The Pittsburgh Pirates drop a second game to the Chicago Cubs 1 – 0 from a run scored on a fielding error by a struggling defense.
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FINAL: Chicago Cubs 1 Pittsburgh Pirates 0
W- Kyle Hendricks (2-1) L- Gerrit Cole (1-3)
Takeaways
- Tonight, starting pitching thrived. Gerrit Cole was the ace he is rumored to be, giving the Pirates 7 innings, which was badly needed after Kuhl’s outing yesterday taxed the bullpen. The Cubs’ starter Kyle Hendricks, who has been none too impressive this season, even put forth a respectable effort, throwing six innings of shut-out ball.
- Cervy finally picks one off! After an lengthy at-bat by John Jay, Cervy picked off catcher Wilson Contreras trying to steal second. In actuality, the initial throw didn’t quite get the mark, but an overslide allowed Jordy Mercer to get the tag to get the out.
- Bob Walk‘s “Cat Night” campaign. Since last season when the delightfully curmudgeonly color man asked why there wasn’t a “Cat Night” at PNC to counter their popular Pup Nights, it’s become a running joke on Pup Tuesdays when he and Greg Brown are working together. He never fails to deliver one-liners about the campaign and his wry wit really shines through when he’s responding to Tweets to the booth.
Throwaways
- Defensive woes continue – In the second, Alen Hanson, playing second, fielded a routine ground ball and overthrew first so badly Josh Bell had no chance of catching the ball, allowing Addison Russell to get home. According to Pirates play-by-play announcer Greg Brown, that was the 19th error by the team this season – an MLB-leading 6th by second basemen alone.
- No offense. You can’t score runs if no one gets on base.
- Ailing players – Adam Frazier, who has had a relatively warm bat, was sent to the 10-day DL yesterday. So the infield was already down a man. And then, as pointed out by Greg Brown, David Freese, who didn’t start and has had a pretty hot bat of late, didn’t pinch hit for Cole in the 7th. If Freese is nursing some injury, send healing thoughts ASAP. The combined loss would be a real blow to the already weak Pirates offense.
Line Of The Night
Gerrit Cole is back in 2015 form. In 7 innings work, he threw 78 pitches, 56 for strikes. He struck 8 batters out gave up 2 hits and one run, not earned.
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The #Pirates fall to the Cubs 1-0. Who is your Pirates player of the game?
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Up Next
The Pirates close out their series against the Cubs at 7:05 p.m. at PNC Park. Tyler Glasnow (0-1) looks to turn his fortunes around as he goes head-to-head against Cubs legend Jon Lester (0-0).
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