Behind another solid outing from Cade Horton and a varied offense, the Cubs defeated the Pirates 4-1 and with one more victory will punch their ticket to October postseason baseball.
I’ll get to that in a moment, but first let’s take a look at this win.
The Cubs didn’t waste any time scoring off Paul Skenes. Michael Busch sent Skenes’ fourth pitch of the game almost all the way out of PNC Park [VIDEO]
.The Cubs weren’t done in that inning, either. One out later, Ian Happ walked and Moises Ballesteros
singled. After Carson Kelly hit a sharp line drive to center, Pete Crow-Armstrong singled in Happ [VIDEO].
In his previous 30 starts this year, Skenes had allowed one run — total. So scoring two runs off him in the first inning and making him throw 33 pitches in that inning is pretty impressive. Cubs hitters had a great approach to Skenes, laying off pitches out of the zone and fouling off quite a few.
The Pirates came back with a run in the bottom of the inning off Horton on a triple by Oneil Cruz, but the Cubs got that run right back in the second. Busch doubled for his second hit off Skenes — and that one nearly left the yard, too. Nico Hoerner singled, with Busch stopping at third.
Happ’s sacrifice fly scored Busch [VIDEO].
Horton settled down and blanked the Pirates for the next four innings, eventually striking out six [VIDEO].
Here’s more on Horton’s outing [VIDEO].
And even more on Horton from BCB’s JohnW53:
With one earned run in his five innings, Horton’s ERA in his last 11 starts stands at 0.93 (five in 58.1 innings).
Only two Cubs pitchers have had a lower ERA in any 11 consecutive starts since 1912, when ERA became official.
Jake Arrieta had spans of 0.44 twice, 0.66, 0.92 and 0.93, all in 2015.Grover Cleveland Alexander had 0.86 in 1919.
Rick Reuschel and Jon Lester had 0.96 in 1977 and 2016, respectively.
The Cubs had chased Skenes after just 3.2 innings, in which he allowed seven hits and threw 92 pitches. More on Skenes from John:
This was Skenes’ 54th career start. It was the ninth in which he allowed at least three earned runs — and the third of those nine vs. the Cubs, all with exactly three. The first two were in four innings on May 11 of last year and in five innings on May 1 of this year.
This was Skenes’ seventh start against the Cubs.
Skenes has given up five runs once, in six innings vs. the Cardinals on April 8 of this year.
The seven hits by the Cubs tied for the most in any of Skeenes’ starts. The two other times, they were made in six innings pitched, far beyond his 3.2 in this start.
The Cubs extended their lead to 4-1 in the fifth. Ballesteros walked and Kelly doubled, with Ballesteros taking third. PCA’s sac fly scored Moises [VIDEO].
After that it was another excellent night for the Cubs bullpen. Drew Pomeranz, Andrew Kittredge, Caleb Thielbar and Brad Keller (third save) combined for four shutout innings, striking out six. The only blemish was a leadoff single by old friend Alexander Canario leading off the eighth. It was interesting to see Craig Counsell use Kittredge, who has posted several saves in Daniel Palencia’s absence, in a setup role. I like the mixing-and-matching of this bullpen based on matchups and would expect that to continue.
Here’s the final out, on a nasty slider from Keller [VIDEO].
And here are Counsell’s postgame remarks [VIDEO].
One last game note from John:
Cubs this season with a home run and two doubles in a game:
Kyle Tucker, March 31 vs. Athletics at Sacramento
Michael Busch, April 12 vs. Dodgers at Los Angeles
Ian Happ, Aug. 29 at Colorado
Busch in this game
The first two also had a single.
There’s just one small thing to note about this game from the complaint department. It could easily have become a blowout. The Cubs left the bases loaded twice and in all stranded 13 runners while going 2-for-10 with RISP. A win is a win, but I’d like to see the offense do better in these situations.
Now. Without getting into all the tiebreaker situations, let’s make it simple: The Cubs can clinch a spot in this year’s postseason by winning the series finale in Pittsburgh Wednesday. Since the Cubs are playing before all the other teams involved, no scoreboard-watching is needed. Win and get in.
The Mets did the Cubs a favor by defeating the Padres Tuesday evening. That reduced the Cubs’ magic number to clinch home field in a wild-card series to 7.
In the series finale Wednesday afternoon (morning, Chicago time!), Matthew Boyd will start for the Cubs and Johan Oviedo goes for the Pirates. Game time is 11:35 a.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network (and MLB Network outside the Cubs and Pirates market territories).
Site note: The BCB game preview for today’s game will post at 10 a.m. CT.
