Pirates end four-game slump
losing streak at Wrigley Field.
“It was good for us to put our foot down,” said Cole, who threw six innings of two-run baseball on 114 pitches. “We certainly, uh, kept it interesting for the Wrigley faithful. But a win’s a win.”
The early turning point was from Freese. Digging in against Hendricks in the second, he was aware the Pirates had failed to drive in a single runner from second or third base since Sunday. In their previous four games, they were 1 for 31 with runners in scoring position.
Hendricks spent only eight pitches in the first inning, so Gregory Polanco and Freese made him work in the second. Polanco walked. After five pitches and five pick-off tries, Polanco stole second. Freese fouled off five pitches in a row and watched a ball to run the count full. The 12th pitch, he drilled.
“He pretty much just hit pause and said, ‘Guys, I’m going to figure this one out. However many [pitches] it’s going to take,’ ” manager Clint Hurdle said. “Hendricks threw the kitchen sink at him, and he kept fouling balls off, battling, stringing it out.”
The Pirates (4-6) scored three runs in five-plus innings against Hendricks (01), the National League’s ERA leader in 2016. He was handed his first loss against the Pirates since April 29, 2015.
Freese was 3 for 4 with two doubles and also reached on an error. He has reached base in each of his past nine plate appearances, sending his on-base percentage soaring to a league-leading .576. Now carrying a .440 average, Freese might never get a day off.
“David had a hell of a game for us,” Cole said, and then pivoted. “Really, though, the story of the game was [Francisco] Cervelli. The guy is sick as a dog. Blocking balls. A big two-run double. Back there behind the dish all day. Single up the middle late. You can't ask for much more than that.”
Indeed, the apparently ill Cervelli, not seen in the clubhouse after the game, had two of the Pirates’ 10 hits. When the Pirates thundered back from a 2-1 deficit with three runs in the sixth, Freese tied the score with a single through the right side of the infield off reliever Justin Grimm, and Cervelli pushed the Pirates ahead with a one-out, tworun double into the rightcenter field gap.
Cole (1-0) allowed six hits and a walk, striking out five, in six innings. He improved to 7-1 with a 2.29 ERA in eight career starts at Wrigley Field, further infuriating the crowd Friday of 40,430. Ideally, Cole said, he would have gotten more quick outs, but the Cubs tend to stretch out at-bats.
After the sixth, Cole sat and waited as the bullpen rode the roller-coaster to the finish. Left-hander Wade LeBlanc pitched a perfect seventh. The next two frames were dicier, yet similar in their chaos.
In the eighth, Rivero walked Kris Bryant — Rivero’s first walk this season — and hit Anthony Rizzo. He recorded two outs and got Jason Heyward to bounce a ground ball to the right side. First baseman John Jaso strayed right to field it, and Rivero was late to the bag. With the bases loaded, pinch-hitter Willson Contreras grounded out to third base.
In the ninth, Watson’s first two outs were quick. Then Kyle Schwarber walked. Bryant reached when Freese booted the potential game-ending grounder. Watson hit Rizzo in the foot. The bases again were full, the tying run at second. But Ben Zobrist bounced out to shortstop, and the ride was over.
“That last out is always a tough out,” Watson said, “but we got it done.”