Recap: Cubs Fall To Pirates
The Cubs played the Pirates for their second game at Wrigley of the season tonight and, as usual for April in Chicago, it was cold. Game time temps started out around 41 and towards the end, it was feeling more like 31. Like the weather, the Cubs bats were also cold as they lost to the Pirates, 5-2. Darvish’s final line was 5.2 inning with 5 hits, 5 runs, 4 earned, 0 walks, 4 strike o, and 2 homers, taking the loss and putting his season record at 0-2, but the numbers dont always tell the full story.
Darvish didnt pitch a full 6 and eventually gave up too many runs to qualify for a quality start even if he had gone 6, but it was his best start of the season and a very encouraging sign for anyone who hasnt given up on him yet. (You shouldn’t.) His first mistake came early on in the first with two outs. Even though the wind kept most balls in the air inside, Pirates catcher, Francisco Cervelli managed to send a solo homer into the left field basket, putting the Pirates up 1-0. Darvish’s next two mistakes were back to back in the top of the third. The first came when he hit the pitcher, Jordan Lyles, putting him on first for center fielder Starling Marte, who brought his pitcher home with a 2 run shot to the left field bleachers. Until the 6th, those were the only 2 hits against Darvish. He came out in the sixth after giving up back to back singles, both of whom would eventually score, though an error on Rizzo made one of those runs unearned.
Pirates starting pitcher Jordan Lyles did have a quality start, as he was able to keep most of the Cubs confused through 6. His ended the night with 6 innings pitched, 3 hits, 1 run, 1 homer run, 1 walk, and a whopping 10 strikeouts. 2 of those hits against Lyles came off the bat of Jason Heyward, who is continuing his hot start. He got the Cubs first hit of the game when he lead off the bottom of the third with a single. Almora followed that up with another single. With Darvish at bat, a pitch got away and bothHeyward and Almora advanced, putting runners on second and third with no outs. Unfortunately, Lyles came back to strike out Darvish and Descalso and then got Bryant to flyout to end the threat. The Cubs wouldn’t get on the board until Heyward’s next at bat in the fifth when he sent a no doubter to the bleachers behind centerfield.
The Cubs tried to make things interesting in the bottom of the eighth. With righty reliever Keone Kela on the mound, Descalso lead things off with a pop up for an out. Bryant, however, found a hole in the shift and shot a groundball single in right center. Rizzo then worked a nice at bat to draw a walk. Javy then hit a double down the left field line to bring in Bryant for the Cubs second and ultimately last run of the game. With that hit, Kela came out and Pirates flame thrower Felipe Vazquez came in for the final five outs, starting with a strike out of Schwarber and getting Contreras to fly out to right to end the 8th and while Heyward was able to lead off the bottom of the ninth with a single, Vazquez came back to strike out the side and get everyone out of that freezing cold.
