06/15/23 – By Ethan Smith – @mvp_Ethan on Twitter
The Pittsburgh Pirates have lost the first three games of a nine-game stretch against the NL Central, failing to win a game at Wrigley Field in their first series facing the Chicago Cubs in 2023.
Pittsburgh’s offense started well early, scoring two runs in the third inning against Chicago’s top pitcher Marcus Stroman. Tucupita Marcano would kick off the scoring with an RBI single, followed by a Carlos Santana RBI.
Stroman would settle in for the remainder of his outing, pitching six innings while striking out five.
Johan Oviedo failed to go deep into the ballgame, pitching 4.1, and yet again the Pittsburgh Pirates surrendered a big inning as the Cubs put up five runs in the fifth, effectively taking the Pirates out of the game, something we saw in the previous two games of the series as well.
The Cubs would add insurance in the sixth from a Christopher Morel sacrifice fly, bringing us to the final score of 7-2.
This stings, alot, for the Pittsburgh Pirates to be swept in Wrigley, but despite this, they will enter their series Friday against the Milwaukee Brewers with a 0.5 game advantage for first place in the NL Central, while Cincinnati and Chicago trail by 1.0 and 3.5 games respectively.
Pittsburgh looks to and needs a bounce back performance in Milwaukee and it’ll start on Friday night when Rich Hill(4.23 ERA) faces Julia Teheran(1.48 ERA).
News & Notes
- Pirates will enter series v Brewers w/ a 0.5 game lead on Friday
- Pirates move to 5-24 in Wrigley Field since Bryan Reynolds debuted with Pittsburgh
- Johan Oviedo: 4.1 IP, 8 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 8 K
- Marcus Stroman: 6.0 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K
- Pittsburgh drops to 34-33 on the season
Steel City Pirates 