The Pirates have struggled against Jake Arrieta of late but they got revenge Friday night, knocking the Cubs ace out in an 8-4 victory. Starling Marte leads Pittsburgh with 98 hits, Gregory Polanco has 50 RBI and Andrew McCutchen has 13 home runs. McCutchen, who finished in the top five of the NL MVP voting each of the past four seasons, raised his batting average to.244, still a career low. Of course his final stat line might say something different: six-plus innings, nine hits, one walk, six earned runs. The Pittsburgh Pirates offense is on fire right now, and they’ve won nine straight games when scoring more than three runs. Chicago has lost eight of nine but lost for the just the second time in 10 games to the Pirates this season.
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Rizzo’s solo home run, his 21st, off Neftali Feliz (3-0) gave the Cubs a short-lived 4-3 lead in the top of the seventh inning. Juan Nicasio came on and induced a 6-4-3 double play, but Miguel Montero golfed his slider for a two-run homer, tying the score at 3.
Mark Melancon, the sixth Pittsburgh pitcher, got the final out for his 27th save in 28 opportunities. After Pirates shortstop Sean Rodriquez hammered a Jake Arrieta pitch into the left-field bleachers for a two-run homer in the second inning – just two batters after David Freese homered – Costas wondered aloud, “What sort of imposter is wearing the uniform of Jake Arrieta tonight?” They’re ranked in the bottom half of the majors in nearly every pitching category, including 22nd in WHIP and 21st in allowed batting average. Right-hander Chad Kuhl, who has a 4.09 ERA in two starts since making his Major League Baseball debut June 26, gets the ball for the Bucs. He’s allowed five earned runs in 11 career innings, walking four and striking out seven.
Emrick worked two innings on radio in March during a Pirates Spring Training game a few months after Costas had invited him to call a regular season game after watching an HBO “Real Sports” segment on the broadcasting legend. Maddon said the move was made to give the team a more experienced bat off the bench.
“I probably pitched to contact a little too much in certain situations”, he said. “He showed up well”.
“We’re just not able to play through our mistakes like we did at the beginning of the year”, Maddon said.
While Hurdle was happy with Glasnow’s the debut, the 22-year-old said he expected more from himself.
“I don’t know where Low-A is, but maybe I can go there and work on some stuff”, Arrieta deadpanned. My curveball wasn’t very sharp.
“That was a point where I needed to throw up a zero to maintain the lead, and obviously keep the momentum on our side”, Arrieta said. “I battled. It happens sometimes, and unfortunately it happened that day”. John Lackey gets the ball, and he’s 7-5 with a 3.50 ERA and 111 strikeouts this season. It will be the second start for Cole, who has been out since June 11, and he will likely to be activated from the disabled list next weekend during a three-game series at Washington.
But Arrieta, who walked nine in his past three starts, didn’t walk a batter until barely missing on a 2-2 pitch to pinch-hitter Adam Frazier that resulted in a walk to start the seventh.
In the finale before the All-Star break, the Cubs will send Jon Lackey to the mound against Pirates left-hander Jonathan Niese. Since June 30, Chicago is just 1-7 (tied with the Rays for the worst record in MLB), the Cubs’ worst eight-game span since September 6-14, 2014 (also went 1-7).
Kuhl will be making third career major league start and first against the Cubs.
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Arrieta may have lost his chance to start the All-Star Game as his ERA rose to a more pedestrian – for him, at least – 2.68.
