The Pittsburgh Pirates could not hold an 8-5 lead and Mark Melancon blew his first save of the season falling 9-8 to the Chicago Cubs Tuesday.
It was the Cubs that scored first in the top half of the opening inning. Francisco Liriano walked Dexter Fowler and hit Anthony Rizzo with a pitch putting the first two batters on base. Kris Bryant picked back up where he left off Monday with a double that scored Fowler.
The Pirates got the run back in the first inning scoring in the frame for the fourth consecutive game. It happened when Josh Harrison hit a lead-off home run. It was his second home run of the season, both coming in lead off fashion. Harrison has four lead-off homers in his career.
Another solo home run put the Pirates in the lead as Starling Marte hit his fifth home run of the season. At the time, Marte had nine hits, meaning 55 percent of his hits were homers.
In the third inning the Cubs bounced back and retook the lead scoring two runs. Bryant reached on a fielding error to score Fowler and Castro singled to score Rizzo.
Liriano pitched five innings allowing three hits, three runs, two walks and nine strikeouts over the course of 97 pitches, 57 of which were strikes.
Radhames Liz relieved Liriano and gave up a second-pitch home run to Starlin Castro that landed in the center field seats.
Neil Walker worked a walk in the bottom of the sixth off Travis Wood and that ended his night. Wood threw 5-plus innings surrendering four hits, three runs, two walks and five strikeouts. Neither Wood nor Liriano factored into the decision.
Manager Joe Maddon replaced him with Brian Schlitter. McCutchen also walked and Alvarez grounded into a force play advancing Walker to third. Marte singled cutting the lead to one and Jung-ho Kang advanced the runners. Francisco Cervelli singled scoring both runners and giving the Pirates their first lead of the game.
Jared Hughes came in to pitch the seventh inning and much like Arquimedes Caminero’s outing Monday got the first two batters out. Jorge Soler singled and Bryant followed suit putting runners on the corners. Hughes induced a ground ball from Castro however Harrison could not field it tying the game.
The next batter was Chris Coghlan who was pinch hitting for Chris Denorfia. Coghlan singled to right field however Gregory Polanco was able to throw Bryant out at home. The play was reviewed and home plate umpire Joe West’s call stood.
“I did the best I could catching the ball and then blocking the plate,” Cervelli said. “On that play I felt confident that I blocked the plate, after I blocked the ball so nobody misunderstands that.”
“I would send him a Christmas Card or go out for a drink with him,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said of West. “Absolutely.”
In the bottom half of inning Jason Motte came on to pitch. With one out, Walker and McCutchen each reached base. Andrew Lambo advanced Walker to third and Motte intentionally walked Marte bringing up Kang. Kang drove the pitch past Fowler and cleared the bases for a 3-RBI triple making the score 8-5 Pirates.
“You saw a guy put a swing on a ball and backspin it and run it out to the outfield wall with some good carry,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “It was a big hit for us at the time and it’s got to help his confidence moving forward.”
With Tony Watson pitching the eighth, Welington Castillo cut the deficit to two runs with a home run.
Melancon attempted to close the game and loaded the bases with no outs. Castro hit a bloop single over Harrison’s head, two batters later Castillo hit an RBI ground out giving the Cubs back the lead.
“Failure happens in this game and when it does happen it determines the type of competitor you are based off how you learn from your failure,” Hughes said. “For us we have to learn lessons from what went wrong, learn from it and then we shake tonight off, get positive, go out there tomorrow and get after it.”
Hector Rondon earned his third save of the season while Edwin Jackson [1-0] picked up the win and Melancon [0-1] suffered the loss as well as a blown save.
Wednesday’s game between the two teams will pit Jason Hammel [1-0 5.11 ERA] against Vance Worley [1-1 5.84 ERA]. Hammel is 4-3 with a 3.88 ERA against the Pirates in eight career games. Worley is 2-0 with a 2.39 ERA in four career starts versus the Cubs.
