Harrison, Bell belt homers in win
“Guys get called up all the time, and it’s special,” Mercer added, “but this is just different. He’s from Africa. Come on. He lives with giraffes and lions.”
For the other rookie, right-hander Tyler Glasnow, it was another abbreviated and inefficient start. He threw 89 pitches, only 46 of them strikes, in 3⅓ innings. He allowed six hits and three runs, walked four, hit one and struck out four. His season ERA creeped north from 7.94 to 7.98.
Glasnow struck out Willson Contreras looking on a bases-loaded, full-count fastball in the first. In the second, he plunked Anthony Rizzo to force home a run. Glasnow was charged with an earned run when Gregory Polanco dropped a fly ball in the fourth. Glasnow was lifted after Polanco’s drop, and a run scored with Wade LeBlanc pitching.
Glasnow’s command continues to derail his outings, and brevity will not last at this level. The Pirates have one off day in May, Hurdle said, so they will need more innings from starters.
The Pirates scored two runs in the first and three in the second. Francisco Cervelli, Phil Gosselin and Andrew McCutchen hit RBI doubles off Lester, who allowed 10 hits and five runs in 5⅔ innings. After Harrison walked in the second, he baited Lester, whose pickoff problems have been welldocumented, by bolting for second base. Lester chased Harrison, and Gosselin took off for home. The throw to the plate was on time, but the catcher Contreras dropped it on the tag.
The Pirates’ only offense the remainder of the game was Josh Bell’s sixth-inning solo shot. Bell was 2 for 3 and also made a smart play at first base in the fifth, throwing out Lester at home plate on a hard ground ball up the line. The throw was caught on a hop by Cervelli, and in time to get Lester.
“It may very well have swung the game in our favor,” Hurdle said. “However, that’s not a play many first baseman are going to make.”
LeBlanc and right-hander Juan Nicasio bridged the middle innings to the late-inning lineup. Left-hander Felipe Rivero tossed a scoreless seventh. After Rizzo launched a two-run home run off right-hander Daniel Hudson in the eighth, closer Tony Watson entered for the four-out save.
The Cubs managed only weak contact off Watson, but the ninth still was dicey. Contreras singled leading off and, after a fielder’s choice, Mercer committed a fielding error on a potential doubleplay ball up the error to put runners on first and second base. The next batter, Albert Almora Jr., bounced a grounder to Mercer, who turned a game-ending double play.