CHICAGO _ The Pirates' spring freeze lifted Friday afternoon at Wrigley Field.
Sparked by David Freese, their third baseman, and backed by right-hander Gerrit Cole, the Pirates took the series opener against the Chicago Cubs, 4-2. The result ended two cold snaps: the Pirates' four-game losing streak this season, and their six-game losing streak at Wrigley Field.
Freese entered the game with a league-leading .552 on-base percentage. It increased. He was 3 for 4 and also reached on an error, upping his batting average to .440 and his OBP to .576.
Cole, the Opening Day starter, threw six innings of two-run baseball. The Cubs' Kyle Hendricks, who finished third in National League Cy Young voting last year, allowed three runs in five frames.
The Pirates (4-6) had 10 hits. Josh Harrison and Francisco Cervelli had two apiece.
When Freese batted in the second, the Pirates hadn't driven in a runner from second or third base since Sunday. In their previous four games, they were 1 for 31 with runners in scoring position. Their only such hit, a Jordy Mercer single Friday, only advanced the runner to third.
Freese provided an early turning point. Hendricks had spent eight pitches in the first inning, so Freese and Gregory Polanco, who walked, made him work. After five pitches and five pick-off tries, Polanco stole second. Freese then fouled off five consecutive offerings and watched a sinker off the plate to run the count full. On the 12th pitch, he doubled into the right-field corner.
The Pirates, though they failed to score Freese that inning, were in front, 1-0.
Cole handled the loaded Cubs lineup early. He allowed only one baserunner in the first three innings and ended the third by pumping three fastballs past Kyle Schwarber. The Cubs evened the score in the fourth when Kris Bryant doubled and Ben Zobrist singled. They went ahead, 2-1, in the fifth after Javier Baez doubled down the left-field line and Schwarber scored him.
The Pirates thundered back in the sixth. Andrew McCutchen led off with a line-drive single. On Hendricks' 91st pitch, Polanco shot a broken-bat base hit into right field, moving McCutchen to third. Cubs manager Joe Maddon pulled Hendricks _ he allowed three runs on six hits and two walks in five innings.
Right-hander Justin Grimm entered. With one strike and runners on the corners, Polanco took off for second, and Freese slapped an RBI single through the open right side. Cervelli pushed the Pirates back into the lead with a two-run double up the right-field gap. Cervelli wanted a triple but tripped rounding second base and was tagged out.
After a smooth sixth inning _ the lone hit was a line-drive single off the glove of a leaping Freese at third _ Cole's day was done. He was charged with two in six innings. He allowed six hits and a walk, striking out six. He threw 114 pitches, a season-high for Pirates starters.
Left-hander Wade LeBlanc turned in a perfect seventh.
The eighth was dicier. Lefty Felipe Rivero walked Bryant _ his first walk this season _ and hit Anthony Rizzo. He recorded two outs and then got Jason Heyward to bounce a grounder to the right side. First baseman John Jaso strayed right to field it, and Rivero was late to the bag. With the bases loaded, however, pinch-hitter Willson Contreras grounded out to third base.
Closer Tony Watson earned his third save this season, but it wasn't easy. With two outs, he walked Schwarber, and Freese booted Bryant's grounder. Watson hit Rizzo in the foot with a breaking ball, loading the bases. Zobrist then grounded out to shortstop, ending the wild ride.
