So after Friday night’s tightly-fought Cubs win over the Pirates, we were discussing where the offense might have disappeared to, as the team scored just three runs, two of them in the 10th inning with the help of the placed runner.
Well. That problem went away Saturday, as the Cubs pounded out 15 hits — six of them against Paul Skenes — and demolished the Pirates 11-0.
This game didn’t start out that way. Skenes shut the Cubs down for four innings with just one hit, a leadoff single by Pete Crow-Armstrong
in the first. PCA then stole second (his 26th), but he was stranded. The Cubs had a couple of runners in the third on a walk by Dansby Swanson and Miguel Amaya being hit by a pitch, but nothing doing there either.
Shōta Imanaga, though, matched Skenes quite well over those four innings, allowing just a walk and a pair of singles.
The Cubs began the scoring in the fifth. Swanson and Amaya both hit singles with one out, putting runners on first and second.
PCA’s double scored Swanson [VIDEO].
Amaya stopped at third, but not for long. A single by Seiya Suzuki scored both Amaya and PCA to make it 3-0 Cubs [VIDEO].
Imanaga threw a scoreless fifth and then the Cubs really blew things open in the sixth. With one out, Nico Hoerner singled and Pedro Ramirez walked. That was it for Skenes, who threw 105 pitches, his second-most in any game this year.
Swanson greeted Isaac Mattson with this RBI double [VIDEO].
Hoerner scored and Ramirez stopped at third, but not for long… because Amaya’s single scored both Swanson and Ramirez to make it 6-0 [VIDEO].
PCA doubled, his third hit of the game, with Amaya stopping at third. After Suzuki struck out, Michael Busch singled in both runners to make it 8-0 [VIDEO].
You might have seen these numbers on the broadcast, and I’m going to repeat them here because they really are difficult to believe.
Paul Skenes vs. Cubs at Wrigley Field: three starts, 16 innings, 0.00 ERA, 0.938 WHIP, 22 strikeouts
Paul Skenes vs. Cubs at PNC Park: six starts, 28.1 innings, 5.40 ERA, 1.694 WHIP, 5 HR, 42 strikeouts
The Marquee broadcast mentioned 20 runs for the Cubs off Skenes at PNC — 17 of those are earned. The five homers the Cubs have hit off him are the most any team has hit off Skenes. No other team has more than three.
Now you explain that to me. How can Skenes be utterly dominant over the Cubs in their home park, and yet they crush him in his home park? Fairly small sample sizes here, of course, but still… that’s quite a difference.
Imanaga completed six innings, allowing four hits and a walk. He struck out four [VIDEO].
Here’s more on Imanaga’s night [VIDEO].
Imanaga, over his last eight starts: 2.00 ERA, 1.133 WHIP, just five home runs in 45 innings. Whatever happened to him over that bad five-start stretch from mid-May to early June appears to have been fixed — and that bad stretch almost exactly coincided with the Cubs 7-22 run over that time frame.
Back to this one — the Cubs were not done scoring. Ramirez led off with a single and two outs later, stole second. That really didn’t matter, as PCA hit this laser beam of a two-run homer, his 23rd [VIDEO].
Now it’s 10-0 and both teams started pulling their starting position players out of the game. That gave James Triantos a chance to make his MLB debut, and he made the most of it, singling in his first career at-bat in the eighth [VIDEO].
Congrats to James on that hit!
One out later, Triantos scored his first MLB run when Ramirez doubled [VIDEO].
That completed the Cubs scoring on the evening.
Javier Assad, who relieved Imanaga in the seventh, finished off the last three innings without allowing a run, and thus posted the first save of his career. That also made him the 12th different pitcher to record a save for the Cubs this year — and it isn’t even August yet. The 12 pitchers recording a save for the Cubs in a single season ties the franchise record, which was set in 2021 and tied last year.
Here’s the final out, a strikeout [VIDEO].
Okay, so that pitch was probably not a strike, but the Cubs will take it.
Here’s Triantos talking about his first MLB game and hit [VIDEO].
Here are some facts about this win from BCB’s JohnW53:
This was the Cubs’ 600th regular-season win at Pittsburgh, making it the first city where they have reached 600. Philadelphia is second, with 579. The Cubs have played 1,321 games at Pittsburgh going back to 1887. They have lost 714 and tied seven, for a winning percentage of .457.
At PNC Park, which opened in 2001, their percentage is .565: 121-93-1.
…..
The Cubs’ 11-0 win tied for their largest shutout ever at Pittsburgh.On Sept. 5, 1908, Joe Tinker had three of their 11 hits, including a triple, and drove in three runs. Frank Schulte singled twice and had four RBI. Ed Reulbach pitched a four-hitter, walking three and striking out six.
They had had only one other double-digit shutout there in all the years since. On May 30, 1961, they won, 10-0. George Altman knocked in three runs with a triple and two singles. Ron Santo had three more of their 14 hits. Ed Bouchee and Don Zimmer homered. Don Cardwell scattered seven hits, walked two and struck out eight.
….
The shutout snapped a streak of 59 consecutive games in which Cubs pitchers had allowed at least one run, since beating the Braves 2-0 at Atlanta on May 14. Their last such streak to reach 59 games had begun June 29, 2005 and lasted 60 games, through Sept. 3.They have had 25 streaks of at least 59 games since 1901, including ones that ended at 59 in 1960 and 1979.
The Cubs’ longest runs-allowed streak was 106 games, in 1901, followed by 91, in 1953; 88, in 1958; and 81, in 1981. Their longest this century was 63, in 2001, followed by 60 in 2004 and 2005.
Here’s PCA on his four-hit game [VIDEO].
And here are Craig Counsell’s postgame remarks [VIDEO].
Walk watch: The Cubs walked four times in this game, giving them 455 for the season, or 4.38 per game. That’s a pace for 709. Franchise record: 656 in 2016. NL record: 732, by the 1947 Dodgers. (The MLB record, 835 by the 1949 Red Sox, is out of reach.)
Last note: PCA is making his case for another Player of the Week award. In five games so far this week: .444/.583/.1.056 (8-for-18) with three doubles, a triple, two home runs, six RBI, five runs scored and five walks. A good game Sunday might do it for him.
As you likely know, the Cubs are now in a stretch of 17 games in a row without an off day. Winning the first two of those on the road is a great start to that stretch. They kept pace with the Brewers, who also won Saturday, and remain six games out of first place in the NL Central. The Phillies lost to the Yankees again so the Cubs’ lead for the first wild card spot is now 3.5 games.
The Cubs will go for the series sweep Sunday afternoon at PNC Park. Former Pirate Jameson Taillon gets the start for the Cubs and his opponent will be Braxton Ashcraft. Game time is 12:35 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network. The BCB game preview will post at 10:30 a.m. CT.
