Jameson Taillon, Cubs blank Pirates to spoil Roberto Clemente Day celebration

If there was a member of the Chicago Cubs who understood the magnitude of Roberto Clemente Day at PNC Park, it was the man on the mound.

Jameson Taillon was drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2010 and spent the first four seasons of his major league career here, so the 33-year-old right-hander has celebrated the Hall of Fame right fielder here before.

This time, he spoiled the festivities.

Taillon tossed six scoreless innings, and Michael Busch and Pete Crow-Armstrong hit solo home runs for the Cubs, who withstood a bases-loaded situation in the ninth inning to beat the Pirates, 4-0, on Monday night before 15,706 at PNC Park.

It was the ninth loss in the past 10 games for the Pirates (65-86), who were shut out for the 16th time this season.

Pirates players wore No. 21 to honor Clemente, whose jersey number was stenciled into the grass in right field just in front of the 21-foot Clemente Wall. Willi Castro, a Puerto Rico native, also wore No. 21. The rest of the Cubs wore a No. 21 patch on the front of their jerseys.

Taillon held the Pirates to two hits and two walks, was effective in throwing 59 of his 88 pitches for strikes to earn his 12th quality start of the season and helped the Cubs inch closer to clinching a postseason berth.

Pirates manager Don Kelly credited Taillon with changing speeds to keep the offense off-balance.

“He did a great job of mixing it up on us and not going back to the same thing twice,” Kelly said. “He pitched us completely differently, going back and forth. He threw very few sweepers but were effective and just changed speeds and mixed it up. He’s got that curveball that can really slow you down.”

The Cubs (86-64) scored three runs against Pirates starter Braxton Ashcraft on six hits and two walks over four innings. After two scoreless innings, Ashcraft got hit hard the second time through the order.

Matt Shaw drew a four-pitch walk to start the third inning, only to be thrown out by Joey Bart while attempting to steal second base. Busch then blasted a 2-2 fastball 418 feet to straightaway center for his 28th home run to give the Cubs a 1-0 lead.

Ashcraft then surrendered back-to-back singles to Nico Hoerner and Ian Happ to put runners on the corners, then threw a curveball in the dirt for a wild pitch that allowed Hoerner to score to make it 2-0.

Ashcraft was doomed by two-strike pitches, especially against Busch and Hoerner in the third and Dansby Swanson in the fourth.

The Cubs added to their advantage in the fourth, when Crow-Armstrong hit a leadoff double to center, stole third base and scored on Swanson’s double to left for a 3-0 lead. Crow-Armstrong increased the lead to four runs when he crushed Cam Sanders’ 1-1 fastball 414 feet to right-center for his 29th home run in the sixth.

“Busch put a good swing on a good pitch. Wanted to go higher with it but didn’t get it quite there,” Aschraft said. “Dansby put a good swing on a pitch I wanted to get out of the zone. But that’s baseball. At the end of the day, those two-strike pitches are what creates a starter or reliever and separates good pitchers that throw for a good time and guys that end up pitching back out of the bullpen. I think that overall and overwhelmingly the two-strike pitches got to be better.”

Taillon allowed only one hit and one walk and prevented the Pirates from reaching second base through the first five innings, until Spencer Horwitz smacked a double to right-center with two outs in the sixth. Bryan Reynolds drew a full-count walk, but Tommy Pham grounded into a force out at third base to end the inning.

After Nick Gonzales singled and Jack Suwinski drew a four-pitch walk off righty reliever Porter Hodge with one out in the ninth, the Pirates had Oneil Cruz pinch-hit for Bart. Cruz grounded into a fielder’s choice to advance both runners into scoring position for Nick Yorke, who drew a full-count walk to load the bases. The Cubs turned to Brad Keller, who got Jared Triolo swinging for a strikeout to end the game.

The Pirates went 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position, stranding 10.

“It’s been our Achilles’ heel,” Kelly said. “We’ve talked about it a lot with the offense. When we’ve been going good, we’re winning ballgames. We’ve been able to get that big base hit, stack some at-bats together, pass the baton, so to speak. When we haven’t scored the runs, it’s typically been the Achilles’ heel. We get guys in scoring position, continue to fight until the end in the ninth inning, get the tying run to the plate. It’s just that big hit’s eluding us right now.”