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Brett Tomko threw 118 pitches and suffered his third defeat of the season. (Jeff Chiu/AP)

The game ended when Marquis Grissom grounded into a double play, the 46th double play the Giants have hit into this year. And Ray Durham apparently aggravated his left patellar tendon he strained earlier this season while running the bases.

The end result was San Francisco's fourth loss in five games on this homestand. The Giants are now 15-22 on the season and in danger of falling out of contention in the National League West before summer has even started.

"We're at the danger point right now," said Brett Tomko, Saturday's losing pitcher. "You can't let it slip too far into the season."

Tomko was knocked around again, allowing five runs in the first four innings. Tomko pitched six innings on the day, throwing a whopping 118 pitches. Thanks to a first-inning error by second baseman Durham, only three of the runs were earned.

"I was working on something mechanically," Tomko said. "The first three or four innings I felt out of whack."

All five runs scored with two outs and two of them came thanks to leadoff walks.

"Walks come back and bite you," Tomko said. "(There's an) easy solution -- don't walk anybody."

The loss wasn't all Tomko's fault. San Francisco's offense, missing Barry Bonds, made Pittsburgh starter Josh Fogg look like an All-Star. Fogg retired the first eight hitters he faced, and allowed just two runs on six hits in 5 2/3 innings. Four of the hits came in the sixth inning when the Giants got their two runs and chased Fogg.

Bonds sat out his second consecutive game with lower back spasms.

Bookending the day were two pieces of bad news on the injury front. Before the game, closer Robb Nen announced he'll be going home to Southern California for a month while resting his injured right (throwing) shoulder. Nen hasn't pitched since the 2002 World Series and has had three surgeries on the shoulder.

Then, in the bottom of the ninth inning, Durham had to leave the game for a pinch-runner. Durham didn't emerge in the clubhouse after the game, but a Giants official said it was the same injury that landed Durham on the disabled list at the end of April. Durham was activated prior to Thursday's game with the Phillies.

There wasn't much good news in between for the Giants. Pittsburgh's Jason Kendall walked to lead off the game. One out later, Durham booted Daryle Ward's potential double-play grounder. Tomko then walked Craig Wilson to load the bases. He came back to strike out Rob Mackowiak, but Jason Bay followed with a single to left to give the Pirates a 2-0 lead.

With two outs in the third inning, Wilson blasted a home run to center to make it 3-0. The shot was Wilson's ninth of the year.

It was more of the same in the fourth. Bay drew a leadoff walk and Chris Stynes followed with a single to right. Tomko retired Jose Castillo and Fogg -- the runners advancing on Castillo's groundout -- but was burned by the two-out hit yet again. Kendall singled to center to drive in both runners.

"They got a lot of two-out hits today," Giants manager Felipe Alou said. "They are a good hitting team. If you look at the statistics they are way up there in the hitting department."

That was more than enough for Fogg, who entered the game 0-4 with an 8.68 ERA. But he dominated the Giants for five innings, allowing just two singles. The first of those was a slow ground ball up the middle hit by Tomko. Second baseman Castillo made an excellent play to get to the ball, but couldn't quite throw out Tomko.

Fogg appeared to tire in the sixth. Durham and J.T. Snow led off with back-to-back singles. Marquis Grissom grounded out to move up the runners, and Edgardo Alfonzo singled to center to drive them home.

The Giants could have had more, but unlike the Pirates, couldn't get the two-out hit. After Michael Tucker flied out, Dustin Mohr singled to center. Fogg was pulled in favor of Brian Meadows. Alou sent Pedro Feliz to pinch-hit for Neifi Perez but Feliz grounded into a force out to end the inning.

Alfonzo, who had three hits on the day, led off the bottom of the eighth with a home run to left off of Salomon Torres to close out the scoring. The homer was Alfonzo's first of the year. It briefly brought the crowd of 41,042 to life, but Torres finished off the inning without further incident.

"There is a lot of life in his bat now," Alou said of Alfonzo. "It seems like he's got it going. I'll try to keep him in the lineup."

San Francisco loaded the bases with one out in the ninth on closer Jose Mesa, but Grissom grounded into a double play to end the game. It was the sixth double play Grissom has grounded into this year.

"I don't ever worry about hitting into a double play," Grissom said. "I worry about hitting the ball hard wherever I hit it."

Meantime, he said the Giants just need to keep working hard.

"You gotta keep playing," he said. "We get closer and closer and closer every day. That's the positive. We've got to keep trying and turn it around. We're got to just try and turn up the focus a little bit more."

Said Alou, "They battle back every day. It's not that they are flat or giving up. We are just falling short."

Damin Esper is a contributing writer for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

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