Gave themselves a chance. Down 6-2 in the 9th, the Cubs rallied to get the tying run on second base for a pinch-hitting Javy Báez, but came up juuuust short, with Báez working a long at bat against actually-quite-good Pirates closer Richard Rodriguez before finally grounding out to second to end it.
It was one of those Fake Rallies that just makes you all the more angry about how the Pirates got their six runs.
To be sure, Kyle Hendricks struggles in the first inning. And to be sure, one of the risks of being a contact pitcher is that that contact can string together for hits. But in today’s case, it wasn’t really either of those things working toward the four runs Hendricks gave up out of the gate. Instead it was four soft-contact hits and a soft-contact error that did all the damage. Even in the world of “eh, sometimes contact burns you” this was statistically super unlikely:
By the xBA in the 1st, the chances that all 3 of PIT's run-scoring hits would fall in (well, last was technically a throwing error but still shows on Statcast as a single)?
0.07%. Or about 1 in 1430.
Hendricks gave up two legit singles and a BB. Then "baseball" happened.
— Bleacher Nation Cubs (@BleacherNation) May 9, 2021
The Cubs’ bats couldn’t get it together until that 9th inning, which was ultimately too little, too late. They actually had a pretty weak series – they’ve really struggled against this MIGHTY PIRATES PITCHING STAFF all year – so maybe they’re lucky to have won two of three. Also, an injury to Jake Marisnick and maybe Jason Heyward, too, so today was just rough all around.
Nice bullpen outings today, but this Pirates lineup is … gonna make a lot of bullpens have great outings this year.
It’s rare that I’m disappointed by a failure to sweep, but with Hendricks going today, the Cubs needed to make it happen. I’m not mad, as they say, given the flukey stuff that generated the Pirates’ runs, but I am disappointed.