CHICAGO -- The Pirates had a chance to steal a game they probably had no business competing in but ultimately fell short.
Mitch Keller (0-1) dug the Pirates an early hole but they nearly recovered in a 4-3 loss to the Cubs at Wrigley Field on Sunday. The Pirates put three runs on the board late in the game thanks to some timely hitting from the middle of their order.
Keller couldn't find the strike zone for three innings. He issued four walks and was tagged with three runs in his season debut. Pitching on his birthday, the 25-year-old threw just 42 of 77 pitches for strikes and surrendered a homer to Ian Happ to start the third.
As bad as things were for Keller, they could have been much worse. He allowed just two hits and limited the damage to hold the Cubs to just one knock with runners in scoring position -- an RBI single by Kris Bryant -- and collected four strikeouts.
The Pirates didn't get much going offensively against Zach Davies (1-0) until Colin Moran lifted a two-run homer to left in the sixth inning. Bryan Reynolds delivered the first of a string of two-out hits in that inning. Phillip Evans followed with his second hit and Gregory Polanco drew his second walk against Davies to chase him from the game.
Moran, Reynolds and Evans combined for some more offense in the eighth. After Reynolds' one-out infield single, Moran again went to the opposite field with authority to drive a double into the left-field corner. Evans' poked his third hit into right to score Reynolds.
The Pirates needed five pitchers after Keller to complete the game. Duane Underwood Jr. was the first Pirates' reliever to be stretched beyond an inning, but he couldn't to keep a lid on things in the sixth after Moran's homer brought the Pirates to within a run. Bryant doubled and scored after Evans whiffed on a Javier Baez grounder.
Sam Howard worked around walks to the first two hitters he faced with a fortunate double play on a comebacker to get out of the sixth. Chris Stratton struck out one in a perfect fourth inning. Kyle Crick also kept the Cubs off the board despite displaying poor control in his season debut. And the Cubs actually squared a couple balls up against David Bednar, but the Mars, Pa. native delivered his second perfect inning of the season.
More coverage to come from Chicago.
