*Photo from the Sharon Herald*
Games like this don't happen a ton. The lineup belted 5 home runs, Paul Skenes made his anticipated debut, and the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Chicago Cubs with a 10-9 victory Saturday afternoon in Pittsburgh.
It was a game that featured a few big innings, a rain delay, and a lot of offense, on top of the debut of baseball's number 3 prospect. But it ended in a win for the Pirates, despite all the madness that came with it. Yasmani Grandal and Connor Joe paced the Pirates offense with 3 RBI's each.
Joe got the scoring started in the 3rd with a 3 run home run to make it 3-0 Pirates. Oneil Cruz made it 4-0 with a solo home run. In the top of the 4th, Nico Hoerner got the Cubs on the board with a solo shot before a two run blast from Michael A Taylor in the bottom of the inning made it 6-1. In the 5th, the Cubs scored 4 straight runs on bases loaded walks, making it a 6-5 game.
Later in the 5th, Mike Tauchman drove in a run with an RBI single to make it 6-6 before two more runs scored on bases loaded walks to cap a 7 run inning for the Cubs, making it 8-6. In the bottom of the 5th, Grandal put the Pirates ahead 9-8 with a 3 run home run. Andrew McCutchen made it 10-8 with a solo shot in the 6th before a Tauchman sac fly in the 9th made it 10-9.
Paul Skenes got the start for the Pirates, making his much anticipated debut. Skenes allowed 3 runs in 4+ innings. Kyle Nicolas was responsible for 4 runs while Josh Fleming allowed one. David Bednar got the save and Colin Holderman, Aroldis Chapman, and Chris Stratton had scoreless appearances.
Pirates manager Derek Shelton said of Skenes' debut that "I would guess he was a little bit over-amped, so the fastball command, you know, wasn't as sharp as we'd seen it in Indy. And understandably. I mean the crowd was into it. That was fun. I think he'll learn from it and be able to build off it, but overall, the stuff is really good."
Justin Steele was the starter for the Cubs and gave up 6 runs on 6 hits and two walks in 4 innings pitched. Keegan Thompson allowed 3 runs in one inning while Richard Lovelady allowed one in one inning. Jose Cuas pitched two scoreless innings.
Cubs manager Craig Counsell said of the team's 7 runs in the 5th that "It’s just proof that the game shows you something new every day. It was a strange inning, and it was a big inning that got us back into the game after a big deficit. We took the lead with some more walks. We just couldn’t hold it."
The series finale took place Sunday afternoon, with the Cubs prevailing 5-4 in 10 innings to win the series. Kyle Hendricks was the starter for the Cubs against Pittsburgh's Bailey Falter.
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