For the second straight night, a major bullpen implosion spelled disaster for the Pittsburgh Pirates, who lost 10-6 to the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.
When Roansy Contreras took the mound Wednesday in the bottom of the fifth inning, the Pirates led 5-1.
By game’s end, Contreras, Yohan Ramirez and Colin Holderman had been torched for nine earned runs in 2 2/3 innings.
On Tuesday, an 11-3 loss for the Pirates (34-32) featured Ramirez and Rob Zastryzny giving up a combined seven runs in two innings.
Contreras (3-6, 6.55 ERA) absorbed the loss Wednesday, as he was charged for five earned runs in a rough sixth inning, allowing five hits and two walks, one of which came on a pitch clock violation with the bases loaded.
“I think it was fastball command,” manager Derek Shelton said. “Fastball command, he started to get across it a little bit and didn’t execute it. That led to the walks. When you do that in the middle of an inning, it can kind of keep going on you, and that’s what happened.”
Ramirez entered the game in the sixth with an out and men on first and second.
At the time, the Cubs had scored three runs and trailed 5-4.
Ramirez walked Seiya Suzuki and allowed a two-run single to Ian Happ, both of which were charged to Contreras.
By inning’s end, the Cubs had taken a 7-5 lead.
The Pirates got one back in the seventh, when Carlos Santana scored Bryan Reynolds with a sacrifice fly, but in the eighth, the Cubs added three insurance runs, all earned off of Colin Holderman.
The bullpen’s struggles overshadowed a solid, albeit brief, MLB debut by Osvaldo Bido, whose contract was selected by the Pirates on Wednesday afternoon from Triple-A Indianapolis.
The 27-year-old right-hander struck out six in four innings. He was charged with one earned run, which came in the first inning. Bido, who throws a four-seam fastball, sinker, slider, cutter and changeup, allowed four hits and walked three.
“I thought he did a good job,” Shelton said. “I know he had a couple of walks, but he threw strikes, he composed himself, he handled himself well and overall, I thought he had a nice debut in this ballpark.”
Andrew McCutchen led off the top of the first inning with a solo homer, his ninth of the year, off Chicago starter Drew Smyly.
Two batters later, Carlos Santana hit a two-run shot to put the Pirates up 3-1.
The Cubs got one back in the bottom of the first, but an RBI single by Santana in the third inning and Austin Hedges’ first home run of the year, off Smyly in the fourth, gave the Pirates a 5-1 lead.
Reynolds went 3 for 5 with three runs, and Santana had four RBIs.
