Ben Margot, Associated Press Pirates' Jason Bay swings for a two-run home run off Giants' Matt Morris in the fourth inning Friday night in San Francisco. Click photo for larger image. Today Matchup: Pirates (Ian Snell 6-3) vs. Giants (Noah Lowry 2-3), 4:05 p.m. Where: AT&T Park. TV/radio: FSN Pittsburgh/KDKA-AM (1020) and Pirates Radio Network. Related article Pirates Notebook: Paulino still catching on behind plate Game Statistics Provided by Forecaster Pirates vs. Giants box score Game play-by-play

SAN FRANCISCO - It was a strange setting in which to develop a sense of inner peace, but Mike Gonzalez was sure he had found it.

Based loaded.

One-run lead.

Enemy crowd of 38,766 on its feet and roaring.

"It's not fazing me anymore," he would say later. "I'm feeling like they're not going to score regardless. Early on, it was different. But now, these guys are getting on, bases loaded or whatever it may be, and it doesn't matter. They're not going to score."

Gonzalez's instinct would be as accurate as the final pitch that fanned Eliezer Alfonzo to preserve the Pirates' 3-2 edging of the San Francisco Giants last night at AT&T Park.

But it would not come without the fuss that has become customary in his first year as a closer.

Sean Casey went 4 for 4 at the plate, Jason Bay hit his 19th home run, Victor Santos pitched seven solid innings, and Salomon Torres added a scoreless eighth to turn over the one-run lead to Gonzalez.

A precious one, at that.

The Pirates had lost three in a row and were fresh off an agonizing, ninth-inning defeat here Thursday that dropped their record in one-run games to 6-18.

As third baseman Freddy Sanchez put it beforehand, "It's very important to put that game aside."

Steve Finley grounded out to open the ninth, but Moises Alou singled to left and was replaced by pinch-runner Jason Ellison. The threat was on.

Mark Sweeney flied out to center for the second out, but Pedro Feliz pulled a shot inside the left-field line that looked certain to tie the score with the speedy Ellison running.

That is, until the ball bounced - barely - into the first row of seats for a ground-rule double that held Ellison at third.

Torres said he and others in the Pirates' dugout found hope in that.

"The little breaks we've been missing so long ... there it is," he recalled telling his teammates.

Jose Vizcaino walked to load the bases on a full-count fastball that appeared to catch him looking at strike three.

Gonzalez remained unfazed, he said, after catching a glance from pitching coach Jim Colborn on the top step of the duguout.

"Really calmed me down," Gonzalez said.

He attacked Alfonzo and struck him out swinging under a 1-2 curveball, a similar pitch to one that had fooled him earlier in the count, for his ninth save in as many chances.

"Some pretty good pitches there," manager Jim Tracy said.

"I wasn't going to give in, even if I walked him," Gonzalez said. "I went at him with my best stuff."

Santos, too, was operating with his best stuff, perhaps of his career.

In limiting San Francisco to two runs and four hits, he won for the third time in four appearances to improve to 4-6, a span in which he has given up four earned runs in 19 innings.

"I feel like I'm in a groove, and it's showing," Santos said. "I feel more comfortable every time out there, like I'm really executing my game plan."

Tracy described Santos as making "gradual, positive steps" after he went 1-5 in his first 10 starts.

"He's done a very nice job for us for a while now," Tracy said. "And he was really good tonight."

The Pirates jumped to the initial lead for the fourth time on this 2-3 trip.

Nate McLouth opened the game with a single off San Francisco starter Matt Morris, stole second, took third when Alfonzo's throw sailed into center field, then scored on Casey's double to the left corner.

The Giants touched Santos for two in the third on Alfonzo's RBI triple and Randy Winn's sacrifice fly.

Casey singled to open the Pirates' next turn at the plate, and Bay took two balls from Morris before sending a fastball into the bleachers in left-center. It put his team back up, 3-2.

Bay was named National League player of the month in May, and he has not exactly fallen off since then, going 10 for 25 in June. On this trip, he has reached base in 16 of 23 plate appearances, an on-base percentage of .696.

Casey' four-hit performance was his second in as many nights and his fourth in eight games.

It also improved his career mark to .472 -- 42 for 89 -- at AT&T Park, the best rate of any player in this place's seven-year history, even the other guy wearing No. 25 last night. That includes an outrageous 22 of 37 in his past eight games here.

"Really?" Casey said when told of his standing. "I had no idea, but I guess that's pretty cool."

As a whole, particularly given what had happened 24 hours earlier, the Pirates seemed to find this outcome especially cool.

"It's just a matter of time before those breaks started going our way," Torres said. "Next thing you know, we'll get a bunch of them."