Frazier's walkoff blast overcomes blunders

Josh Bell and Elias Diaz dumped 10-gallon coolers of Powerade on Adam Frazier while most of their teammates crowded around home plate. Frazier, who spent the first eight innings in the third base dugout Sunday afternoon, just alleviated the Pirates' frustrations with one swing, a walkoff solo home run in the 11th inning to secure a 2-1 win over the Cubs and a series split at PNC Park.

It moved them back above .500, 63-62, and trimmed their deficit in the Central Division back to nine games. Yet, Frazier's heroics didn't correct all that went wrong for 10 innings. The Pirates made four baserunning blunders, including third base coach Joey Cora telling Gregory Polanco not to tag from third on a fly ball with one out in the sixth inning, and the offense stranded five on base in the final three innings.

Clint Hurdle grinned when asked about Frazier's 413-foot shot on a 3-0 fastball, but he was quick to point out that all involved have work to do before first pitch against the Braves Monday night.

"We complicated things throughout the afternoon," Hurdle said. "We’ll unpack all that tomorrow. We pitched so well and we made some big defensive plays. ... And we had opportunities. We got in our own way a number of different times offensively, or on the bases, to handicap us."

The Pirates' offense was held scoreless in 34 of 37 innings and scored only five runs in the four-game series, which included back-to-back 1-0 losses. It was their pitching that helped them win the final two games. It was the first time since 1992 that the Pirates allowed only four runs in a four-game series, and the last time two teams combined for nine runs or fewer in a four-game series was 1958. This was also the longest series in MLB history with a team scoring one run every game, with each coming by a solo homer.

Jameson Taillon had eight strikeouts over six innings and allowed only one run, a solo homer by Kyle Schwarber in the second. Edgar Santana, Keone Kela, Felipe Vazquez and Richard Rodriguez threw a combined five scoreless innings. But a better offensive performance — eight hits and five walks — was almost wasted.

Cubs starter Jose Quintana threw five scoreless innings until Gregory Polanco's double off the wall scored Corey Dickerson to tie the score in the sixth. Polanco,Dickerson and Starling Marte went a combined 5 for 14 with three doubles, two by Polanco.

Again, the Pirates squandered opportunities with runners in scoring position — 1 for 11 with 11 left on base — and mistakes on the bases continue to plague them. The first, a pickoff in the second inning when Elias Diaz was too far off the bag and got caught in a rundown, potentially cost them a run since Josh Harrison doubled two batters later.

Two more egregious plays happened in the sixth. Following Polanco's game-tying double, Marte was caught in a rundown between home plate and third when David Freese hit a ground ball to Anthony Rizzo at first:

Rather than running on contact, Marte seemed slow to leave the base and slowed down when he saw Rizzo collect the ground ball. Freese appeared agitated when he realized what happened, and it got worse. Polanco didn't tag from third when Bell hit a fly ball to Schwarber, a converted catcher, in left field with only one out later in the inning:

Joey Cora, the Pirates' third base coach, stopped Polanco from trying to tag up, and Schwarber's throw went wide right before bouncing away from home plate. Harrison flied out to center to strand the bases loaded, preventing Taillon from factoring into the decision.

"I was going, but he kept yelling at me, ‘No, no, no, no!’" Polanco recalled. "I was gone. For a second I thought in my mind, ‘Just keep going,’ but nah. Halfway I stopped. … [Cora] saw me and I was like, ‘I’m going, I’m going.’ I thought about keep going, but I have to follow the rules." 

Hurdle said of Cora's decision: "Yeah, the call, we had an opportunity to get ahead right there, and we didn’t capitalize."

It got worse for Cora, too. Kevin Newman, a rookie shortstop recalled three days earlier, was on first base as a a pinch-runner in the seventh when Marte doubled to left with two outs. Cora waved Newman around to score, and he was thrown out at home plate by Schwarber, when Wilson Contreras used his leg to block Newman's progress to the plate:

Cora glided back to the dugout as soon as home-plate umpire Chad Fairchild called Newman out. Hurdle challenged the out and home plate violation; however, both were confirmed after review. The Pirates are at the bottom of the National League with 20 outs at home plate this season, one fewer than the Twins and 16 more than the Phillies, who lead the league in the statistic.

"Oh my God, man," Polanco said when asked if he was frustrated. "We’re not scoring too many runs. We need the chance, but whatever is the decision, that’s what we’re doing." 

The Pirates loaded the bases with three walks in the ninth, only for Corey Dickerson to ground into a 4-9-3 double play — right fielder Ben Zobrist moved to the infield after switching gloves — on the first pitch, and they stranded two more in the 10th after Polanco's second double. Finally, with two outs in the 11th and three consecutive balls by Brandon Kintzler, Frazier, who entered as a pinch-hitter in the ninth, did this:

"Beautiful swing, uplifting for sure," Hurdle said.

