A day after taking a bad beating from the Cubs, the Pirates struck back with an offensive explosion of their own. Joe Block has the story of a Bucco win at Wrigley Field.
Manager Derek Shelton says playing the spoiler role will help the young Bucs grow.
Shelton says playing at Wrigley as the Cubs contend for the playoffs is great for his young team.
Shelton loves the fact that Jared Triolo can play multiple positions at an elite defensive level and still maintain his offense.
Mitch Keller gave up seven runs, including a fifth inning grand slam to Ian Happ, but he did earn the win, and he struck out six Cubs, giving him 204 strikeouts on the season. He is the sixth Pirate since 1900 to strike out 200 batters in a single season, joining Bob Veale, who did it four times in the 1960s, and A.J. Burnett, Francisco Liriano, and Gerrit Cole, who each did it once.
The series concludes tonight at Wrigley Field. Righthander Johan Oviedo [8-14, 4.27 ERA] goes for the Bucs against Cubs righty Kyle Hendricks [6-7, 3.77 ERA]. It’s a 7:15 airtime, 7:40 first pitch on WCCS.
The only other Pirates affiliate still playing is Triple-A Indianapolis, which is closing out its season with a series against Rochester. A night after scoring 19 runs, the Indians scored 14 more for their second straight win, and again it was Canaan Smith-Njigba and Nick Gonzalez who led the way. Each had three hits, with Smith-Njigba hitting a home run and Gonzalez a triple.
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