CHICAGO — If there was any doubt Ivan Nova was ready to return, it disappeared as soon as the curveball left his right hand and landed in Elias Diaz's glove in the first inning. Javy Baez, the Cubs' second baseman, walked back to the third-base dugout, head hanging, after striking out on the breaking ball.
It was the first out of one of the more encouraging starts by a Pirates pitcher in the past six weeks. Nova, activated from the 10-day disabled list Sunday morning, allowed only one run on four hits, and the Pirates' offense used a five-run sixth inning to avoid a series sweep with a 7-1 win over the Cubs at Wrigley Field.
Last month, a sprained right ring finger took the bite out of Nova's curveball, prevented his changeup from breaking down in the zone and robbed him of his fastball command. All were returned to him in his first start back, and he received help from an offense that hadn't scored in 17 consecutive innings.
TAP ABOVE FOR BOXSCORE, STANDINGS, VIDEO"At the end of the day, he showed you he was ready to pitch," Clint Hurdle said.
The Pirates, now 32-33 and still in fourth place in the Central Division, received Nova's best start since he threw eight scoreless innings in a 1-0 win over the Tigers on April 26. The 31-year-old right-hander had a 7.61 ERA in four starts last month, allowing 38 hits in 23 2/3 innings. He was tagged for four runs in 5 1/3 innings against the Reds on May 24 and informed the Pirates' training staff afterwards that he was experiencing pain in his right hand.
Nova initially refused to use the injury as an excuse for his performance, but both Hurdle and Todd Tomczyk, the Pirates' director of sports medicine, told reporters the injury prevented Nova from properly throwing his pitches.
The difference was powerfully illustrated on that first curveball to Baez in the first inning.
Following a clean first inning, Nova walked Anthony Rizzo to lead off the second and responded by striking out Ian Happ with a curveball at the knees. Then, he struck out Kyle Schwarber with a changeup low and out of the zone. Nova produced eight ground-ball outs and only one fly out — a pop fly to Colin Moran in the first inning.
The Cubs didn't hit a fly ball to the outfield until Jason Heyward doubled to lead off the sixth inning.
"The way the ball was coming out of my hand, you could tell right away," Nova said, beaming. His curveball produced six swinging strikes, and his changeup led to three swinging strikes. The horizontal break in both pitches dropped significantly in May, and opponent's batting averages against both pitches skyrocketed.
His primary weapon — the two-seam fastball — is what helped Nova throw 5 2/3 innings against the Cubs.
The Cubs had two on with two out in the third following an error by Josh Harrison and a single from Heyward, but Nova struck out Kris Bryant with a two-seamer on the hands. Addison Russell led off the fifth with a single to left, and Nova got Chris Gimenez to roll over on a two-seamer to short, but Jordy Mercer committed an error.
With two on and no outs, Nova got Tommy La Stella to roll over on a two-seamer for a double play, and he struck out Baez with this curveball in the dirt to end the threat:
"It was a good team win," Harrison said. "Not to mention, it was one of those where it was tight for a while. You mention a complete game, I mean, Nova picked me and Jordy up in a couple spots."
Hurdle added: "That is the guy we’ve seen more of than the guy the last five times out."
Nova retired six batters on three pitchers or less, despite throwing only 11 first-pitch strikes. He finished with eight strikeouts — his second-most this season — and two walks. It wouldn't have mattered, though, had the Pirates' offense continued to scuffle.
Harrison, back in the lineup after being away from the team Saturday, hit a leadoff homer in the first, and Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks followed with four scoreless innings. It wasn't until Joe Maddon turned to his bullpen that the Pirates finally had a breakthrough.
Austin Meadows hit a leadoff double in the sixth and advanced to third on a groundout by Corey Dickerson. Two batters later, Diaz, starting in place of Francisco Cervelli, worked the count 3-0 against lefty Brian Duensing. Diaz, batting .419 against lefties this season, decided to swing at a pitch low and away, rather than trying to draw the walk:
That snapped the Pirates' 0-for-19 skid with runners in scoring position, and gave them a much-needed insurance run.
"Next time I have to look for a better pitch," Diaz joked afterwards. Duensing then walked Josh Bell to load the bases before Gregory Polanco received a pitch down the middle:
That cleared the bases and gave Polanco his first three-RBI game since April 6, handing the Pirates and Nova a 5-0 lead.
"Big swing for us today," Hurdle said. They added another run in the sixth on an RBI single by Mercer and scored again in the eighth when David Freese grounded into a fielder's choice with the bases loaded. The offense had nine hits, including two by Diaz and Harrison, while drawing six walks, three by Bell alone.
