CHICAGO — To make up any ground in the wild-card race while facing the Chicago Cubs, you’ve got to earn it. Defuse the best rotation in baseball, navigate a powerful lineup full of versatile players and don’t let them take a lead into the ninth, because Aroldis Chapman will preserve it.
The Pirates won four games in a row in Milwaukee over the weekend, moving within half a game of the second wild-card spot and improving their record to six games better than .500. Three losses at Wrigley Field, concluding with Wednesday’s 6-5 defeat, reversed almost all of the progress.
“It’s not obviously the way we wanted to play against them,” said Jordy Mercer, who went 2 for 5 with a double and two RBIs. “But they’re good for a reason.”
Chasing down the Cubs, who at 85-47 now lead the Pirates by 17½ games, was never really on the table. But the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants, who hold the two wild-card spots, are within reach, as are the New York Mets. The Pirates made some progress against the Brewers, but the Cubs stopped them in their tracks.
“We’re right there where you want to be, right there in the thick of things,” Mercer said.
“Anything can happen.”
Despite a first-inning Kris Bryant homer and an RBI single allowed to Addison Russell in the fourth, Ryan Vogelsong kept the Pirates alive by the top of the fifth. They created a chance to tie or take the lead. Cubs starting pitcher Jason Hammel escaped.
Sean Rodriguez and Vogelsong each walked, and Josh Harrison hit a two-out RBI single. Josh Bell walked to load the bases for Andrew McCutchen. When McCutchen struck out swinging, catcher Willson Contreras pumped his right fist; the Cubs’ 2-1 lead survived.
Vogelsong began the sixth but left before recording an out. “Two runs through five innings, and within three pitches they scored another run,” manager Clint Hurdle said. After Antonio Bastardo threw a wild pitch, balked and allowed an RBI double, the Cubs had a 5-1 lead. Vogeslong pitched his worst start since joining the rotation in early August: five runs, three walks and six hits in five-plus innings.
“You look at the line and you see five runs, it doesn’t look great,” said Vogelsong, who Wednesday reached 10 years of major league service time. “But I felt like I threw the ball well, way better than I did in Milwaukee, that’s for sure. It’s tough to throw the ball that good and give up five, but I’m pretty confident that if I keep throwing the ball like that I’m going to be fine and we’ll be fine.”
McCutchen got another chance with the bases loaded, against Justin Grimm in the seventh, and walked. Mercer pulled the Pirates within two in the eighth with a two-run double against Travis Wood, and Francisco Cervelli drove in a run against Chapman in the ninth.
“We were putting guys on base all night,” Mercer said. “If you continue to put guys on base, something’s going to give eventually.”
It gets easier. Eighteen of the Pirates’ next 21 games are against the Brewers, Philadelphia Phillies and Cincinnati Reds. The three that aren’t are against the Cardinals at PNC Park, offering a chance to make up ground head-to-head. At the end of the month, though, the schedule toughens: The Washington Nationals and Cubs visit Pittsburgh before the final series of the season in St. Louis.
“It doesn’t matter,” Mercer said. “You know my answer. It doesn’t matter. This is the big leagues. Everybody’s good.”
Bill Brink: bbrink@post-gazette.com and Twitter @BrinkPG.
First Published: September 1, 2016, 3:58 a.m.