It took the San Francisco Giants four games to realize they were playing the Pittsburgh Pirates and not the 1927 New York Yankees this season. With their confidence back after a big win Tuesday, the Giants came through with three late runs and a clutch pinch-hit RBI double by Dominic Smith to beat the Pirates, 4-2.

Smith ran his hitting streak to 11 games after driving in Jung Hoo Lee with the go-ahead run in the 9th. Lee led off with a double, then scored when Smith turned on an 0-2 cutter from Dennis Santana (3-4) and sent the ball into the right-field corner. Two pitches later, Patrick Bailey singled Smith in for the final 4-2 margin of victory.

It was the second time on this road trip that Smith pinch-hit and delivered the game-winner, after Friday’s 10th-inning game-winner in New York.

Perhaps Smith is more comfortable on the East Coast, where he spent the majority of his career in NYC, Washington D.C., and Boston. He finished the six-game trip with four runs and seven RBIs, even though he only started four of the games.

Smith was a big reason that Bob Melvin pushed all the right buttons in Wednesday’s victory. “Patty Barrels” was another.

Bailey got the team’s game-tying 8th-inning rally started when he led off with a single pinch-hitting for Andrew Knizner. It was Bailey’s second multi-hit game of this road trip and he’s inching closer to his nickname no longer sounding sarcastic. He’s raised his batting average by 25 points in the past month to a respectable-for-a-catcher .213.

He’s still a catcher, though, so after Rafael Devers walked, he only reached third on Willy Adames’ single. But even with the bases loaded, often the most challenging game situation for the Giants offense, Matt Chapman got Bailey home from third with a game-tying sacrifice fly to deep left.

Starter Robbie Ray had his second straight solid start, giving up two runs in six inning and striking out eight Pirates. He issued his only two walks and two of his six hits in the first inning, when a double play saved the damage from being more than just Nick Gonzales’ RBI single. Pittsburgh scraped together a second run in the 5th inning when Isiah Kiner-Falefa singled, stole second, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on Tommy Pham’s shallow sac fly and Jerar Encarnacion’s two-hop throw to the plate.

Encarnacion’s nightmare season continued Wednesday. He hit his second home run in as many days to lead off the 5th inning, a massive 442-foot blast to left field. It was also his first career home run off a left-handed pitcher.

Two innings later, the young slugger’s season might have ended when he hustled to beat out a ground ball and appeared to severely injure his hamstring in the process.

After the game, Bob Melvin said Encarnacion’s hamstring “doesn’t look good” and that the outfielder would get an MRI Thursday. He concluded that the slugger was “gonna be down for a while.”

The Giants had Encarnacion penciled in for a significant role this season. His .248/.277/.425 last season wasn’t great, but when he connected, Encarnacion hit the ball really, really hard, with an average exit velocity of 95 MPH. In spring training, he fractured his left hand diving for a fly ball. When his season finally started June 2, he was rusty, hitting 3-for-22 in eight games, and suffered an oblique injury. He homered in his first two games back, and now he’s out again.

The lesson is, as always, never hustle.

The Giants’ stripped-down bullpen delivered Wednesday, with the trio of Jose Butto, winning pitcher Ryan Walker (4-4). and Randy Rodriguez (Save #3) held the Pirates scoreless for three innings. Walker was an adventure, because that’s how he does things in 2025, yielding two two-out singles before O’Neil Cruz struck out pinch-hitting for Giants Killer Joey Bart.

Patrick Bailey delivered late, while Bart struck out three times and got pinch-hit for in a key spot. In other words, what an incredible day for Farhan Zaidi.

The Giants get a day off Thursday before flying home to play the Washington Nationals. And where the inescapable Luis Matos will likely be back. Marco Luciano can’t learn to play the outfield fast enough.