Estrada, Yastrzemski hit back-to-back homers to lead Giants past Pirates, 3-2

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Thairo Estrada and Mike Yastrzemski hit back-to-back home runs in the third inning, and rookie right-hander Keaton Winn had another strong start to lead the San Francisco Giants to a 3-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday.

Rookie shortstop Tyler Fitzgerald added three hits for the Giants, who took two of three from the Pirates and finished their longest homestand of the season 6-4. Pittsburgh lost for the 10th time in its past 13 games.

Winn (3-3) held the Pirates to one run over six innings, his line over the past three starts, all victories. Winn walked one, struck out five. He also hit Edward Olivares to start the fifth inning, leading to a run on Rowdy Tellez’s RBI double.

Erik Miller and Ryan Walker each pitched a scoreless inning in relief of Winn. Closer Camilo Doval allowed a ninth-inning run, but retired Joey Bart on a groundball with the potential tying and go-ahead runs on base to complete his fifth save.

The Giants relied on stifling performances by their starters on the homestand, which left them 14-15, good for second place in the National League West. They are 3 1/2 games behind the first-place Dodgers. The rotation has a 0.95 ERA over the past seven games, a lifeline for a team that has struggled to score.

Manager Bob Melvin said the Giants’ start “hasn’t been great, But to sit here right at .500, or a game below, we know there’s a lot more in there. It’s not a horrible place to be. No one’s really running away with the division, too.”

Pirates right-hander Jared Jones (2-3), making his sixth start in the majors, allowed three runs in five innings. Jones entered with a 2.79 ERA over his first five starts, striking out 39 in 29 innings. But the long ball has been an issue for the 22-year-old. The third-inning homers by Estrada and Yastrzemski were the sixth and seventh that Jones has surrendered.

Estrada hit the first pitch of the inning into the bleachers in left-center for his fourth of the season. Yastrzemski followed by driving a 2-2 pitch over the wall in straightaway center. The Giants had three more hits in the inning and scored a third run on LaMonte Wade Jr.’s no-out sacrifice fly.

Yastrzemski had a tough start to the season but has heated up ahead of the Giants’ first visit to Boston in five years Tuesday night. As a rookie in 2019, Yastrzemski homered in his first game at Fenway Park in the presence of his grandfather, Red Sox legend and Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski. Before that game, Carl threw the ceremonial first pitch to Mike.

Yastrzemski hit .409 in 22 at-bats on the homestand, with two homers and eight RBIs, raising batting average from .121 to .236.

Melvin pegged Yastrzemski’s slow start to a spring-training shoulder injury. Yastrzemski also took a two-day paternity leave during the first week of the regular season.

Yastrzemski said that was part of it, but added, “I was also just not in a great place mentally, not getting off to the start that I wanted, pressing, trying to do too much. Sometimes it takes a little bit of time to let that go and focus on the things that I needed to instead of the scoreboard and to start having better at-bats.”

TRAINER’S ROOM

Giants: Shortstop Nick Ahmed did not start a day after taking Jack Suwinski’s 108-mph liner on the left wrist above his glove hand. He was available off the bench.

UP NEXT

Pirates LHP Bailey Falter (2-1, 3.33 ERA) was set to face RHP Joe Boyle (1-4, 7.06) in a series opener at Oakland on Monday night. Giants RHP Logan Webb (3-1, 2.33) will carry a career-high 19-inning scoreless streak into Fenway Park on Tuesday night The Red Sox have not announced a starter.

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San Francisco Giants' Matt Chapman hits a single against the Pittsburgh Pirates during the third inning of a baseball game Sunday, April 28, 2024, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

San Francisco Giants' LaMonte Wade Jr. hits a sacrifice fly against the Pittsburgh Pirates during the third inning of a baseball game Sunday, April 28, 2024, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

San Francisco Giants' Tyler Fitzgerald scores against the Pittsburgh Pirates on a sacrifice fly by teammate LaMonte Wade Jr. during the third inning of a baseball game Sunday, April 28, 2024, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

San Francisco Giants' Matt Chapman reacts after hitting a single against the Pittsburgh Pirates during the third inning of a baseball game Sunday, April 28, 2024, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Pittsburgh Pirates' Jared Triolo, right, hits a groundout to San Francisco Giants shortstop Tyler Fitzgerald during the fifth inning of a baseball game Sunday, April 28, 2024, in San Francisco. Pirates' Edward Olivares scored on the play. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Pittsburgh Pirates' Edward Olivares scores against the San Francisco Giants on Jared Triolo's ground out during the fifth inning of a baseball game Sunday, April 28, 2024, in San Francisco. Edward Olivares scored on the play. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Pittsburgh Pirates' Henry Davis walks to the dugout after striking out during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants, Sunday, April 28, 2024, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

San Francisco Giants pitcher Erik Miller throws to a Pittsburgh Pirates batter during the seventh inning of a baseball game Sunday, April 28, 2024, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Oneil Cruz, left, tags out San Francisco Giants' Tyler Fitzgerald, right, at second for a double play during the fifth inning of a baseball game Sunday, April 28, 2024, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

San Francisco Giants' Mike Yastrzemski, right, celebrates with third base coach Matt Williams after hitting a solo home run off Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Jared Jones during the third inning of a baseball game Sunday, April 28, 2024, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Jared Jones reacts after walking San Francisco Giants' Jung Hoo Lee during the third inning of a baseball game Sunday, April 28, 2024, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

San Francisco Giants' Thairo Estrada runs the bases after hitting a solo home run against the Pittsburgh Pirates during the third inning of a baseball game Sunday, April 28, 2024, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Protesters against the war between Israel and Hamas were voluntarily taking down their tents in Harvard Yard on Tuesday after university officials agreed to discuss their questions about the endowment, bringing a peaceful end to the kinds of demonstrations that were broken up by police on other campuses.