The Pirates also went 3 for 9 with runners in scoring position, and it was their largest margin of victory since an 8-1 win over the Cardinals on May 25. They haven't won back-to-back games since May 17 and have lost 16 of their last 22. But they earned a win over the second-place Cubs before traveling to Phoenix for a three-game series against the first-place Diamondbacks.
More important, the ace of their staff regained the weapons that had eluded him. The Cubs scored their only run in the sixth on a fielder's choice following Heyward's double. Nova walked the next batter he faced and was replaced by Edgar Santana.
Santana, Kyle Crick and Felipe Vazquez combined to pitch 3 1/3 scoreless innings to snap a three-game losing skid. Nova threw 63 of his 94 pitches for strikes and earned only his third win in his 12th start this season. In addition to the offense's recent struggles, the Pirates' rotation ranks 14th in the majors in WHIP.
A resurgence from Nova is needed for the Pirates to sustain any sort of success.
"Today I was finally 100 percent healthy and the way everything went today was really good," he said.
1. Diaz capable of filling in for Cervelli.
When Cervelli was struck on the left side of his jaw by a foul ball Saturday, Diaz stepped in and guided Nick Kingham through 3 1/3 scoreless innings. Kingham retired 10 of the 12 hitters he faced with Diaz behind the plate. It wasn't much of an adjustment for the backup catcher, though.
After all, Diaz studies the gameplan even when he's not starting and catches each pitcher's bullpens between their starts. That's how he's developed a close relationship with Nova. Although Cervelli had caught nine of Nova's first 11 starts this season, Diaz also understands what Nova likes to throw in certain situations.
So, despite the timing of Cervelli's injury, Diaz didn't have to ask Nova many questions or quickly read through the scouting report. The 27-year-old backup catcher already knew how Nova wanted to attack the Cubs and which pitches were effective following his injury.
"He works well with Nova," Hurdle said. "He does a lot of the work with these pitchers between starts, as most backup catchers do, so he develops relationships that are significant. It’s not that the starting catcher doesn’t go back there, but there’s more opportunities for Diaz to do that."
Pirates pitchers allowed only one run in 16 innings with Diaz behind the plate over the past two games. He also provided the most important hit of the afternoon. Diaz, facing a 3-0 count, was waiting on a fastball when Duensing threw a sinker low and out of the zone.
Rather than trying to pull the ball, Diaz sprayed it to right field. The Pirates poured it on from there, scoring three on Polanco's triple. Diaz went 2 for 5 and is now 21 for 66 with four home runs and 14 RBIs as a starter this season.
"We needed it," Diaz said of his single. "Finally we scored a couple runs today and we got a 'W'. I think that’s going to give everybody the confidence to start winning again."
2. Harrison the catalyst for scuffling offense.
The Pirates are a different team with Harrison batting leadoff. They can't seem to find a capable replacement when he's out of the lineup, and he's their only viable option now that Adam Frazier is back in Triple-A.
In addition to giving his teammates a thorough scouting report following each at-bat, Harrison brings occasional pop and a limitless supply of energy this team has lacked over the past three weeks. That was illustrated in the first inning with his 386-foot solo home run to left-center.
Harrison added a two-out single in the third and stole second before Meadows' strikeout ended the threat. It was Harrison's fourth consecutive multi-hit game, and he's now batting .298 as a leadoff hitter. This recent hot streak followed a 6-for-36 skid in which Harrison was a frequent victim of bad luck.
Instead of changing his approach, Harrison decided to not make any changes or adjustments.
"I’m just trying to find good pitches, and it’s been turning out that they’re finding holes," he said. "Baseball. I remember the series in St. Louis I hit a couple balls hard that were right at people. It’s one of those things where this game can make you feel you need to change something if you’re not getting results, but you have to stick with the process. That’s kind of where I’ve been at."
3. Pirates monitoring rotation.
The Pirates' decision to start Nova against the Cubs was partially motivated by how he looked during his live batting practice Wednesday at PNC Park. Hurdle and his staff were pleased with the bite to Nova's curveball, as well as his changeup.
The move was also made to give rest to the other starters, particularly Joe Musgrove. Musgrove was originally scheduled to start Sunday, but he'll instead pitch Monday against the Diamondbacks, and the Pirates' off-day Thursday will give him additional rest before his next start.
The Pirates will need to get creative with Musgrove's workload. After all, Musgrove pitched a career-high 109 1/3 regular-season innings in 2017, and he pitched into October for the World Series champion Astros. That volume of innings, of course, led to some fatigue, and eventually, the right shoulder injury that forced him to miss almost two months to start the season.
Yes, it's only one extra day off, but it's another sign that the Pirates intend to be cautious with Musgrove this season.
