CHICAGO -- When the Pirates were swept at the hands of the Cubs last week at PNC Park, there wasn't anything to like about the way they finished the series. Sure, they were able to hang their hat on generating 10 runs, but there were no other takeaways that came close to being positive after they allowed 11 unanswered runs and blew a seven-run lead in a massive collapse that perfectly encapsulated the plunge the Pirates have taken over the last month.
At the time, it appeared as if they had hit rock bottom during a season highlighted by a number of demoralizing defeats, including 10 in a row last month. But somehow, some way, this team managed to outdo itself Wednesday night, as everything went wrong in a 12-0 loss to the Cubs at Wrigley Field.
It all culminated in this one final groundout off the bat of Oneil Cruz in the ninth inning, one that led to history being made at the Pirates' expense:
Sing it extra loud, Chicago. pic.twitter.com/7cR799dXAL
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) September 5, 2024
That's right, the Pirates found themselves on the losing end of a combined no-hitter, as Shota Imanaga, Nate Pearson and Porter Hodge collectively tossed the second of its kind in franchise history and 21st in MLB history. It was the Cubs' 18th overall and the first thrown at Wrigley Field since 1972. The Pirates have now been no-hit 12 times in franchise history.
Imanaga, who was pulled after throwing 95 pitches -- 66 for strikes -- through seven innings, surrendered two free passes, saw three other runners reach base on errors and struck out seven to continue a strong rookie season in which he's won 12 games while compiling a 2.99 ERA and 1.02 WHIP through 26 starts. He's certainly no slouch, and the Pirates failed to generate any type of offensive success against him.
“We knew he was a good pitcher. He threw the ball on the plate and we didn’t hit a ton of balls hard," Derek Shelton said. "We swung early and we swung at strikes, it’s not like we really chased. We chased the split down a couple times, we just didn’t square anything up.”
Trailing by double digits late in the game, the Pirates didn't appear to pull out all the stops in an effort to prevent Pearson and Hodge from finishing what Imanaga started. Two defensive changes were made in the seventh, swapping two of their best hitters in Bryan Reynolds and Isiah Kiner-Falefa with Billy McKinney and Alika Williams.
Now, like the rest of the bunch, Reynolds and Kiner-Falefa hadn't had any success against Imanaga, but they were at least able to put the ball in play. Each of them even reached on Isaac Paredes errors in the first and sixth innings. Reynolds was initially credited with a hit in the first before it was later ruled an error. Plus, we're talking about replacing two top-of-the-order bats with two less-threatening options for the opposition to have to face off against. Both Reynolds and Kiner-Falefa were slated to hit in the final two innings and, despite the lopsided score, would have given the team a better chance to avoid putting up a zero in the hit column. Instead, Williams grounded out to end the eighth and McKinney did the same to begin the ninth.
"Yeah, it's baseball. I think this is my fourth one, so it happens," Kiner-Falefa said. "It's going to happen a lot more with the way pitching's going in this game. You never want to be on this side of it, but hat's off. (Imanaga) did a great job. And yeah, we'll bounce back and hopefully win our next series."
In addition to the changes that took Reynolds and Kiner-Falefa out of the lineup, another late-game substitution was made in the bottom of the eighth when Rowdy Tellez was called upon to make his third pitching appearance since Aug. 24. The Pirates have played in 11 games since then and Tellez, the first baseman whose skillset doesn't exactly resemble that of Shohei Ohtani, has pitched in three of them.
Domingo German allowed seven runs (six earned) over just three innings and Jalen Beeks, Kyle Nicolas and Ryan Borucki were tasked with covering the following four, so Tellez was the choice in an 11-run game. When Shelton was asked about the decision during his postgame media availability, his response was given in clear frustration.
“It’s 11-0," Shelton said. "It’s 11-0, (David) Bednar and (Colin) Holderman both threw yesterday, (Dennis) Santana has been our best reliever and (Aroldis) Chapman, I’m not going to pitch him in that situation.”
Frustrations were obviously at an all-time high and lost in the Pirates' lack of hitting and the inability to keep the Cubs from pushing runs across the board in Wednesday's finale was the fact that they actually won the series. It was just their third series win since the beginning of August, a month in which they went 8-19 and sunk to the bottom of the National League Central standings. A group once viewed as a potential playoff team in late July quickly evolved into one with different aspirations during the final month of the season.
"Just the ebbs and flows of the season. We've been knocked down earlier. Just got to find a way to keep competing and at the end of the day, it's still our stats and our record," Kiner-Falefa said. "These games matter for what the organization wants to do next year. So these games are very meaningful for everybody in the locker room. And I think individually, you've got to look at it that way."
