PITTSBURGH — Gerrit Cole pitched eight innings of two-hit ball, but the offense and the bullpen let him down in a 1-0 loss to the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday night.
Cole had an inefficient first inning, when he needed 21 pitches and a double play to get through back-to-back walks. But he settled down quickly and was nearly un-hittable after that, allowing just an infield hit and a single to left in his eight innings of work.
“Cole pretty much had no-hit stuff,” said Cubs catcher Alex Avila, who delivered the game-winning RBI in the eighth off Daniel Hudson. “The way he was locating with 97, slider, curveball, he was excellent. You just had a feeling that we weren’t going to have many opportunities against him. If he made a mistake, we weren’t able to capitalize on it. He had unbelievable stuff. Just try to outlast him and keep the game where it was until we got into their bullpen and see if we got an opportunity there.”
The Pirates thought Cole was rolling from the very beginning and might have been able to go even longer if not for some tough calls in that first that extended the inning.
“He just had a great feel for all his pitches,” catcher Chris Stewart said. “Even in that first inning, he executed pitches, we just didn’t get the calls. That added on maybe 10-15 more pitches than we needed to throw. He was dialed in from the get-go, throwing the fastball where he wanted and mixing it up with the curveball, slider and changeup. I could call anything in any given situation and I knew it was going to be a good pitch. He did an outstanding job or deserved the win.”
Outside of spot starter Steven Brault on Tuesday, the Pirates have put together an impressive early September run from their young starting pitchers, with Cole joining Jameson Taillon, Trevor Williams and Chad Kuhl with quality starts this home stand. Manger Clint Hurdle is impressed the way the young arms have joined Cole with some late-season success.
“It’s been really encouraging to see the workloads, because it’s hard to quantify how much of a difference it is pitching in August in Triple-A versus August in the big leagues and then you pile another month on it to what they’re doing against the quality of competition they’re pitching against,” Hurdle said.
“It shows that they’ve matured,” Stewart added. “Gerrit’s obviously been around for a couple years, but he new guys, Kuhl, Brault, Jamo and Trevor, it just goes to show the maturity and what they’ve learned this year from beginning to end. The sky is the limit with those guys and it’s good to see them transitioning with us near the end and hopefully they carry it over into next year.”
HE SAID IT
Pirates second baseman Josh Harrison will miss the rest of the season with a broken hand, but he was front and center on Wednesday, as he received the Pirates nomination for the Roberto Clemente Award.
Pirates Clemente Award winner @jhay_da_man and Luis Clemente pose for pics before tonight's game. #ClementeDay pic.twitter.com/5wUNsVyuB5
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) September 7, 2017
Harrison has been with the organization since 2009, among the longest of those in the clubhouse, and he’s come to appreciate what it means to be associated with Clemente, both for on- and off-the field achievements.
GAME IN GRAPHS
Home plate umpire Paul Nauert’s two missed strike calls could have helped Cole escape with a more efficient first inning. Cole and Nauert had an extended conversation after that inning and the calls were much more consistent from then on. Stewart took that a sign of maturity.
“He just made sure that he was on the same page as the umpire,” Stewart said. “That’s a veteran move with him conversating that way. He’s not going to yell at you the entire game.”
QUICK HITS
***The Pirates had plenty of chances against Cubs starter Jose Quintana and hit the ball well at times, too. Mostly, they just had lousy luck. Twice, they had two men on and hit a ball over 100 mph, only to turn it into an out.
Jordy Mercer had men on first and second with two outs in the finish and smashed a line drive that would have cleared the outstretched glove of almost any third baseman other than the Cubs’ 6-foot-5 Kris Bryant.
In the sixth, Jose Osuna battled Quintana through a 10-pitch at-bat with two on and nobody out. He finally rocketed a ball at 102.4 MPH, but it took a short-hop into the glove of shortstop Javier Baez for an easy 6-5-4 double play.
“There was some tough luck,” Hurdle said. “Baseball is a game where you can run into that from time to time.”
***Hudson was something of a tough-luck loser. The veteran right-hander hasn’t had the kind of year the Pirates were hoping for when they signed him to a two-year, $11 million contract this past offseason. His 4.53 ERA and 1.416 WHIP coming into Wednesday are both well above his career figures.
But he’s been pitching a lot better as of late. In his last 10 games, he has a 3.18 ERA and a .132 batting average against with five hits, six walks and 14 strikeouts in 11.1 innings.
It was a walk that did him in Wednesday. After striking out Bryant to start the inning, he gave Anthony Rizzo a free pass and struck out Ian Happ before he broke Alex Avila’s bat with a changeup. But Avila’s broken-bat flare found a lot of grass and went for an RBI triple to cost the Pirates the lead.
