Jake Arrieta allowed four hits in nine dominant innings and the Cubs rolled to a 4-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates in the National League baseball wild-card game Wednesday night.
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The right-hander struck out 11 and walked none in his first career playoff start, needing 113 pitches to finish his gem.
For the Cubs, who have not won the World Series since 1908 – the longest drought in North American professional sports – their next opponents will be the St. Louis Cardinals, who they meet in a best-of-five division series, starting Friday.
Schwarber and Dexter Fowler, the top two hitters in Wednesday’s Cubs lineup had five of the team’s six hits with the remainder of the team batting 2-for-32, good for a. 062 batting average.
Fowler added to the lead when he hit a one-out solo home run to right-center field in the fifth inning. The Pirates, 98 wins, and Cubs, 97, posted the second and third best records in the Major Leagues, finishing just behind the division rival Cardinals’ 100-win season.
Baseball isn’t about to eliminate its divisions, so this is the kind of thing that’s going to happen all too often.
Asked if he’d ever seen anything like what Arrieta was doing, Maddon said, “Bob Gibson, I was a Gibson fan growing up, and I hate to disappoint the Cub nation, but I was a Gibson fan growing up”. Alvarez, though, pinch-hit for Rodriguez in the third inning after Pittsburgh fell behind 3-0 and stayed in the game at first.
Chicago managed to chase Gerrit Cole early and frequently, as they made Pittsburgh’s ace work harder than expected right from the start. Teams with that many wins had never before played in such a one-game playoff.
Arrieta did get into two jams in the sixth and the seventh, but the Pirates hit into inning ending double plays.
The season continues for the Chicago Cubs. “At the end of the day I have tremendous respect for those guys”.
Rodriguez was ejected, and the Pirates still trail 4-0. “I think this organization has really grown, especially since I’ve been here”.
Schwarber singled, driving in Fowler, and the Cubs had a 1-0 lead two batters and 10 pitches into the game.
Jake Arrieta, who threw a complete-game shutout, jawas at Tony Watson after the Pirates reliever hit him with a pitch.
The Cubs would go on to taking that series opener by the final score of 6-1 behind two RBI doubles (Tommy La Stella, Starlin Castro) and Anthony Rizzo’s 31st home run of the season.
For the second year in a row, the Pittsburgh Pirates’ season ended at the hands of a red-hot pitcher.
Click the image above to explore our 2015 season tracker and check out how the Pirates have fared so far, game by game.
“So regarding anything that you thought may have been inappropriate tonight, you guys – and ladies – be the judge of that”.
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As Pirates first baseman Pedro Alvarez could attest.
