CHICAGO — You couldn’t script a more painful series for the Pirates than what they just experienced against the Chicago Cubs.
On Thursday, they lost on a walk-off pop-up on the infield. Second baseman Wilmer Difo camped under it, kept drifting to his right and just never read it correctly, letting it plummet to the ground to score the game-winning run.
On Friday, the Pirates battled back from a five-run deficit to tie it in the sixth, only to watch Cubs first baseman Frank Schwindel launch the go-ahead homer in the bottom of that inning and deal the Pirates another loss.
They entered the bottom of the ninth of Saturday’s game with a two-run lead. Right-hander Chris Stratton got two outs, but couldn’t get the third. Outfielder Ben Gamel missed a catch he probably should have had, then Schwindel, yet again, was the difference. He bounced a ball to the hole between shortstop and third base, shortstop Kevin Newman scooped it and unleashed a jump throw toward first baseman Colin Moran. Moran was pulled off the bag, tried to tag Schwindel, maybe even did tag him, but the umpire called the runner safe, and replay review upheld the call. The winning run scored on that play.
All of that pales in comparison to the lunacy that unfolded in the Pirates’ 11-8 loss to the Cubs.
The Pirates’ offense showed out, only to have the pitching staff allow a Cubs answer every time. Right fielder Yoshi Tsutsugo homered in the first, his seventh already as a Pirate. That made him the fastest Pirate in history to hit seven home runs, taking only 42 at-bats with Pittsburgh to reach that number.
In the bottom of the second, though, right-hander Wil Crowe allowed back-to-back solo homers to Matt Duffy and Jason Heyward, erasing that lead in a hurry.
In the third, the Pirates battled back. Crowe and third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes doubled to lead things off, Tsutsugo walked to load the bases and center fielder Bryan Reynolds sent a line drive over the wall in left-center, making it a 5-2 game. Somehow even that was answered, as the Cubs scored one run on a single, then loaded the bases themselves in the bottom of the inning, with Duffy hitting his own grand slam down the left field line to wrestle the lead back.
A sacrifice fly and a wild pitch tied the game for the Pirates in the fifth, then catcher Jacob Stallings singled in a go-ahead run in the sixth to make it 8-7. Obviously, that did not hold. Relievers Shea Spitzbarth, Sam Howard and Nick Mears all pitched in the seventh inning, with the first two allowing three base runners to load the bags. Schwindel then delivered the knockout blow, sending yet another grand slam over the wall in left.
The three grand slams in the same game tied a major league record. Each one seemed like a tide-shifter, and only one of them ended up swinging the game for good.
In the end, the offensive stat lines were absurd. Reynolds, on his own, went 4-for-5 with four RBIs, three runs scored, a homer and a stolen base. Duffy had three hits and two home runs. Schwindel went 3-for-4 with four RBIs and two runs scored. All three of them hit their first career grand slams.
Obviously, that also portends some bad pitching lines. The Pirates’ bullpen shouldered a majority of that load. They needed someone, anyone to stop the bleeding in that seventh inning. Spitzbarth tried and couldn’t do it. Howard couldn’t either. Mears was the final victim and gave up the death knell. It was just a nightmare for Shelton to sift through, and he had no help from the players he eventually chose.
And because of that, the Pirates lost their tight lead and the game, another heartbreaker in a series full of them. On their Chicago trip, with two games against the White Sox and four against the Cubs, the Pirates were swept out of town. Even for a team that has seen its fair share of losses this season, it would be hard to imagine any four straight losses being as close and as painful as the last four were.
