Cubs fall in high-scoring affair

Jake Arrieta pitched well early on, but the Pirates outpaced the Cubs on Saturday.

by Colin Halm - Correspondent - Sat Apr 15 18:36:13 GMT-04:00 2017

CHICAGO -- The Cubs lost their second game in a row today against the Pirates by a score of 8-7. With the wind blowing out at Wrigley, both teams had big days at the plate. Andrew McCutchen put the Pirates up for good with a three-run home run to make the score 8-6 in the seventh inning, and Kris Bryant belted his first and second home runs of the year.

The Cubs’ offense broke out of a funk, tallying four runs in the first inning off of Pittsburgh’s hard-throwing righty, Tyler Glasnow. The team combined to hit for the cycle in the first inning: Kyle Schwarber doubled, Kris Bryant homered, Addison Russell tripled, and Jason Heyward singled. The Cubs would add two more runs in the early going to climb to a 6-2 lead by the end of the third inning.

Jake Arrieta (2-0, 2.89 ERA) had a good start to his day striking out the three of the first four batters he faced. He started leaking a few runs here and there, giving up solo home runs to Francisco Cervelli, Josh Harrison, and Starling Marte over the course of the next few innings. Newcomer and lefty specialist Brian Duensing relieved Arrieta and got out of the sixth inning but was hit hard by the Pirates in the seventh. He was later removed for Pedro Strop (0-1, 9.00 ERA), who gave up the lead to McCutchen’s home run.

The Cub’s almost made the comeback in the ninth inning after Bryant hit another home run that just barely escaped into the basket. Zobrist would end up walking two batters later, but Russell couldn’t keep the inning going, striking out on three pitches.

Tomorrow’s game is Jameson Taillon (0-0, 1.38 ERA) against Jon Lester (0-0, 1.64 ERA). Taillon is another one of the Pirates’ young pitching prospects and is expected to be a large part of their rotation for the better part of the next decade. The game is scheduled for another 2:20 PM EDT start.