CHICAGO (TNS) – The Pirates were already one of the worst offensive teams against left-handed pitchers this season. Their performance against Mike Montgomery on Monday won’t help their cause.
Montgomery pitched seven strong innings during the Pirates’ 6-1 loss to the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. The differential between the two teams in these standings increased to eight games. Pirates starter Trevor Williams limited the damage in an outing full of baserunners, but the way the Pirates hit, it didn’t matter.
Montgomery pitched six scoreless innings in start last Wednesday, which came more than a month after his previous start. In between he made eight appearances out of the bullpen, but remained stretched out enough to throw 89 pitches.
Through seven innings Monday it was more of the same. He permitted five singles and nothing else. Jordy Mercer’s solo home run, one of his three hits against Montgomery, to lead off the eighth drove Montgomery from the game. He struck out four, walked none.
Montgomery shut down a lineup featuring Sean Rodriguez at leadoff and Jose Osuna hitting second. Rodriguez popped out on the first pitch of the game, struck out on three pitches in the third, bunted into an out in the sixth and struck out in the eighth.
Through the seasons’ first half, the 2016 World Series champions were having trouble maintaining any kind of traction. They entered the All-Star break two games worse than .500. The 2016 Cubs began to re-emerge after the break. They won their first six games, and 14 of the first 17. Entering this week’s series they had won nine of the past 14 games to reach a 69-60 record and a slim two-game lead on the Milwaukee Brewers.
“All the games are big, but as you start running out of games they become a little more critical,” Hurdle said. “You do the math. And you get to play the team that’s in first place, seven out of 10 times. It starts (Monday) and we’re looking forward to the opportunity. We’re still scratching and clawing and trying to hang around and make some noise.”
The Cubs offense, specifically Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo, spurred the streak. Rizzo was 9 for 22 in the past week and hit .344/.427/.583 with six homers in August entering the series. Bryant hit .330 with a .435 on-base percentage and .568 slugging percentage in the month. In their past 10 games, they scored 7.2 runs per game and scored 10, 13, nine and 17 runs in individual games.
No team had scored more than the 243 runs the Cubs put on the board in the second half, and their .843 on-base plus slugging percentage led Major League Baseball.
“If you don’t execute pitches, it’s a club that can do some damage,” Hurdle said. “They can beat you a bunch of different ways, but they like to swing it. They’ll take their walks, they’ll see some pitches, but they like to swing it.”
Rizzo led off the bottom of the second inning with a double. Ian Happ drove him in. Rizzo came to the plate again in the third with men on first and second and one out, but he and Happ struck out.
A second walk to Bryant in the fifth put Williams on a tightrope. With the bases loaded and one out, Rizzo launched a fly ball to center. He thought he hit it out and jogged out of the box. Andrew McCutchen sprinted straight back to the wall, jumped and caught the ball against the ivy. A run scored, but only one, before Williams struck out Happ looking.
Williams allowed two runs in five innings. The Cubs’ next three runs scored on a head-scratching sequence in the seventh. Alex Avila hit a two-out, bases-loaded grounder to Rodriguez in the hole. He threw wide of first. Chris Stewart threw high of second. All three runs scored.
