Ben Margot, Associated Press Zach Duke works against the Giants in the third inning. Click photo for larger image. Today Matchup:Pirates (Victor Santos 3-6) vs. Giants (Matt Morris 3-6), 10:15 p.m. Where: AT&T Park, San Francisco. TV/Radio: FSN Pittsburgh/KDKA-AM (1020) and Pirates Radio Network. Related articles Pirates Notebook: Bonds feels undeserving of All-Star berth in Pittsburgh Game Statistics Provided by Forecaster Pirates vs. Giants box score Game play-by-play

SAN FRANCISCO - The baseball gods will punish a team for squandering so many chances, stranding so many runners.

Even so, this was cruel.

And highly unusual.

The Pirates left 15 men on base before a bizarre ninth inning in which a bloop, a blunder and a ball in the dirt -- Matt Capps' wild pitch with the bases loaded -- turned over a 5-4 victory to the San Francisco Giants last night at AT&T Park.

"That's a tough loss," shortstop Jack Wilson said. "But that's just the kind of thing that's been happening to us."

It was ugly throughout at the plate, with the hitters going 1 for 12 with runners in scoring position and doing the least to take advantage of Matt Cain, San Francisco's spraying rookie starter.

Most conspicuous was Jeromy Burnitz going 0 for 5 with three strikeouts and 11 men stranded.

"When you leave as many runners on as we left, you're setting yourself up to get beat," manager Jim Tracy said. "I know for a fact that the opportunity to apply the knockout punch was there. More than once. But we kept 'em hanging around, and you can't do that."

It would get uglier still, in the ninth.

Reliever Damaso Marte entered with a 4-4 tie, and Eliezer Alfonzo led off with a high pop inside the left-field line, about 20 yards behind third base. Freddy Sanchez and Wilson converged, but it nicked off Sanchez's glove and fell to the grass.

Pinch-hitter Steve Finley sacrificed Alfonzo to second, and Randy Winn followed with a popup to right. Again, two fielders converged, second baseman Jose Castillo and Burnitz. Again, neither made the catch, Burnitz backing off and the ball bouncing off Castillo's mitt.

Alfonzo took third.

Asked his view of the misplays, Tracy replied, "You're better served to ask those guys."

Marte intentionally walked Omar Vizquel to load the bases, and Capps came on to get Lance Niekro on a shallow fly to right for the second out. That brought up Moises Alou, who had launched a 410-foot home run earlier in the game.

The count went to 1-1, and Capps, owner of perhaps the best command on the staff, threw a slider.

"It's a 1-1 count, so there's a lot to play with," Capps explained. "But I got it down there, and it got away."

The pitch bounced to the side of home plate, eluded catcher Ronny Paulino and skipped to the backstop, bringing Alfonzo home and sending the already-standing crowd of 34,540 into celebration.

It was the Pirates' third consecutive defeat after the victory that opened this seven-game trip. And, of course, it added to the litany of one-run losses, their record in such situations falling to 6-18, by far the worst in Major League Baseball.

The general feeling afterward was that it never should have come to the calamitous ninth.

Cain, a 21-year-old making his 18th career start, needed 37 pitches to escape a first inning in which he gave up two runs on a bases-loaded walk to Sanchez and, then, by hitting Castillo.

The Pirates added another run in the second on Sean Casey's RBI double, but that would be all the damage done against Cain despite putting 11 men on base in his four innings.

"We had some opportunities to bury them, and we just couldn't," said Casey, whose 4-for-5 night raised his career average at this ballpark to .447. "We left them in the game and, the way things are going for us on the road, we couldn't afford to do that."

Starter Zach Duke lasted six-plus innings and was charged with three runs on six hits, including Alou's home run in the fourth.

"Very solid ballgame," Tracy said of Duke.

He held the Pirates' 4-2 lead by delivering a scoreless sixth despite runners at second and third with nobody out. He fanned Alou, got Ray Durham on a shallow fly, then fanned Pedro Feliz.

But Duke would not emerge from the seventh. He walked Jason Ellison, and Alfonzo hit a smash to Sanchez that took a bad hop, caromed off his chest and into left field for a double.

Salomon Torres relieved and put down all three batters he faced, but the first of those, pinch-hitter Todd Greene, pushed home a run with a groundout to cut the Pirates' lead to 4-3.

Roberto Hernandez came on for the eighth, and San Francisco tied it. Niekro led off with a double to the left corner, took third on a wild pitch and scored on Durham's flare to shallow left field.

It was only the sixth time in 27 outings Hernandez gave up a run.

The Pirates wasted one last chance in the top of the ninth when Paulino walked after two outs and took third on Craig Wilson's double. But Jose Bautista, stuck in a 2-for-14 slump, popped out to center.

"It's frustrating when a game like this happens," Capps said. "But tomorrow's another game, another chance."