JT Brubaker turns in solid performance, but Pirates fall to Cubs

JT Brubaker did his part Monday night at Wrigley Field when the Pittsburgh Pirates’ bats failed again and one ill-timed error led to the Chicago Cubs’ 3-2 victory.

The Pirates’ starting pitcher worked through some early problems with his slider, didn’t allow hard contact by Cubs batters to deter him and ended up with a 3.96 ERA, the first time this season it’s been under 4.00.

But the game turned into another defeat for the Pirates (40-57), who have lost three of four games since the All-Star break while scoring a total of nine runs. Meanwhile, the Cubs (39-57) stretched their season-best winning streak to five and moved within a half-game of overtaking the Pirates for third place in the National League Central.

Brubaker allowed eight balls that were clocked by Statcast at more than 100 mph off the bat, but the Cubs scored only two earned runs. Actually, the first could have been ruled unearned, but a generous Wrigley Field scorer gave the Cubs’ Nico Hoerner an RBI single in the second inning when Pirates second baseman Josh VanMeter couldn’t secure an 84.2 mph groundball.

Then, in the eighth with relief pitcher Yerry De Los Santos pitching, the Cubs broke a 2-2 tie when Seyia Suzuki reached base on shortstop Oneil Cruz’s throwing error and scored on Hoerner’s double.

Pirates manager Derek Shelton excused Cruz and said first baseman Michael Chavis should have caught the throw.

“That’s a ball we have to catch,” Shelton said on AT&T SportsNet after the game. “That ball’s in the air, and it’s not errant. Off the bag, it’s a little bit to the right.”

The Pirates couldn’t afford even one error on a night when they made several outstanding plays in the field, including a diving catch by left fielder Ben Gamel in the third inning that saved a run when Rafael Ortega homered in the next at-bat.

”That’s an unbelievable play,” Shelton said. “Up until that play in the eighth, I thought we played really well defensively. We did a good job keeping ourselves in the game.”

Plus, catcher Tyle Heineman threw out two runners trying to steal second base and the Pirates recorded two double plays.

But the Pirates couldn’t support mostly solid defense and pitching with their bats. They managed only two runs on Cruz’s RBI single in the second and back-to-back doubles by Heineman and VanMeter in the fifth. It was Cruz’s 22nd career RBI, the most by a Pirates player through his first 31 games since Dick Stuart in 1958 (24).

After the fifth, however, the Pirates recorded only two hits out of the infield — even with Bryan Reynolds recovered from his oblique injury and back in the lineup for the first time since July 11. Reynolds was 0 for 4.

Cubs starting pitcher Adrian Sampson, a Pirates draft choice 10 years ago who spent part of this season in Triple-A Iowa, gave up six hits and a walk in seven innings.

”Offensively, we have to be better,” Shelton said. “We have to create more opportunities. You create more opportunities, you’re going to score, and that’s something we’re not doing right now.”

Brubaker was solid through six innings, throwing 78% sinkers and sliders.

“He didn’t have his best fastball,” Shelton said. “His slider was extremely effective. I thought he continued to execute pitches.”

Brubaker was pleased with his command and how he bounced back from a slow start.

“After having that long (All-Star) break, you’re always wary of where your mechanics might be,” he said. “Kind of rolled out with the same mentality and tried to fill up the (strike) zone. Slider wasn’t as sharp in the very beginning, but we ended up finding it down the road.

“Just getting back in the groove of feeling that consistency of I know if I’m going to throw this pitch, I know I’m going to land it here. Some of the hard-hit balls were mistake pitches. Recognizing that it was a mistake pitch and just know you can come back and execute the next pitch and not try to do too much is definitely key.”

NOTE: The Pirates signed six players from their 2022 draft class: outfielder Tres Gonzalez (fifth round) and pitchers Derek Diamond, JP Massey, Mike Walsh, Dominic Perachi and Josh Loeschorn (sixth, seventh, ninth, 11th and 20th rounds). … Overall, the Pirates have signed 10 draft choices.