CHICAGO -- The Pirates are fighting for their lives. Looking for their fifth straight win, they relied on three rookie pitchers to piece the puzzle together.
It’s safe to say the rookies looked like rookies. Wilber Dotel, Khristian Curtis and Antwone Kelly combined to allow 12 runs in eight innings while striking out just two batters. The Pirates’ pitching woes led to a 12-2 loss to the Cubs at Wrigley Field on Friday afternoon.
The loss also drops the Pirates to five games back in the National League Wild Card race, pending the outcome of San Diego's and Arizona's games this evening.
Friday was supposed to be Braxton Ashcraft’s start day before he hit the 15-day injured list with right arm discomfort. In his place, Dotel opened a bullpen game and he breezed through the first inning. In the second, he loaded the bases with no outs and Chicago put three runs across to take a two-run lead.
Shota Imanaga is the Pirates' kryptonite. The Cubs' left-hander entered the game with a 3-0 career record and an ERA of 0.24 with 36 strikeouts in six starts against Pittsburgh. But rookie Konnor Griffin was unfazed.
The 20-year-old hammered a leadoff triple to right-center field, and scored one pitch later on Oneil Cruz’s single to take an early 1-0 lead. While one run would’ve been enough in three of the Pirates' last six games, they needed to put plenty more runs on the board at Wrigley to come close to a victory. Mixed with a Bryan Reynolds solo shot in the sixth, that was all the Pirates mustered offensively.
When Curtis (Pittsburgh's No. 15 prospect) entered for the bulk role beginning in the third, he didn’t have much success either. Michael Busch drove in Seiya Suzuki on a double into the right-center-field gap and Nico Hoerner scored Busch on a fielder’s choice.
The Pirates' plans unraveled in the bottom of the fourth. Already leading by four entering the frame, the Cubs unleashed four more runs, including a two-run homer by Alex Bregman. Curtis pitched 11 innings with just two runs allowed to open his career. Against Chicago, he allowed six runs in three innings as Pittsburgh fell behind, 9-1.
Reynolds carved into the deficit with a solo home run, but the Pirates then went to their third rookie pitcher of the day in Kelly. Kelly (Pittsburgh's No. 20 prospect) entered and, like his predecessors, was beat around by the experienced Cubs.
Kelly gave up three straight hits to start the sixth frame and two runs scored, pushing the lead to nine. A Pete Crow-Armstrong single in the seventh ballooned Chicago’s advantage to 10, and Kelly sat down the Cubs in the eighth with the damage very much done.