Pittsburgh Pirates at Chicago Cubs

· Major League Baseball

Pittsburgh Pirates

20-25, 11-13 Away

Final
5 - 4

Chicago Cubs

25-20, 13-7 Home

Olivares, Gonzales homer to lead Pirates to 5-4 win over Cubs

Olivares hit a two-run homer in the first inning. He also doubled and scored in the sixth against Justin Steele (0-1) to make it 5-3.

Gonzales hit a solo drive in the fourth, and Jared Jones (3-4) struck out seven in six solid innings. Colin Holderman gave up a sacrifice fly to Christopher Morel in the eighth, but the Pirates opened the four-game series on a winning note after losing six of eight. They dropped two of three to the Cubs in Pittsburgh over the weekend.

Jones was charged with three runs and seven hits. The 22-year-old right-hander has gone at least five innings and allowed three runs or fewer in each of his nine career starts. This was his fifth outing without a walk, and he never faced a three-ball count with his slider keeping the Cubs off balance.

“Just going to straight back to the drawing board, seeing video, seeing what I've been doing in past outings where it's been really good,” he said. “Making sure I'm doing that in catch play every single day.”

Aroldis Chapman worked the seventh. Holderman hit Seiya Suzuki in the left arm with the first pitch of the eighth and catcher Yasmani Grandal threw wildly to first after fielding Cody Bellinger’s roller, putting runners on second and third. Morel then cut it to 5-4 with a sacrifice fly before Ian Happ struck out. Michael Busch walked, but after a visit from pitching coach Oscar Marin, Holderman retired Nick Madrigal on a ground ball to second baseman Alika Williams.

“The first pitch to Seiya got away from him and then we had the throw inside the line, but he was able to build it out,” manager Derek Shelton said. “Oscar had a really good visit with him and kind of calmed him down, and then Alika with an unbelievable play. A short-hand, backhand play, runners at first and second in that environment was really important for us. It was a really nice play.”

David Bednar came on in the ninth for his ninth save in 12 chances.

The slumping Happ hit a solo homer for Chicago in the second after being held out of the previous two games.

Steele, coming off a shaky outing in the Cubs' 10-9 loss at Pittsburgh on Saturday, gave up five runs and six hits in 5 2/3 innings. The left-hander struck out seven and walked one in his third start back from a strained left hamstring.

“In general we didn’t play good enough defense tonight,” manager Craig Counsell said.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Cubs: 2B Nico Hoerner (sore hamstring) was out of the lineup for the third straight game. He went through a more normal pregame routine after doing nothing the previous day, and Counsell hoped to have him back on Friday.

How can I watch Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Chicago Cubs?

TV Channel: Pirates at Cubs 2022 MLB Baseball, is broadcasted on MLB.tv.
Online streaming: Sign up for Fubo.

Matchup Prediction

Cubs: 65.3%

Pirates: 34.7%

*According to ESPN's Basketball Power Index

Scoring Summary

	9th Inning	Tauchman popped out to shortstop.
	9th Inning	Wisdom struck out looking.
	9th Inning	Wisdom hit for Amaya
	9th Inning	Mastrobuoni grounded out to second.
	9th Inning	Bednar relieved Holderman
	9th Inning	Williams struck out swinging.

Statistics

PIT		CHC
1	Games Played	1
1	Team Games Played	1
0	Hit By Pitch	1
6	Ground Balls	11
12	Strikeouts	11
4	Runs Batted In	4
1	Sacrifice Hit	0
7	Hits	7
0	Stolen Bases	0
1	Walks	1
0	Catcher Interference	0
5	Runs	4
0	Ground Into Double Play	0
0	Sacrifice Flies	1
34	At Bats	34
2	Home Runs	1
0	Grand Slam Home Runs	0
11	Runners Left On Base	10
0	Triples	0
1	Game Winning RBIs	0
0	Intentional Walks	0
3	Doubles	2
17	Fly Balls	13
0	Caught Stealing	0
136	Pitches	139
0	Games Started	0
0	Pinch At Bats	1
0	Pinch Hits	0
0.0	Player Rating	0.0
1	Is Qualified	1
0	Is Qualified In Steals	0
16	Total Bases	12
36	Plate Appearances	37
324.0	Projected Home Runs	162.0
5	Extra Base Hits	3
3.9	Runs Created	3.0
.206	Batting Average	.206
.000	Pinch Hit Average	.000
.471	Slugging Percentage	.353
.294	Secondary Average	.176
.229	On Base Percentage	.243
.699	OBP Pct + SLG Pct	.596
0.4	Ground To Fly Ball Ratio	0.8
3.7	Runs Created Per 27 Outs	2.9
37.0	Batter Rating	30.0
17.0	At Bats Per Home Run	34.0
0.00	Stolen Base Percentage	0.00
3.78	Pitches Per Plate Appearance	3.76
.265	Isolated Power	.147
0.08	Walk To Strikeout Ratio	0.09
.028	Walks Per Plate Appearance	.027
.088	Secondary Average Minus Batting Average	-.029
9.0	Runs Produced	8.0
0.8	Runs Ratio	1.0
0.5	Patience Ratio	0.4
0.3	Balls In Play Average	0.3
81.8	MLB Rating	77.3
0.0	Offensive Wins Above Replacement	0.0
0.0	Wins Above Replacement	0.0