Pittsburgh Pirates: Late Rally Carries Bucs Past the Cubs

Tuesday night the Pittsburgh Pirates kicked off their season-ending homestand by hosting the Chicago Cubs in the first game of a three-game set

The 2021 season is coming to an end for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Tuesday night the Pirates hosted the Chicago Cubs to kick off a three-game series at PNC Park. This series is the first half of a two-series, six-game homestand to end the season.

Much of the hoopla on Tuesday surrounded who will start for the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday night. This is because news broke on Tuesday afternoon that highly touted pitching prospect Roansy Contreras will make his MLB debut on Wednesday evening.

Games 157 for the Pittsburgh Pirates turned into a bit of a back-and-forth affair. After the Pirates jumped out to an early lead the Cubs rallied to tie the game and then, eventually, take the lead. The Pirates would then rally to retake the lead on their way to an 8-6 victory. With the win, the Pirates improved to 59-98 on the season.

Mitch Keller’s struggles continue

The woes of Mitch Keller continued in Tuesday night’s victory.

Keller was spotted a 3-0 lead and posted a zero in the 1st and 2nd innings. Then in the 3rd inning, the wheels started to fall off the wagon for Keller. This proved to be the beginning of another poor start.

After allowing 3 runs in the 3rd inning, to his credit, Keller rallied with a 1-2-3 4th inning. However, in the 5th inning Keller allowed the first four batters he faced to reach base which brought his night to an end.

When the book closed on Keller he was charged with 6 earned runs allowed on 9 hits, 3 walks and just 2 strikeouts. He generated a swing-and-miss on just 7 of his 92 pitches which gave him a poor whiff rate of just 7.6%.

Tuesday night Keller was not fooling Cub batters. Not only was his low whiff rate evident of this, so was Keller allowing 12 base hits of 95+ MPH. In all honesty, it is a minor surprise that the Cubs only scored 6 runs off of Keller.

Big nights for Colin Moran and Bryan Reynolds

The Pirate offensive output was a team effort. That said, it was led by two hitters. These two hitters were first base man Colin Moran and center fielder Bryan Reynolds.

Moran was 2-for-2 with a pair of walks, a home run and 4 RBI on the night. Moran’s home run, his 10th of the season, was a 3-run shot in the bottom of the 1st inning. This 3-run blast gave the Pirates an early 3-0 lead.

Reynolds went 3-for-4, but reached base each time he came to plate. Reynolds had a pair of singles, a double and score 3 runs. The lone at-bat in which he did not record a hit he hit a missile to center field Rafael Ortega could not handle and it was ruled an error.

6th and 7th innings carry the Pirates to victory

Entering the bottom of the 6th inning the Pittsburgh Pirates found themselves trailing the Cubs 6-4. This would quickly change as Reynolds singled to start the inning, Moran walked and Jacob Stallings singled, loading the bases with no one out.

Following the single by Stallings, Ben Gamel hit a sacrifice fly that scored Reynolds. This cut the Cub lead to 6-5. Following an Anthony Alford strikeout Hoy Park struck with arguably the game’s biggest hit. Park stroked a 2-run triple into right-center field. This hit plated both Moran and Stallings and tied the game at 6. Returning from the injured list, pinch hitter Michael Chavis then lined a single into right field for what proved to be the game winning hit while giving the Pirates a 7-6 lead.

The 7th inning saw the Pirates add to their lead as Reynolds reached on the two-base error by Ortega and Moran singled. Moran’s hit drove in Reynolds. The 4th RBI of the night for Moran made the score 8-6 Pirates.

Bullpen slams the door shut

While the Pirate offense will get credit for their rally on Tuesday night, this rally was made possible by the Pirate bullpen. Bucco relievers pithed 5 scoreless innings in the victory. This allowed the offense the opportunity to rally.

It started with Anthony Banda. While Banda allowed one of the runs he inherited from Keller to score via a sacrifice fly, he retired all 3 batters he faced in the 5th inning which helped prevent the score from getting any worse.

Enyel De Los Santos allowed a hit while pitching a scoreless 6th inning, while Chasen Shreve followed by striking out the side in a scoreless 7th inning. David Bednar did his thing by striking out a pair in the 8th, Chris Stratton then pitched a scoreless 9th to record his 7th save of the season.

What’s next?

As we mentioned above Roansy Contreras will make his MLB debut for the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday night. In 13 minor league starts this season Contreras owns a 2.64 ERA, 2.63 FIP, 5.6% walk rate and a 35.0% strikeout rate in 58 innings pitched. Kyle Hendricks (4.81 ERA, 4.98 FIP) is scheduled to start for the Cubs to finish what has been the worst season of his MLB career.