Pittsburgh Pirates at Chicago Cubs

· Major League Baseball

Pittsburgh Pirates

65-73, 33-37 Away

Final
5 - 0

Chicago Cubs

71-68, 36-31 Home

Paul Skenes and Jared Triolo help the Pirates blank the Cubs 5-0

Skenes worked out of bases-loaded jams in the first two innings. The rookie right-hander allowed four hits and walked four — matching his season high — but the No. 1 overall pick in last year's amateur draft struck out six.

“He kept his composure,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “He stayed calm even when the pitch count got up and he was able to finish up five for us.

“Overall, he’s going to have to grind at times, as talented as he is. And today was one of those where he had to grind and he did a nice job.”

After Skenes (9-2) departed, Colin Holderman, Carmen Mlodzinski and David Bednar combined for four innings of one-hit ball.

Chicago had won six in a row — all on the road — before losing the first two in its three-game series against Pittsburgh at Wrigley Field. The Cubs are 4 1/2 games back in the race for the final NL wild card after Atlanta beat Colorado 3-0 on Tuesday night.

“The first three innings, we played as good on offense as you can without scoring, unfortunately,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “We didn’t really create opportunities after that.

“We didn’t score and that’s not good enough.”

Chicago right-hander Kyle Hendricks (3-11) struck out five while pitching five innings of two-run ball. He got the start after Justin Steele was scratched because of elbow soreness.

Pittsburgh jumped in front with two runs in the third, capped by Rowdy Tellez’s RBI single.

With one out and runners on second and third in the seventh, Jared Triolo drove a 0-1 sweeper from Tyson Miller deep to left-center for his seventh homer.

Skenes, who struck out 11 in six hitless innings in his first start at Wrigley on May 17, said seeing a team multiple times should help down the line.

“I don’t think it makes me worse, for sure,” he said. “Just figuring out ways to get different guys out — it’s just what we have to do in this game, especially against hitters you’re going to see four times.”

WORTH NOTING

The Pirates claimed left-hander Joey Wentz off waivers from Detroit.

Pittsburgh RHP Domingo Germán (0-0, 6.11 ERA) makes his second start of the season against LHP Shota Imanaga (11-3, 3.14 ERA) on Wednesday night. The winning team takes the season series, which is knotted at 6-6.

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: 45.1%

Pirates: 54.9%

*According to ESPN's Basketball Power Index

Scoring Summary

	9th Inning	Tauchman flied out to left.
	9th Inning	Tauchman hit for Bethancourt
	9th Inning	Crow-Armstrong struck out swinging.
	9th Inning	Swanson flied out to right.
	9th Inning	Bednar relieved Mlodzinski
	9th Inning	Triolo struck out swinging.

Statistics

PIT		CHC
1	Games Played	1
1	Team Games Played	1
0	Hit By Pitch	0
10	Ground Balls	7
9	Strikeouts	10
5	Runs Batted In	0
1	Sacrifice Hit	0
8	Hits	5
2	Stolen Bases	2
2	Walks	4
0	Catcher Interference	0
5	Runs	0
0	Ground Into Double Play	0
1	Sacrifice Flies	0
32	At Bats	32
1	Home Runs	0
0	Grand Slam Home Runs	0
6	Runners Left On Base	15
0	Triples	0
1	Game Winning RBIs	0
0	Intentional Walks	0
0	Doubles	0
15	Fly Balls	15
0	Caught Stealing	0
141	Pitches	146
0	Games Started	0
0	Pinch At Bats	1
0	Pinch Hits	0
0.0	Player Rating	0.0
1	Is Qualified	1
1	Is Qualified In Steals	1
11	Total Bases	5
36	Plate Appearances	36
162.0	Projected Home Runs	0.0
1	Extra Base Hits	0
3.8	Runs Created	1.5
.250	Batting Average	.156
.000	Pinch Hit Average	.000
.344	Slugging Percentage	.156
.219	Secondary Average	.188
.286	On Base Percentage	.250
.629	OBP Pct + SLG Pct	.406
0.7	Ground To Fly Ball Ratio	0.5
3.9	Runs Created Per 27 Outs	1.5
33.0	Batter Rating	7.0
32.0	At Bats Per Home Run	0.0
1.00	Stolen Base Percentage	1.00
3.92	Pitches Per Plate Appearance	4.06
.094	Isolated Power	.000
0.22	Walk To Strikeout Ratio	0.40
.056	Walks Per Plate Appearance	.111
-.031	Secondary Average Minus Batting Average	.031
10.0	Runs Produced	0.0
1.0	Runs Ratio	0.0
0.4	Patience Ratio	0.3
0.3	Balls In Play Average	0.2
81.3	MLB Rating	61.3
0.0	Offensive Wins Above Replacement	0.0
0.0	Wins Above Replacement	0.0