Before stepping into the batter's box in the ninth inning, Anthony Rizzo apologized to Pirates catcher Elias Diaz. Rizzo took out Diaz with a hard slide into home plate one inning earlier, causing Diaz to commit a two-run error and leaving him writhing in pain on the infield grass at PNC Park.
"He said it was a difficult play," Diaz, through team interpreter Mike Gonzalez, said afterward. "And he apologized and I waved him off and said, 'Let's just play ball.' "
With first base open and two runners in scoring position, Richard Rodriguez threw a high four-seam fastball to Rizzo for ball one. Four pitches later, Rizzo singled to center to score two runs, and the Pirates went on to lose 7-0 to the Cubs on Monday afternoon.
As the Cubs congratulated each other after the final out, AT&T SportsNet's broadcast showed David Freese and third-base coach Joey Cora arguing in the Pirates' dugout. Clint Hurdle denied having knowledge of the incident; however, Sean Rodriguez, detailing his opinion of Rizzo's slide, spoke to reporters about the importance of having "each other's backs," and said that message was delivered following the game.
"What needed to be said actually was said," Rodriguez shared. "It was definitely spoken about. We definitely had to get together and some things were said. That’s how it is. There’s 25 of us and then some. Guys coming up and down. It’s either you bond together and move forward together, become that much stronger, or let something like this obviously separate you."
Hurdle said of the incident between Cora and Freese: "I'm not aware of it. Just made aware of it when I came in over here. We'll take care of things in-house. We do a lot of it. Sometimes you hear about it, sometimes you don't."
Hurdle did not begin his postgame news conference until nearly a half hour after Josh Harrison struck out to end the ninth inning, clinching the Pirates' eighth loss in their last 10 games. Freese, who screamed an expletive when Rizzo's ground ball in the ninth inning found outfield grass, was unavailable to the media after the game.
Rodriguez, though, expressed his opinion of the slide and how the Pirates handled the incident. After all, failing to defend a teammate can divide a clubhouse. He didn't see "malicious intent" with Rizzo's slide, despite the contentious history between the two teams. Rodriguez said he actually would have slid the exact same way.
"Does it make me, as Diaz’s teammate, happy about it?" Rodriguez said. "No, absolutely not. Again, that’s a part of the game where we need to have each other’s backs."
With the bases loaded and no outs in the eighth inning, Chris Gimenez hit a ground ball to Rodriguez, who threw to home plate for the force out. Diaz kept his right foot on home plate for the force out and stepped forward to throw to first for the double play. Rizzo, attempting to score from third, was out by a few feet, when he stepped to the left of the baseline and extended his left leg to make contact with Diaz:
Diaz's throw soared into right field, allowing two runs to score, and home-plate umpire Bill Welke ruled Rizzo's slide was legal. The call stood following a review, and Hurdle was ejected after arguing with Welke following the review.
"In my personal opinion, I don't think it was a good slide," Diaz said. "I understand that there's old-school baseball, but we're not in old-school baseball anymore. There's new rules and things we've submitted to and even us as catchers have mentally prepared ourselves for and I don't agree that that's a legal slide."
MLB's slide rule states the following: "When sliding into a base in an attempt to break up a double play, a runner has to make a 'bona fide slide.' Such is defined as the runner making contact with the ground before reaching the base, being able to reach the base with a hand or foot, being able to remain on the base at the completion of the slide (except at home plate) and not changing his path for the purpose of initiating contact with a fielder. The slide rule prohibits runners from using a 'roll block' or attempting to initiate contact with the fielder by elevating and kicking his leg above the fielder's knee, throwing his arm or his upper body or grabbing the fielder. When a violation of the slide rule occurs, the offending runner and the batter-runner will be called out."
When Mark Carlson, the first-base umpire and crew chief, announced the call on the field stood, Hurdle walked to home plate to argue the decision. The basis of his argument was Rizzo went out of his way to initiate contact with a slide that could have injured Diaz.
"There's potential injury and I don't see the rule fitting the means there," Hurdle said. "If it's open season, it's open season. Everybody is going to see the play and knows this is a play you can make on every catcher in his most vulnerable position. He's completely exposed. He's completely out in front of the plate. He has no defense whatsoever and there's big people that play this game that are fast. I just think it defeats the purpose of the rule."
Joe Maddon, the Cubs' manager, put the onus on Diaz to clear a path for Rizzo to execute a slide, calling it a "perfect play" and was critical of the review, saying such a decision makes Rizzo "wear the black hat for a moment." Slides, though, are reviewable per MLB rules. Rizzo described his slide as "just playing hard," and called it a "good play."
Diaz disagreed.
"I was definitely surprised [the call stood], especially knowing the new rules and just the conditions and what we're taught and told," he said. "And when I saw the replay I was like 'Man, this guy could have ended my career right here,' and I understand they called it a legal slide but out of what I've been trained and what I've been told, that was not a legal slide. And I'm thinking of all the horrible things that could have happened in my career after that."
