McCutchen delivers late as Pirates top Cubs |
Dustin Riese
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- 5 hours ago
PITTSBURGH - There were a ton of reasons why the 2024 season was considered a failure, but one of the biggest reasons was their inability to win within their division. Anytime you go 23-29 against your own division, you're putting yourself in a hole that becomes hard to climb out of, as those are the games you need to have.
You have to dive even deeper into that to see how bad things were inside the division for the Chicago Cubs (18-13) last season as they owned the Pittsburgh Pirates (12-19), winning 10 of 13 games against them. That means they were just 13-26 against the rest of the Central, and that won't cut it. With Paul Skenes looming on Thursday, the Cubs had a chance to clinch the series at PNC Park on Wednesday, which is all you can ask for. This was one game that felt weird from the start as the Cubs struggled to get much of anything going against Carmen Mlodzinski who entered the game with an ERA north of 7.00. Despite their struggles, the Cubs still had a 3-2 lead in the seventh, and you had to like the Cubs' chances to pull this out, especially with their best relievers, which are good to go. It was at that moment when the defense let the Cubs down as a costly error by Jon Berti helped set the Pirates offense up as Andrew McCutchen came through with a seeing-eye single that deflected off Dansby Swanson's foot to bring home the winning runs in a 4-3 victory. Although Mlodzinski lasted just four innings, the right-hander handcuffed the Cubs early as it was a near carbon copy from Tuesday early on. Apart from a trio of singles from Nico Hoerner, Swanson, and Ian Happ, the Cubs were once again off to a slow start as the Pirates kept the Cubs offense in check during the early innings. Matthew Boyd, on the other hand, had an interesting outing, going five innings and striking out six. As good as that may look, Boyd wasn't as crisp as he had been, which is evident from the three walks and six hits he had allowed. Unlike Mlodzinski who was off and running early, it took Boyd a little while to settle in as an O'Neil Cruz double to lead off the game put Boyd in a tough spot and the Pirates offense threatening. Boyd came close to getting out of the inning before walking Joey Bart to extend the inning. That was followed by a Ke'Bryan Hayes single that put the Pirates in front 1-0. It took four innings for the Cubs offense to finally put something together off Mlodzinski, but after a pair of two-out singles from Carson Kelly and Hoerner, it was the Cubs with an opportunity to score only to come away empty. The key inning in this one up to this point was the bottom of the fourth, as another leadoff double put Boyd in a tough spot. That double was followed by a pair of singles from Hayes and Matt Gorski, and suddenly, the Pirates had the bases loaded with no outs. With an opportunity to break the game open, it looked as if the Pirates would come away empty as the Jared Triolo fly ball wound up being a double Play as Pete Crow-Armstrong gunned Bart down at the plate. The Pirates wound up challenging the play and won the challenge as it was ruled that Bart did beat the throw to push the Pirates lead to 2-0. As has been the case most of the season, not only has this Cubs offense been great, but they have proven time and again that they don't need a ton of time to get rolling. Take the fifth inning, for example, as another leadoff single from Swanson gave the Cubs a baserunner before moving up on the Berti walk. With their best scoring opportunity of the night, Happ came through with an RBI single to make this a 2-1 game as he has now reached base in 43 straight games at PNC Park. Throw in an RBI groundout from Kyle Tucker and a costly wild pitch from Ryan Burucki, and it was the Cubs who were now in front as they battled back to take a 3-2 lead. It was at this point that Craig Counsell called on his bullpen, as Brad Keller was the first arm of choice. With Keller taking care of business in the sixth, he was brought back out for the seventh, but the Berti error ultimately chased him from the game and put Caleb Thielbar in a tough spot. For the most part, Thielbar did what he needed to get out of the jam, but as everyone knows, baseball is a game of inches. Inches were the difference in this one, as Thielbar elected to let the McCutchen bouncer go by and thus trusted his middle infield to make the play. Despite the best effort from Swanson to keep the ball in front of him, McCutchen saw his bouncer off Swanson's leg and roll into right field, resulting in both runners coming into the score and putting the Pirates back on top 4-3. That would be all the offense the Pirates would need as Caleb Ferguson and David Bednar took care of the final six outs to give the Pirates the win. Since moving to the No. 8 spot in the lineup, Swanson seems to be bouncing back as he led the Cubs with three hits. Chicago also saw Hoerner and Happ pick up two hits, as those three were responsible for seven of the team's nine hits. The Cubs will look to take the series on Thursday when they send Colin Rea to the mound against Paul Skenes. This will be Skenes fifth start in as many series against the Cubs and has yet to lose a decision against Chicago. On a side note, we want to send some prayers to the family of the fan involved in an on field incident that took place in the seventh. It has been reported that the fan fell over the railing on the 21-foot high Roberto Clemente wall and crashed onto the warning track in right. PITTSBURGH -- A fan fell from the 21-foot Clemente Wall in right field at PNC Park during Wednesday night's game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago Cubs. "PITTSBURGH — During Wednesday night’s game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Chicago Cubs, a fan fell from the 21-foot-high Clemente Wall in right field at PNC Park." pic.twitter.com/eGfgU7LodD
(ESPN)
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