Pittsburgh Pirates drop opening game following All Star break

The Pittsburgh Pirates kicked off the second half of their season with a tough loss against the Chicago Cubs on Friday afternoon

Chicago, IL – The Pittsburgh Pirates and Cubs opened a key series to begin the second half of the season today, which the Cubs took 4-3 pitchers duel.

To begin the game both Pirates starter Chris Archer and Cubs starter Yu Darvish both cruised through the first three innings not allowing a single base runner.

Archer had one of his better starts pitching six scoreless innings before giving up a solo home run to Kris Bryant and then surrendered two more runs after being relieved by Michael Feliz.

Second baseman hit a sacrifice fly that scored Anthony Rizzo that gave the Cubs a two run lead, then Feliz would go on to walk pinch hitter David Bote with the bases loaded to extend the lead to three.

The Pirates offense finally got rolling in the top of the eighth with a one out double from Jose Osuna. Left fielder Bryan Reynolds walked and set up a three run blast from Starling Marte to tie the game up at 3-3.

Pirates Manager Clint Hurdle turned to relieve Kyle Crick in the bottom of the eighth and he struggled to find the zone by walking two batters which put the go ahead run in scoring position. Cubs right fielder Jayson Heyward singled to left giving the Cubs the lead right back heading into the final frame.

Prior to the all-star break, the Bucs had a good amount of success off of the Cubs’ Craig Kimbrel.

Tonight? Not the case.

Kimbrel retired the side in order by getting Melky Cabrera to fly out and inducing groundouts from Colin Moran and Kevin Newman to put a cap on the win.

Final line:

WP: Randy Rosario (1-0)

LP: Kyle Crick (3-5)

SV: Craig Kimbrel (3)

Tomorrow’s Probable Starters:

(PIT) Jordan Lyles 5-5 4.36 ERA

(CHC) Jon Lester 8-6 3.72 ERA