Cubs score 3 runs in extra innings to win series, as Pirates leave bases loaded in 9th

When the Pittsburgh Pirates had the bases loaded with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning in a tied game against the Chicago Cubs, it was their chance to beat an NL Central nemesis.

That the Pirates came away empty proved to be a bad omen, even though they were unbeaten in extra innings this season.

The Cubs scored three runs in the top of the 10th, and the Pirates’ rally came up short in a 5-4 loss Sunday afternoon before 18,554 at PNC Park, their first defeat in five extra-inning games.

The Pirates (18-23) finished their nine-game homestand 4-5 with only one series win, over the Colorado Rockies. They dropped two of three games to the Cubs (24-17) and Los Angeles Angels.

“Yeah, that’s one we wanted right there,” Pirates outfielder/first baseman Connor Joe said. “I feel like we had chances to win that game. Unfortunately, we came out on the wrong side.”

After Christopher Morel hit a two-run homer in the first inning, the Pirates rallied to tie the score after a solo homer by Oneil Cruz in the fourth inning and a sacrifice fly by Jared Triolo in the sixth. Their chance to win came in the bottom of the ninth, after closer David Bednar stranded a pair of runners in scoring position.

With one out in the ninth, Joey Bart beat the throw on a slow roller to short. The Pirates replaced him with pinch runner Michael A. Taylor, who advanced to second on a balk by Hector Neris and reached third on a single to short by pinch hitter Edward Olivares.

Neris intentionally walked Andrew McCutchen, then got Bryan Reynolds to hit a dribbler for a forceout of Taylor at home for the second out. Cruz hit a high fly to right field with the bases loaded to end the scoring chance.

“We had chances to win the game, for sure,” Joe said. “That’s baseball. There’s nothing guaranteed. It’s not easy to hit in those situations. There’s plenty of opportunities throughout the game. It’s not just one inning.”

The Cubs scored the go-ahead run against lefty Aroldis Chapman in the top of the 10th, when Cody Bellinger singled to left to score automatic runner Seiya Suzuki before being caught in a rundown. Reynolds made a diving catch in left for the second out, but Patrick Wisdom hit a full-count sinker for a 412-foot home run to center and a 4-2 lead.

Facing a 3-0 count against Nick Madrigal, Chapman received attention from trainers on the mound before walking off. Shelton said Chapman had a cracked fingernail that assistant trainer Tony Leo cut but that he “wasn’t real comfortable with him staying in the game.”

The Pirates brought in righty Kyle Nicolas, who gave up three walks and was tagged for four earned runs in Saturday’s 10-9 win. After Madrigal walked to load the bases, a passed ball allowed Mike Tauchman to score for a 5-2 Cubs lead.

With Cruz the automatic runner on second base, Joe hit Adbert Alzolay’s 1-0 sinker for a 379-foot line drive to left and a two-run homer to cut it to 5-4 in the bottom of the 10th inning. The Pirates had the tying run on first, but Yasmani Grandal flied out to center and Taylor lined out to center.

The Cubs took a 2-0 lead in the first inning against lefty Bailey Falter, who gave up a leadoff single to Nico Hoerner on first before Morel drilled a 1-0 curveball 397 feet to left field for a two-out home run.

“He’s really good at handling those down and in,” Falter said. “I just missed it.”

Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks limited the Pirates to one hit and a walk through the first three innings. Then Cruz hit a 2-1 sinker inside for a high fly ball that dropped over the Clemente Wall in right to cut it to 2-1. It marked the third time in his career Cruz has homered in back-to-back games, after he hit a solo shot in the third inning Saturday.

At 112.7 mph and a 47-degree launch angle, it was the hardest-hit home run with a launch angle higher than 45 degrees and tied Rodolfo Castro (2022) for the highest recorded launch angle by a Pirates player. It also had a 7.12-hang time, the longest for a home run in the major leagues this season and by a Pirate since Statcast started tracking in 2015.

“You don’t see very many balls that are hit that high that get out,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said, “but he does things at times that surprise all of us.”

Hendricks allowed twice as many walks (four) as hits (two) while striking out five but ran his pitch count to 94 in five innings. The Cubs opted for left-hander Richard Lovelady in the sixth, when Joe doubled to the left-center gap and Jack Suwinski beat the throw of second baseman Madrigal on a ground ball to put runners on first and third with one out.

Joe scored on Jared Triolo’s sacrifice fly to right field off Colter Brewer to tie the score 2-2, but Rowdy Tellez went down looking with the go-ahead run in Suwinski stranded at third.

The Pirates pulled Falter after allowing two runs on five hits and two walks with one strikeout in six innings, only for right-hander Luis Ortiz to hit Madrigal with a pitch and walk Hoerner on four pitches.

Ortiz was bailed out by two big defensive plays as Suwinski made a running catch to rob Suzuki of an extra-base hit and Cruz a diving stop of a Bellinger line drive up the middle to end the Cubs’ rally.

The first two Pirates reached in the seventh, as Bart drew a full-count walk and Alika Williams hit a grounder up the middle that was just left of the bag, preventing Hoerner from getting the forceout at second and then beating his throw to first.

After McCutchen went down swinging on three pitches, the Cubs brought in righty Mark Leiter Jr., who got Reynolds to fly out to left and Cruz to pop up to second to leave both runners stranded.

“We have to capitalize when we have opportunities, and we had multiple opportunities and we did not capitalize,” Shelton said. “That was a game that we were in position to win. The situations where we had opportunities we did not have very good at-bats.”

The Cubs started the ninth with Ian Happ hitting a leadoff double to right off David Bednar. Pete Crow-Armstrong pinch-ran for Happ and advanced to third on Madrigal’s groundout to third.

Bednar got pinch hitter Michael Busch looking at a called third strike but issued a four-pitch walk to Hoerner, who stole second to put a pair of runners in scoring position. Suzuki hit a dribbler that Bednar barehanded and threw to first to prevent the Cubs from taking the lead.

“That’s a game that we had the opportunity to win,” Shelton said. “When we have the opportunity to win games, especially with the situation where our bullpen was beat up and the start that Bailey got us and what Ortiz did, those are games we have to capitalize on and we didn’t do that.”