The Pirates, now 28-25, dropped into fourth place in the Central Division. They had only two hits and did not have a runner reach scoring position, despite the Cubs turning to reliever Mike Montgomery in a spot start. They were trailing 5-0 when Rodriguez stepped to the mound to pitch to the top of the Cubs' order, and he allowed back-to-back singles to bring Rizzo to the plate with one out.
Rather than retaliating, Rodriguez allowed a two-run single, and the Pirates were retired in order in the bottom of the ninth. Sean Rodriguez said afterwards MLB should restructure the rule to eliminate the grey area, adding it "puts a lot of people in jeopardy" and forces the players to police themselves.
"Over the course of my career I’ve definitely been retaliated for over doing a lot less," he said. "I guess that’s policing it on our own, but then again, the league wants to get involved with everything, so it makes it tough."
1. What's with Kuhl?
Chad Kuhl, making his 11th start of the season, walked four batters and threw less than half of his pitches for strikes through three innings. However, he allowed only one run on four hits and lowered his ERA to 3.94 — the second lowest among Pirates pitchers with at least four starts this season.
Rizzo hit Kuhl's first pitch of the second inning — an elevated sinker — over the Clemente Wall for a solo home run and 1-0 lead. Two batters later, Kyle Schwarber hit an elevated changeup deep down the left-field line, only to be robbed at the wall by Corey Dickerson.
Kuhl gave up back-to-back two-out singles before getting a groundout to strand two. He walked three batters in the third, benefiting from Diaz throwing out Ben Zobrist trying to steal second base and Dickerson making a sliding catch in left. The Cubs were 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position and left six on base with Kuhl on the mound.
"Oh my gosh, I thought he was fantastic keeping them off the plate," Hurdle said. "The left-handed attack was challenging today with the walks. However, at the end of the day, his slider played. The changeup, the fastball in certain sequences. The mix was good. It was tough on the right-handers, so I thought he really did a fantastic job of putting his foot down and making some adjustments to get through six innings."
He threw more sliders (32) than four-seam fastballs (31), forcing eight swinging strikes with the breaking pitch. Kuhl struck out five over six innings and has now pitched through six innings in three of his last four starts. The Pirates had won six of his previous seven starts, too.
Kuhl retired seven of the last nine batters he faced. "I think it's [the slider]," Kuhl said. "It's a pitch I feel really comfortable throwing, even if I don't have my fastball. It's probably my favorite pitch to throw. Being able to locate it to both sides of the plate now. I can manipulate it where it can be more of a cutter with some depth for some swing and miss."
2. So, Dickerson can play left field after all.
Kuhl's outing could have been ugly if Dickerson didn't make two spectacular defensive plays. That sentence may surprise some readers. After all, Dickerson has played the outfield in over 100 games only once in his career, and he was a below-average defender in left for all but one season in his career. Well, so much for that narrative.
This wasn't exactly a routine play:
Schwarber sliced a hanging changeup that would have been the Cubs' second solo home run of the inning, but Dickerson used a well-timed jump to make the catch. Then, one inning later, Bryant hit a pop fly to shallow left field. Dickerson sprinted in from deep left to make a sliding catch for the second out of the inning.
The 29-year-old leads left fielders in the majors with a 4.4 ultimate zone rating and is tied with the fourth-highest outs-above-average. The Pirates haven't made any drastic changes to their outfield alignments, either. Dickerson is playing a shade over to the right, compared to where Marte was lined up last season.
The difference is he's playing an average of nine feet deeper, which has helped compensate for his lack of speed. Also, Marte isn't lining up in center field any different than Andrew McCutchen did last season, so it's not like the Pirates are going out of their way to give Dickerson help.
3. The offense has gone quiet again.
Cervelli missed a second consecutive game with flu-like symptoms, and Gregory Polanco, stuck in an 0-for-16 slump, was out of the lineup. Jordy Mercer was also given the day off. The result was another ugly offensive performance. Josh Harrison, Austin Meadows, Marte and Josh Bell went a combined 0 for 13 with three strikeouts.
Dickerson and Rodriguez had the team's only hits, the latter being an infield single. This was Montgomery's first start of the season, and he had not pitched more than three innings all season. Yet, he threw 5 2/3 scoreless innings with five strikeouts. He retired the first 13 batters he faced and needed only 61 pitches to get through five innings.
Also, the Cubs did not arrive in Pittsburgh until around 4 a.m., as they played the Giants in Chicago Sunday night. The Pirates' offense has struggled for much of this recent skid, batting only .216 in their previous seven losses. Hurdle, though, said there wasn't a common thread between their struggles against Montgomery and what's plagued them in series losses to the Cardinals, Reds and Padres.
"Sometimes the game presents more challenges for you in different areas," he said. "Right now, offensively we've had some. We've had some off the mound. Once you get the opportunity, all you can do is continue to play. The league lets you know where you need to make improvement. The league lets you know where you need to adjust. And we came off a big game four days ago and offensively we've missed some opportunities. Not a lot of opportunities today. But we've had a lot of opportunities in the other games. So we continue to create opportunities. We're just not finishing off things."
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Pirates vs. Cubs, PNC Park, May 28, 2018. - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS