Seiya Suzuki, Cubs pitchers ruin Pirates home opener, 2-1

Ke’Bryan Hayes was all smiles pregame. Bob Nutting and Ben Cherington, too. Joe Manganiello, likewise, wore a smile after throwing out the ceremonial first pitch.

Most of the 34,458 in attendance on a sunny April afternoon serving as Pittsburgh’s 136th Opening Day? They, as well, seemed to be smiling.

Unfortunately for them all, though, the Chicago Cubs had Smyly.

Drew Smyly tossed five shutout innings, and Seiya Suzuki hit a pair of home runs, as Chicago won 2-1 to ruin the Pirates’ home opener

“He was just executing his cutter and his curveball and stuff,” Pirates outfielder Bryan Reynolds said. “He did a good job doing that, and we might have helped him out on a few. That’s just kind of how baseball goes sometimes.”

The only big hit the Pirates got was from Reynolds, whose home run with nobody on and two outs in the eighth was all that prevented them from being shut out for the second time on an Opening Day this season (they lost 9-0 on Thursday in St. Louis).

The long day on the North Shore began with the official announcement of Hayes’ eight-year, $70 million contract that included a news conference at PNC Park that featured the Pirates owner (Nutting) and general manager (Cherington).

A theme from all three men on the dais was that better days were ahead for the Pirates, who are an MLB-worst 81-144 the past three seasons. On Tuesday, some of those growing pains were on full display: The offense managed just six baserunners, none of whom walked. The only one who made it as far as third base was Reynolds when he jogged over it after his homer on the first pitch of his at-bat against Mychal Givens.

“I was looking for a changeup elevated,” Reynolds said, “and he threw me a changeup and I kind of blacked out and pulled the trigger on it.”

Aside from a 9-4 victory against the Cardinals on Sunday, the Pirates (1-3) have three combined runs in their other three games.

Kevin Newman ended the game with a fly ball to the warning track in the left-field corner. Mt. Lebanon High School alumnus Ian Happ ran it down with relative ease.

“I thought it had a chance,” Newman said. “I didn’t think it was by any means gone, but I thought I had a chance (for a double).”

Smyly (1-0) allowed only three hits and walked none, despite throwing a four-seam fastball that barely nudged 92 mph at its peak. He did get six swinging strikes among his 35 curveballs. Eleven of his outs were recorded via ground balls, and just three times did the Pirates manage to hit a fly ball against Smyly.

A bright spot for the Pirates (other than Hayes’ contract) was starter Jose Quintana. An 11-year veteran signed to stabilize the rotation — and perhaps serve to bring back prospects as a trade chip come July — Quintana rebounded from an awful spring to nearly match Smyly in his first start of the regular season.

Suzuki’s home run was one of only five hits and two walks Quintana allowed while becoming the first Pirates starter this season to work into the fifth inning. He would be lifted after allowing a double and walk after one out in the sixth.

“All my stuff was really good,” Quintana said. “If I keep throwing the ball like that, I’ll get good results.”

A former All-Star who spent five seasons with the Cubs, Quintana had allowed 11 earned runs on 15 hits and four home runs in 11 Grapefruit League innings.

Although lefty Anthony Banda got two strikeouts to end the sixth, Suzuki led off the next inning against Banda with his second homer of the game.

After receiving one of the loudest ovations during the traditional pregame introductions on Opening Day, Hayes had the hardest-hit ball of the game (a 108.4-mph groundout off Smyly in the third inning) and he ended two of the first three Chicago innings by starting double plays.

In the sixth inning, Hayes got himself into scoring position with no outs when he reached on an infield single and stole second. But he would be stranded there when Reynolds lined out to left and Daniel Vogelbach and Yoshi Tsutsugo struck out against Chris Martin.

“We had opportunities to score,” manager Derek Shelton said. “We just couldn’t come up with a big hit.”

Among the six hits the Pirates did get was one from rookie Diego Castillo for the third straight game and doubles from Roberto Perez and Jake Marisnick.

It was not enough to prevent the Pirates from falling to 9-13 in home openers at PNC Park on a day Shelton referred to the atmosphere as “awesome.”

“The people there, they were into the game,” Shelton said. “Unfortunately we didn’t give ‘em more to cheer about.”