and Diego Castillo (his sixth) homered off Springs in the third inning. Left-hander Park added another in the fifth, his second of the season, to tie the score 3-3.

That represented three homers in a span of only seven batters. In the previous 56 innings, batters managed only five home runs against Springs.

Chavis has homered in back-to-back games, and is the seventh Pirates player to do so this season. Homers by Castillo and Park weren’t cheap. Each traveled 411 feet.

The best news Friday was another effective outing by Pirates pitcher Mitch Keller, who recorded his fifth consecutive start in which he allowed three or fewer runs. In five innings, he surrendered only one walk and five singles — four that bounced through the infield.

“With him throwing the sinker, he’s going to give up groundball base hits,” Shelton said. “So, I can’t really fault him for that. He continued to battle and gave us five (innings).”

Since returning to the starting rotation May 31, Keller has compiled a 2.96 ERA in five starts (27 1/3 innings).

“Sometimes, you get groundballs in this ballpark on this turf and balls go through,” Shelton said. “It would have been different if there were balls in the gap or balls out of the ballpark.

“He was very efficient. I thought he bounced back really nice.”

Shelton was referring to the second inning when the Rays seized a 3-0 lead.

Keller had no problem getting through the first, third and fourth innings — three up, three down each time — and he needed only 37 pitches to do it.

But he threw the same number of pitches just in the second inning. The Rays scored three runs on three singles, the last Jonathan Aranda’s first major-league hit.

Keller helped out with a walk and a balk, that last mistake sending the third run across the plate.

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