The student protest group Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine said in a statement that the encampment “outlasted its utility with respect to our demands.” Meanwhile, Harvard University interim President Alan Garber agreed to pursue a meeting between protesters and university officials regarding the students’ questions.

Students at many college campuses this spring set up similar encampments, calling for their schools to cut ties with Israel and businesses that support it.

The latest Israel-Hamas war began when Hamas and other militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and taking an additional 250 hostage. Palestinian militants still hold about 100 captives, and Israel's military has killed more than 35,000 people in Gaza, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Harvard said its president and the dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Hopi Hoekstra, will meet with the protesters to discuss the conflict in the Middle East.

The protesters said they worked out an agreement to meet with university officials including the Harvard Management Company, which oversees the world's largest academic endowment, valued at about $50 billion.

The protesters’ statement said the students will set an agenda including discussions on disclosure, divestment and reinvestment, and the creation of a Center for Palestine Studies. The students also said that Harvard has offered to retract the suspensions of more than 20 students and student workers and back down on disciplinary measures faced by 60 more.

“Since its establishment three weeks ago, the encampment has both broadened and deepened Palestine solidarity organizing on campus,” a spokesperson for the protesters said. “It has moved the needle on disclosure and divestment at Harvard."

Harvard alumnus Rotem Spiegler said she's glad to see the protest being dismantled, but thinks it improper to reward students in part for being disruptive.

“It just should have happened a while ago, and they should have suffered consequences to what they’ve been doing here violating everybody’s space and not respecting any of the university rules that were adjusted even while they were going,” Spiegler said.

Faculty members who supported the demonstration in Harvard Yard said the students achieved “an important step towards divestment from Israel and liberation for Palestine.”

“We honor the bravery of our students, who put themselves at risk to amplify the worldwide call for Palestinian liberation that global leaders have been trying to suppress,” Harvard Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine said in a statement.

Chloe Gambol, a Harvard University student, said the biggest achievement of the protest was just shining a spotlight on the situation in Gaza.

“The point of a protest is to draw attention and to make a scene and make a stand and, I think, definitely achieved that based on what we see on all the news. A lot of people are talking about it,” she said.

But Howard Smith, a senior researcher at Harvard, said he was happy to see the encampment go down.

“I think the students were very misguided and, basically, historically incorrect and morally off base,” he said. “But I’m pleased that the situation at Harvard was not as crazy as in some other places.”

Protesters also voluntarily took down their tents Monday night at Williams College in Massachusetts after its board of trustees agreed to meet later this month. Williams President Maud Mandel said dialogue is the answer.

“In a year when personal, political and moral commitments are being tested, I have seen our diverse community members -- including people in the encampment, and people who question or oppose it -- try to engage with each other across differences, looking for ways to exchange views without trading insults,” Mandel said in a statement.

In western New York, the University of Rochester also cleared out an encampment there on Tuesday ahead of Friday’s commencement ceremony. Most protesters dispersed voluntarily, but two people unaffiliated with the university were arrested for damaging a commencement tent, university spokesperson Sara Miller said.

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A person uses a mobile device to record a person wearing a keffiyeh, right, near the remnants of an encampment of tents in Harvard Yard, on the campus of Harvard University, Tuesday, May 14, 2024, in Cambridge, Mass. Anti-war protesters have taken down their tents in Harvard Yard after the university agreed to meet to discuss their demands. The student protest group calling themselves Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine say their camp "outlasted its utility." (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

People walk past the remnants of an encampment of tents in Harvard Yard on the campus of Harvard University, Tuesday, May 14, 2024, in Cambridge, Mass. Anti-war protesters have taken down their tents in Harvard Yard after the university agreed to meet to discuss their demands. The student protest group calling themselves Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine say their camp "outlasted its utility." (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Tourists flocked to Harvard Yard on Harvard University to catch a glimpse of an encampment set up to protest the war in Gaza, Tuesday, May 14, 2024, in Cambridge, Mass. The encampment was being voluntarily removed early Tuesday. (AP Photo/Michael Casey)

Rotem Spiegler, an alumni of Harvard University, stands near an encampment set up at the university to protest the war in Gaza, Tuesday, May 14, 2024, in Cambridge, Mass. The encampment was being voluntarily removed early Tuesday. (AP Photo/Michael Casey)

FILE - Students protesting against the war in Gaza, and passersby walking through Harvard Yard, are seen at an encampment at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., on April 25, 2024. Participants at the Harvard encampment protesting the war between Israel and Hamas announced they were voluntarily ending their occupation of Harvard Yard. The student protest group said in a statement that the encampment “outlasted its utility with respect to our demands,” and interim Harvard University President Alan Garber agreed to pursue a meeting between those involved in the protest and university officials. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)