Game 20 Recap: Pirates 8 Cubs 1

Photo Courtesy of Matt Marton-USA TODAY Sports

The following recap is written by BP-Wrigleyville contributor James Burns.

Top Play (WPA): Kyle Hendricks found himself in serious trouble in the top of the fifth after loading the bases following two singles and a hit by pitch. He then continued to display an uncharacteristic lack of command on the evening, issuing a walk to Starling Marte and breaking the 1-1 tie (.146). It was the third walk Hendricks allowed on the evening and the second to Marte, doubling the young Pirate left fielder’s total on the season.

Pittsburgh starter Gerrit Cole began the threat in the fifth with an infield single that Kris Bryant couldn’t corral at third (.049). Hendricks forced Gregory Polanco into a fielder’s choice before Jordy Mercer singled to left (.094). Hendricks regained composure with two on while facing all-world Andrew McCutchen as the Pirate waved at a curve that dove out of the zone for strike three. However, Neil Walker leaned into a pitch low and inside to load the bases before Marte eventually took his base on balls.

Bottom Play (WPA): Interestingly enough, McCutchen’s fifth inning strikeout mentioned above with men on first and third and one out was the bottom play of the game (-.094). McCutchen was unable to break the 1-1 tie and Hendricks was one out away from escaping the Pittsburgh threat. However, Hendricks did all the work for the Pirates with the subsequent hit by pitch and walk.

Key Moment: The fifth inning had a lot of action. Following the bases loaded walk, Pedro Alvarez hit a ground ball to second. A diving Herrera recovered and threw to Castro for the force. However, the ump called the runner safe. Joe Maddon continued his recent success on reviews—after missing on his first five challenges, Maddon has hit on three of his last four—and the call was overturned, ending the inning. Considering the circumstances, a 2-1 deficit seemed manageable. However, the Cubs were suffocated by Cole in the bottom half with a quick 1-2-3 inning from Castro, Chris Coghlan, and Chris Denorfia. Top of six: enter Gonzalez German.

Following a Jung-Ho Kang strikeout, Chris Stewart doubled to left. German struck out Cole before intentionally walking Polanco to face Mercer who singled to center to plate a run. McCutchen, likely aware he missed his opportunity just an inning earlier, crushed a 2-0 pitch 399 ½ feet to deep center over Fowler’s head. On a warm day, that ball probably definitely lands in the batter’s eye. Instead, McCutchen cruised to a triple as two runs scored. German gave up another run-scoring single before recording the third out. German entered the game with a one-run deficit and left after surrendering four.

In the span of an inning the Cubs went from being relieved that they were only down a run, to being mowed down by Cole, then watching Germen fall apart a half inning later.

The Pirates brought nine batters to the plate in the top of the sixth. This has been a hotly debated topic on Twitter, the internets, and podcasts. I defer to long-time Cubs radio play-by-play man Pat Hughes—who has called baseball for as many seasons as I have years on this earth—who plainly stated as the ninth batter stood in the box: “The Pirates have batted around this inning.” I guess Hughes just settled that.

Trend to Watch: A few trends worth mentioning include Bryant’s defense, Rizzo’s hit by pitches, and the overall aggressiveness on the basepaths. We’ll leave those for another time because the Gerrit Cole Cy Young Watch is real.

Cole entered the game 5-0 in his career against the Cubs—and more impressively, he’s struck out 28.9 percent of the Cubs he’s faced and walked just 5.4 percent—and on Wednesday night his domination over the North Siders continued. Cole was aided by the Cubs aggressive baserunning. In the first inning a hit and run backfired on the Cubs as it led to Neil Walker moving right to where a Jorge Soler groundball was hit, kicking off a way-too-easy 4-3 double play. Rizzo followed with a single to center, but was gunned down by McCutchen at second as he tried to stretch it into a double. Neither was an unforgivable mistake, as the Soler play was just bad luck and Rizzo was being aggressive about trying to get in scoring position with two down, but it still bailed Cole out of potential jams early on.

Cole continued to avoid trouble in the second following a leadoff walk to Bryant and a series of gaffes by Alvarez, including an error that allowed Bryant to advance to second after a pickoff attempt deflected off his glove. Bryant scored on a Montero single, but Cole settled down to strike out the next three batters he faced in the inning. Cole cruised the rest of the way, allowing just one base runner—who was nabbed trying to steal second— as he sat down 14 of 15 to finish the night.

Cole pitched six innings with eight strikeouts, one walk, a hit by pitch, three hits, and just the one—unearned—run.

Coming Next: The Cubs (12-8, +12 run differential) say farewell to Pittsburgh (12-10, +18) after taking four of seven in April. Both teams have a day off Thursday before opening the month of May. The Cubs welcome the Milwaukee Brewers (5-17, -47) to town for a three game series before heading to St. Louis (14-6, +31).

The Brewers have struggled early and All-Stars Carlos Gomez and Jonathan Lucroy have spent time on the disabled list. Gomez is eligible to return Friday while Lucroy is expected to be out for several more weeks, nursing a broken toe. In addition to injured regulars, Milwaukee manager Ron Roenicke has faced some heat on the heels of their brutal finish to 2014 with an equally brutal start to 2015. The Brewers remain another poor month from a lost season. The Cubs should focus on kicking the Brewers while they’re down rather than looking ahead to the Cardinals. This is a great chance for more discos and helmet rubs.

The Cubs shuffled their rotation this week and a rounding-into-form Jon Lester (2.22 FIP) will take the bump against righty Wily Peralta (4.46) Friday at 1:20 pm. Pittsburgh heads to St. Louis for the last leg of their road trip.