None of that showed up as friction early. Vásquez cruised, the Padres pieced together just enough offense against Chandler and the Pittsburgh bullpen, and San Diego closed it out clean. Petco stayed shorthanded on offense in spots but didn't need much.
Pittsburgh had taken 2 of the first 3 in this series, riding a pair of low-scoring wins built on shutdown pitching of their own. San Diego flipped the script in the finale, matching that formula and turning it back on them — this time it was the Pirates' bats that went cold.
Chandler's stuff has genuinely ticked up over the past several weeks, and that arrow points somewhere even after Wednesday. But Pittsburgh's lineup has been playing shorthanded, and it showed again — 5 hits, no runs, a shutout that snaps whatever momentum the first two wins of this series had built.
San Diego is squeezed into a tight wild-card picture and needed exactly this kind of quiet, efficient win to keep pace. Pittsburgh, still hunting .500 more than a playoff spot at this point in the year, heads out of San Diego having split the difference on a series it led into the finale.