CHICAGO _ To make up any ground in the wild-card race while facing the Chicago Cubs, you've got to earn it. Defuse the best rotation in baseball, navigate a powerful lineup full of versatile players and don't let them take a lead into the ninth, because Aroldis Chapman will preserve it.
The Pirates won four games in a row in Milwaukee over the weekend, moving within half a game of the second wild-card spot and improving their record to six games better than .500. Three games at Wrigley Field reversed almost all of the progress. Tuesday they fell against Kyle Hendricks, Cy Young candidate. Wednesday, an MVP front-runner did the damage.
Kris Bryant homered in the first inning of the Pirates' 6-5 loss to the Cubs on Wednesday, a defeat that concluded a three-game sweep. Bryant also singled and scored in the fourth inning, and his diving stop in the second inning prevented a run.
Bryant won the NL rookie of the year award last season. Now 24, he is in contention with Daniel Murphy, Corey Seager and teammate Anthony Rizzo for the league's Most Valuable Player honor. His first-inning home run, hit off a Ryan Vogelsong hanging curveball through a stiff wind, was his league-leading 36th of the year. He entered Wednesday hitting .305 with a .401 on-base percentage; with a month left in the season he had already accrued 6.8 Wins Above Replacement, according to Baseball Reference.
Chasing down the Cubs, who at 85-47 now lead the Pirates by 17 { games, was never really on the table. But the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants, who hold the two wild-card spots, are within reach, as are the New York Mets. The Pirates made some progress against the Brewers, but the Cubs stopped them in their tracks.
Despite the first-inning homer and an RBI single allowed to Addison Russell in the fourth, Vogelsong kept the Pirates alive by the top of the fifth. They created a chance to tie or take the lead. Jason Hammel escaped.
Sean Rodriguez and Vogelsong each walked, and Josh Harrison hit a two-out RBI single. Perhaps understanding the chance he'd helped create, Harrison bounded back to the bag and punctuated his dugout salute with a well-timed leap on the base.
Josh Bell walked to load the bases for Andrew McCutchen. When McCutchen struck out swinging, catcher Willson Contreras pumped his right fist; the Cubs' 2-1 lead survived.
Vogelsong began the sixth but left before recording an out. After Antonio Bastardo threw a wild pitch, balked and allowed an RBI double, the Cubs had a 5-1 lead. Vogeslong pitched his worst start since joining the rotation in early August: five runs, three walks and six hits in five-plus innings.
McCutchen got another chance with the bases loaded, against Justin Grimm in the seventh, and walked. Jordy Mercer pulled the Pirates within two in the eighth with a two-run double against Travis Wood, and Francisco Cervelli drove in a run against Chapman in the ninth.
It gets easier. Eighteen of the Pirates' next 21 games are against the Brewers, Philadelphia Phillies and Cincinnati Reds. The three that aren't are against the Cardinals at PNC Park, offering a chance to make up ground head-to-head. At the end of the month, though, the schedule toughens: The Washington Nationals and Cubs visit Pittsburgh before the final series of the season in St. Louis.
