Cubs can’t sweep at night in finale
PITTSBURGH — It’s not a stretch to say the Cubs should’ve left with a three- game sweep of the Pirates in their back pockets as they headed to New York for four games against the Mets.
As it is, their 2- 1 defeat in the finale Wednesday left them a victory short of a true sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.
Let’s tick off a handful of the ways in which this game left a bad taste in the Cubs’ mouths:
Losing pitcher Kyle Hendricks ( 4- 4) was lifted for a pinch hitter in the sixth inning even though he’d thrown only 71 pitches and was, in his estimation, in full command of his stuff. Tommy La Stella’s groundout with two on in the sixth left the Cubs behind 2- 1.
“I thought I had a few more in me,” Hendricks said.
The Cubs wasted a rare threehit night from right fielder Jason
Heyward, who reached on a walk in his only other plate appearance. His teammates left 11 men on base and were 1- for- 6 with runners in scoring position. Third baseman
Kris Bryant struck out against Pirates closer Felipe Vazquez with two on — including Heyward, who’d singled leading off — in the ninth to end the game.
And it was a strangely bad night for shortstop Addison Russell, who ran into first baseman
Anthony Rizzo on a routine popup, had an ugly throwing error and nipped a key Cubs rally in the bud by getting himself picked off second base by Pirates starter Joe
Musgrove ( 2- 0). Manager Joe Maddon called the pickoff “devastating.”
The Cubs fell to 5- 10 in one- run games, a frustrating trend, to say the least. But it was that kind of a night.
Bench- clearing non- incident
There was a brouhaha — well, sort of — between the teams after Musgrove slid hard into second baseman Javy Baez in a successful attempt to break up a double play. But nothing ended up happening, and we mean nothing.
Baez and Musgrove worked things out almost before anyone else arrived on the scene. After Maddon asked for a review to see if Musgrove’s slide past the bag was interference, umpires checked with New York only to determine that the play was not, in fact, reviewable.
“They’ll have to explain it to us,” Maddon said. “It was very unclear on the field.”
It was that kind of a series.
Edwards shut down
Reliever Carl Edwards Jr. was put on the 10- day disabled list with inflammation in his right ( throwing) shoulder. Edwards was in between innings Tuesday, when he told pitching coach Jim Hickey that he couldn’t continue.
“Whenever he gets throwing again, he gets throwing again,” Maddon said.
Right- hander Cory Mazzoni was recalled from Class AAA Iowa and pitched a scoreless two- thirds of an inning.