The celebration that followed reflected the importance of the win, and the Pirates' place in the standings. They'll now host the Braves for three games, followed by a nine-game road trip to Milwaukee, St. Louis and Atlanta. The deficit in the Wild Card is now at six games with five teams ahead of them, and they can ill afford to continue to make mistakes.

"We had to have that win right there," Frazier said.

1. Taillon outstanding again.

It wasn't until Schwarber's home run that Taillon settled in. The 415-foot solo shot over the Clemente Wall came on a hanging slider, so Taillon opted to make a change. He started using his curveball as the out pitch to lefties, and it helped him hold the Cubs to only one hit over the next four innings. He used it to strike out two batters each in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings.

"The overall fastball command got him underneath some counts," Hurdle said. "He fought his way back." Taillon produced 18 swinging strikes and threw 60 of his 95 pitches for strikes. He retired 13 of the final 15 he faced and credited Joe Musgrove with navigating his way through the Cubs' lineup after Schwarber's home run.

Taillon said he gained confidence after watching Musgrove allow only one run in seven innings Saturday night since the two pitchers have a similar arsenal. Taillon, like Musgrove, is on an outstanding run. He has a 2.93 ERA with 38 strikeouts over his last seven starts, lowering his WHIP to 1.23 for the season.

While Musgrove, Ivan Nova and Trevor Williams peppered the top of the zone with fastballs early, Taillon opted to throw towards the bottom early and went higher as the game progressed. He'd then use his curveball to lefties and sliders to right-handers, producing six ground-ball outs.

"Today was definitely one that would have hurt if we lost and feels good for winning," Taillon said. "You’re never happy about splitting, but I guess when you come back and salvage a split it’s a little bit different of a feeling. Today was a big one."

2. Diaz with the win.

Dating back to July 8, the Pirates' bullpen has a 3.00 ERA, the third-lowest mark in the majors, and it only got stronger at the non-waiver deadline with the addition of Kela. Hurdle didn't hesitate to pull Taillon after six innings because Santana was on three days rest, thanks to long starts by Nova, Williams and Musgrove earlier this series.

Santana retired the side in order in the seventh and has now been charged with only two earned runs in his last 21 appearances. Kela, meanwhile, struck out three in the eighth, despite having to overcome Polanco misplaying a line drive that turned into a two-out double. Vazquez then struck out two in the ninth. But Diaz also deserves credit for this win.

Addison Russell hit a one-out ground-rule double to right in the 11th when a fan scooped up a ball in foul territory and advanced to third on a wild pitch. After an intentional walk, Diaz, at the behest of bench coach Tom Prince, called for Rodriguez to throw an outside fastball and fired a throw over to third to pick off Russell.

"Diaz, the performance level is top-shelf," Hurdle said. "The play is put on by Prince. It’s a play we work with our catchers that we’ve had in play for a while. The execution of it, once you get a strike like that, you look for aggressive runners. The Cubs are aggressive, they’re good over there. There’s a number of other times this year we’ve tried it, but that one showed up at a pivotal point."

Rodriguez walked two more batters to load the bases before striking out Albert Almora Jr. with a fastball off the plate.

3. Monitoring workload. 

You'll likely see Clay Holmes and Nick Kingham start in September. The Pirates will monitor the workload of their rotation next month if they fall out of contention. Taillon's already made as many starts this year as he did all of last season, and they could be cautious with Musgrove since he battled a shoulder injury the first six weeks of the season.

Nova may also get some added rest since he's already made 23 starts and is under contract through next season. Mitch Keller is unlikely to get a look in the majors since he's struggled early at Triple-A and would have to be added to the 40-man roster. Instead, the club would likely use the final month to evaluate Kingham and Holmes since one or both could be candidates to pitch out of the bullpen next season.

Also, Chad Kuhl could return sometime next month, and they'll want him to get at least some work in before the end of the season. The schedule is on the Pirates' side if they do contend. They are off twice in the next eight days, and they've been creative with their starters' rest throughout the season, in addition to the Holmes experiment in San Francisco.

Kevan Graves, the Pirates' assistant general manager, cited "biometric data" for the reason behind the Holmes start against the Giants. However, Neal Huntington said rest in September is more complicated. "A lot of it is the art of pitcher workload and how are they appearing, how are they responding, how are they recovering, how are they pitching?" Huntington said. "How are they competing? We have rough ideas about increased thresholds, but there is no science to it. It’s much more anecdotal. It’s much more art than science at this point in time. So we want to see how they’re recovering, want to see how they’re pitching, want to see how they’re feeling, and we also don’t want to pull the plug too quickly, but we also don’t want to run them out there more than we should. There is some working through it."

MATT SUNDAY GALLERY