Pirates trip up against Cubs, 5-1. Full game coverge inside,
Despite some mistakes, Anderson has solid outing
CHICAGO — The first inning Thursday in the season-opener was a memorable one for the Pirates, with rookie phenom Ke’Bryan Hayes belting a tworun homer in his first at-bat of the 2021 season.
The first inning Saturday? Not so much. The exact opposite, actually.
Hayes tweaked his left wrist with the knob of his bat on a swing, then received attention from the Pirates head athletic trainer once he walked, dived back to first base on a pickoff attempt and showed some obvious discomfort.
Hayes would leave the game in the third inning, his future uncertain as his left wrist was evaluated.
The end result — a 5-1 Pirates loss at Wrigley Field — mattered considerably less than the final verdict on Hayes, which appears favorable. According to a source, X-rays on Hayes’ wrist show no fractures, and there’s optimism surrounding the young star’s return.
“I hope he’s not hurt too bad,” Adam Frazier said after the game. “Hopefully a little stinger on his hand or something. Get checked out and hopefully be in there [Sunday].”
The injury initially appeared to happen on the bases, as Hayes walked in the top of the first and was in some obvious discomfort after diving back to the bag on a pickoff attempt.
Out came head athletic trainer Rafael Freitas and manager Derek Shelton, with Freitas examining Hayes’ wrist and knuckles before allowing the 24year-old to stay in the game.
The good news for the Pirates is that there appeared to be decent mobility in Hayes’ wrist, hence why he stayed in the game. And given their bigpicture situation, it’s obviously crucial for them to have the National League rookie of the year favorite and one of the more exciting young players in the sport.
If Hayes must sit for any length of time, even a game, Erik Gonzalez or Phillip Evans could fill that spot. Wilmer Difo, here on the taxi squad, could join the roster if the injured list unexpectedly comes into play.
Of course, for the Pirates none of this matters and Hayes, as Frazier said, plays Sunday.
Without Hayes Saturday, Pittsburgh’s offense struggled. It had just one extra-base hit, a triple from Frazier, and struck out 12 times, six of those looking. Kevin Newman drove in the Pirates’ only run with a bouncer up the middle in the first.
The lead was shortlived, as Chicago jumped in front with two runs in the second. Center fielder Jake Marisnick tied it with a bloop single before second baseman David Bote’s sacrifice fly put the Cubs ahead for good.
Two loud home runs extended Chicago’s lead, the first coming off Pirates starter Tyler Anderson and the second off Clay Holmes. Both missed their spots.
Third baseman Kris Bryant whacked a 2-1 fastball out to center at 103 mph before right fielder Jason Heyward jumped on an elevated 3-1 sinker from Holmes in the sixth.
Heyward’s homer traveled 423 feet at 110.7 mph, the ball clearing the fence in right-center field in a hurry. The run was the first time Holmes has been scored upon in his past 12 appearances dating back to spring training.
Despite a few mistakes, Anderson was actually pretty solid, allowing three earned runs over five innings while striking out seven. Most noticeable was his ability to get swings and misses, which was not necessarily evident during spring training.
Anderson had 22 of those over his 91 pitches. That’s the most for a Pirates pitcher since Francisco Liriano got 24 on Sept. 26, 2015 and the second-most in the pitchtracking era (since 2008). A.J. Burnett had 25 on Sept. 21, 2013.
“I thought he executed some pitches,” manager Derek Shelton said of Anderson. “We cost him pitches because we had the two errors in the [fourth] inning, and it elevated his pitch count. But I thought he did a good job. It was a good outing for him.”
Chicago’s Jake Arrieta isn’t the elite, best-in-baseball type of starter that he was during his first stint with the Cubs, but he showed Saturday that he’s still an extremely effective pitcher.
In the first game of his Cubs return, the righthander went six innings and allowed just one run on six hits with a walk and five strikeouts.
Especially sharp for Arrieta was his two-seam fastball, which had a terrific amount of late life. Arrieta struck out Gregory Polanco looking on a slider with two on in the first. He got Colin Moran looking on one of those two-seamers in the sixth.
“I think the execution of his fastball was what made him good,” Shelton said. “Then he mixed in the cutter. The cutter actually looked like a slider at times. I thought he did a good job using the thirds of the plate.”
It mattered little in the outcome, of course, but there was a neat moment for Rule 5 pick Luis Oviedo in the eighth, when he made his MLB debut and delivered a 1-2-3 inning, striking out pinchhitter Ian Happ swinging on a curveball to end it.
“When I think about the whole entire outing, it was just an emotional place for me, especially because this is a dream I’ve had since I was a child,” Oviedo said through team translator Mike Gonzalez. “It was very special to me. The situation now is filled with a lot of emotion, a lot of excitement to be able to get to that point, and that meant everything to me.”
Or, put another way, Oviedo’s fine outing was the exact opposite of what happened early on with Hayes, a scenario that certainly had to scare the Pirates.