PITTSBURGH – Deivi Cruz got San Francisco off to a second fast start in as many nights with a two-run homer and center fielder Jason Bay’s error helped key a three-run sixth inning, carrying the Giants past the Pittsburgh Pirates 7-6 Saturday night.

The Giants won their season-high fourth in a row despite a shaky start from left-hander Noah Lowry, who left trailing 4-3 in the fifth. Lowry has gone three successive starts without winning after starting his career 7-0.

Bay’s error for overrunning Pedro Feliz’s RBI single was Pittsburgh’s first in 71 innings but scored the go-ahead run after starter Dave Williams (1-3) took the one-run lead into the sixth. The Pirates have been outscored 23-9 in Williams’ last three starts.

Cruz and Moises Alou singled to start the inning, bringing on reliever Rick White. Feliz’s run-scoring single under Bay’s glove tied it, with Alou scoring on the error on the play. Mike Matheny, whose solo homer decided the Giants’ 3-2 win Friday night, followed with a two-out RBI single that made it 6-4.

With the Giants’ bullpen unsettled following closer Armando Benitez’s hamstring injury, manager Felipe Alou used seven of his eight relievers, with Jim Brower getting the final four outs for his first save and only his second in two seasons. He allowed Freddy Sanchez’s RBI single in the ninth, but got pinch-hitter Bobby Hill to ground to second to end the game.

Pittsburgh has scored a major league-low 64 runs, but couldn’t win even when it scored more than four runs for the first time in 12 games.

The Pirates are starting a left-hander in every game of the three-game weekend series, allowing Alou to stack his lineup with right-handed batters. That paid off in the first when Cruz followed Omar Vizquel’s one-out double with his first homer since Oct. 3. The Giants also opened a 2-0 lead in the first inning Friday.

Moises Alou, who brought a .148 average into the game, went 2-for-4 and drove in a run with a force-play grounder in the second that made it 3-0.

The Pirates, now 3-8 at home, came back to lead 4-3 on Humberto Cota’s homer in the third – his first and Pittsburgh’s first in five games – and RBI grounders by Bay, Ty Wigginton and Daryle Ward. Ward hit a line drive under second baseman Cruz’s glove in the fifth with the bases loaded and one out, but Cruz was charged with an error.

Lowry was then lifted for Tyler Walker (2-0), who got out of the jam without further damage by getting Sanchez to ground into a force play at the plate and Wigginton on a sharply hit liner to first.

Notes: Williams has an 8-18 career record as a starter. His 9.95 ERA against San Francisco is his highest against any opposing team. … This is the first time since Barry Bonds broke into then majors with the Pirates in 1986 he won’t play in Pittsburgh during a season. He is out with a right knee injury and the Giants don’t return to PNC Park again this season. … The Giants’ Jason Ellison had two more hits, making him 13-for-22 (.591) as a starter. He is 13-for-20 (.650) against left-handers.

AP-ES-04-30-05 2232EDT