'Mean' Mr. Musgrove brings the swagger

With boos raining down on him, Anthony Rizzo stood at the plate with two out, a man on first and with the Cubs trailing by just one in the top of the seventh inning.

One swing of the bat could have given Rizzo his third home run in as many games and possibly a three-game series sweep over the slumping Pirates.

However, sixty feet and six inches away stood Joe Musgrove. On exactly his 100th pitch of the night, Musgrove reared back one last time, letting loose a 94-mph four-seam fastball that Rizzo — public enemy No. 1 in Pittsburgh since Monday — popped up to Jordy Mercer to end the threat and effectively the game:

"Yeah!" Musgrove screamed at the mound. Well, not exactly. He prefaced it with another word, but you get the point. Bleep, yeah, indeed.

Rizzo's pop-up put the exclamation point on the Pirates' cathartic 2-1 win over the Cubs, a much-needed victory to stem the bleeding of a four-game losing streak. And like the Pirates' previous win, it came with Musgrove on the mound.

A few hours before Wednesday night's game, Clint Hurdle was explaining that "adrenaline" played a big part in Musgrove's successful Pirates debut last week against St. Louis. Well, here's thinking that Musgrove's latest win had a little more to do with guts than adrenaline.

Though not as dominant as his outing against St. Louis, the 25-year-old was equally effective.

"If you want to measure every one of his outings against his debut, it’s going to be rough," Hurdle said. "Thought he pitched a fantastic game today. In a lot of ways, today’s game was a stronger effort."

No argument here.

Musgrove scattered seven hits over seven innings, striking out five and walking four. After giving up a pair of doubles and a run to start the first inning (in which he threw 27 of his 100 pitches), it's remarkable that he lasted as long as he did. But Musgrove battled, literally and figuratively.

He allowed the leadoff hitter to reach base in three of his seven innings, yet he persevered. Heck, he even picked off a runner at second base.

"I’m just trying to stay even-keeled and not fall too much into the hype of being the new guy here and doing what I’m doing so far," said Musgrove, who missed the first two months of the season following a shoulder injury in spring training. "I’m just trying to go out and be productive every fifth day and get through seven innings. It does feel good to come out like this, especially after missing the first two months." 

Acquired in the Gerrit Cole trade, Musgrove bears the appearance of the Pirates' ace of the future. The 6-foot-5, 260-pound right-hander — who won a World Series ring last fall with the Astros — brings a swagger to the mound not seen in these parts since A.J. Burnett.

Oh, and a toughness that's already won over the hearts of his new teammates.

“He’s a gamer, man," said Josh Bell. "Just a gamer. You’ve got to love playing behind someone like that.”

"He’s a tough guy when he’s on the mound," said Francisco Cervelli. "He’s mean."

In his start against the Cardinals, after Cervelli was plunked in the sixth inning, Musgrove brushed back Marcel Ozuna with this pitch to lead off the seventh:

Those types of things don't go unnoticed.

One gets the feeling that had Musgrove been on the mound on Monday, he may have plunked Rizzo for his slide into the back of Elias Diaz's legs. Musgrove had to wait, but he finally did get Pittsburgh's pound of flesh on Wednesday, much to the delight of the 14,126 at PNC Park.

After leading off the third with a single, his second hit in the National League, he was forced out at second on Josh Harrison's sharp grounder to third, but not before breaking up the double play by taking out Javier Baez at second with a pop-up slide:

Words were exchanged and the benches emptied, though no punches were thrown and there were no ejections. Musgrove was unapologetic later.

"He saw me coming," he said. "I was right in front of him. If he wanted to get out of the way, he should have. I wasn't trying to hurt him by any means. But I was trying to go in and hard, like their guy (Rizzo) did. He should have got out of the way, I guess."

Message sent.

"I'm not saying it was a bad slide," said Baez, who'd been the target of Hurdle's ire for flipping a bat after popping out in April game at Wrigley Field. "But he just went hard and I asked him 'What was that about?' He said 'Sorry.' Conversation was over. You know, everybody came out because they have to, but sometimes players are just talking and that was the situation there and it was over. They came out of the dugout, they have to go all the way to second base to see what happened. And that was over and everybody was over it."

We'll see about that last part about being "over it."  With three more games coming up June 8-10 on Chicago's North Side, we may not have seen the last of hostilities between the NL Central rivals.

After Wednesday's winning performance, it figures Musgrove will get one of those three starts.

"His demeanor on the mound is unbelievable," said Corey Dickerson. "He has great stuff to go along with it and he has the confidence. We feel that and we play behind that with confidence."

1. Oh, so this is how a bullpen works. 

When Jason Heyward led off the top of the ninth with a single to right off Felipe Vazquez, it seemed like another bullpen implosion was coming. After all, Vazquez had blown his last three save opportunities.

Two outs later, Baez singled to put runners on first and second to bring up Kris Bryant. However, Vazquez was able to induce a ground out to Colin Moran at third to end the game.

It was the second strong effort from Vazquez, who pitched a scoreless ninth a night earlier in mop-up duty. After Sunday's game, the Dominican closer complained of forearm discomfort but has shown no ill effects in his last two outings. He topped out at 98 mph on Wednesday.

Did it give him any more confidence?

"Yes, it does," Vazquez told DKPittsburghSports.com. "Lets coaches know, lets myself know that I'm OK."

That's huge news for the Pirates, who have no other real ninth-inning option other than Vazquez at this point. He's indispensable.

But don't forget the work of Kyle Crick either in Wednesday's win. He pitched a 1-2-3 eighth to get the ball to Vazquez. Since the struggling George Kontos' departure, the Pirates have been auditioning relievers for the eighth-inning set-up role and Crick has made the most of it.

2. Harrison sets tone early. 

Down 1-0 after the end of the top half of the first, the Pirates wasted little time getting it back. Try four pitches. That's all Harrison needed.

The two-time All-Star second baseman reached down low to get hold of Kyle Hendricks' 86-mph sinker and deposited it over the Clemente Wall for an opposite-field home run to tie the score:

It was Harrison's second homer of the season and first since April 1, the second game of the season at Detroit. It was his sixth career leadoff home run and the Pirates' fourth this season.

Since coming off the DL after missing 30 games with a broken hand, Harrison has gone 13-for-41 with five RBIs in nine games.

3. Big game for Moran. 

Underneath his thick red beard, Moran is still just a 25-year-old rookie who's still finding his way in the big leagues. But he's been very impressive so far.

One of the "other" players acquired from Houston in the Cole trade, Moran had his second-most productive game in a Pirates uniform on Wednesday, going 3-for-4.

"Got a couple balls to fall, which is nice," said Moran, who had a four-hit game April 6 vs. Cincinnati. "Just trying to stay short, put the ball in play and try and find holes and get on base."

The three singles were his first hits of the series. He is now batting .300 in his last seven games and improved his season average to .275 with a fine .775 OPS.

MATT SUNDAY GALLERY