Tonight in Pittsburgh Jake Arrieta takes on The Cutch, Andrew McCuthen and crew. On The Podcast, the other day, which I don’t remember, the Big Jack had mentioned an interesting theory the Bucs had in store for The Great One, pitching him inside to get him on base. I’m not sure if this was a ploy to knock him off his game but to me that’s not something you throw out, you just do it because if so, he definitely had time to prepare himself. Either way it would seem he started off shaky but we’ll get to that in a sec. Dexter Fowler would leadoff the game with a hit to continue his hit streak but would be out on Soler’s 5-4-3 double play. Arrieta would walk the first two batters, John Jaso and McCutchen but would strike out David Freese and get the next two batters out.
Going into the 2cd Johnathon Niesse would hit Rizzo to lead off the game. Zobrist would move him to third on his double. Baez would ground out scoring Rizzo. Russell and Federowicz would walk to load the bases. Now that theory about pitching Arreita inside didn’t seem to work because Jake would single to center scoring Ben. That would be all the runs scored in the second. Bryant would get a single in the third but that would be all the action for the third.
Russell would leadoff the fourth with a walk and end up at third on Tim Federowicz’s double. With Fowler in the box, Niesse would throw a wild pitch scoring Russell. It my have thrown him off his game because he walks Fowler, then gives up RBI singles to both Soler and Bryant. Rizzo would also join the RBI club of the night hitting an RBI double. The inning would end but the Cubs would be up 6-0 After four. And the Pirates, well The Great One is no hitting them through four. Niesse would make it through the fifth but that would be all for him. AJ Schugel would start the sixth inning off and get a 1-2-3 inning in the sixth seventh and eighth.
Arrieta would continue his no hitter with two outs in the bottom of the seventh. Francisco Cervelli would single to Soler in left breaking up Jakes possible second no hitter of the year. Jake would come out in the top of the eighth and be replaced by Trevor Cahill who would give up a lead off single to Sean Rodriguez. Chris Stewart would pinch hit for Schugel and reach on a throwing error by Russell. John Jaso would ground out but Rodriguez would score the Pirates first run of the game.
Jared Hughes would come into the top of the ninth giving up a lead off line drive single to Kris Bryant. Rizzo would hit his second double of the game. Zobrist would a sac fly to McCutchen scoring Bryant. Hughes would get out of the inning giving the Bucs a shot at redemption. The bottom of the ninth would be Trevor Cahill’s. He would get David Freese to ground out but would walk Matt Joyce. With 2 outs and one man on and Starling Marte comes to the plate and grounds out to Rizzo. Gregory Polanco would be the last hope but would also ground out to Rizzo ending the Pirates only chance at getting close to catching up with the first place Cubs.
Another great performance by the Cubs pitching staff. Jake “The Great” Arrieta would give up only 2 hits and only walk 2 batters while striking out 5. Trevor Cahill would only give up 1 hit and only walk 1 batter while giving up the only run and striking out 2.
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