The Associated Press
Six days ago, Anthony Rizzo’s name occupied the top line on the Chicago Cubs lineup card for the first time. After leadoff home runs in the next two games, Rizzo joked he was “statistically the greatest hitter of all time to lead the game off.” The three-peat was foiled Friday when his smash splashed on one hop into the Allegheny River before umpires conferred and called it foul.
On a steady, sun-soaked Sunday afternoon at PNC Park, the 6-foot-3, 240 pound Rizzo thundered around the bases collecting three-quarters of a cycle, lacking only a triple, in the Cubs’ 7-1 runaway win over the Pirates. Rizzo went 6 for 13 over three games in Pittsburgh, and the reigning World Series champions secured a series win and an even .500 record.
For much of the season so far, Cubs manager Joe Maddon has attempted to start a struggling offense in motion using Clydesdales — power hitters Rizzo and Kyle Schwarber — rather than Thoroughbred racers. The game theory can cause problems for opposing pitchers.
“You’ve got to come out of the chute ready to go,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “Most leadoff hitters are looking to get on, and you’ve got to make good pitches. [Rizzo] can just do a little more damage than most. … He’s going to give them a shot in the arm wherever he hits.”
The Cubs (34-34) knocked around right-hander Jameson Taillon for eight hits — two apiece by Rizzo, Willson Contreras, Javier Baez and Jon Jay — over five innings of four-run baseball. Their 13th and final hit of the game, a ninth-inning solo home run by Mt. Lebanon High School product Ian Happ off left-hander Tony Watson, crash-landed in the visitors’ bullpen.
The Pirates (31-38), meanwhile, managed just two hits in seven innings against John Lackey (5-7), and they had three hits total. Their lone run came on Jordy Mercer’s home run in the fifth inning, his sixth homer this season, which extended his hitting streak to eight games.
“He got in some jams, made some pitches,” Mercer said of the 38-year-old Lackey. “That’s what a veteran does. For me, though, just seeing what he was doing, he was locating. His fastball was really good. He doesn’t throw as hard as he used to, but it doesn’t matter if you locate.”
The Pirates had two runners on in the second and third but failed to score.
“[Lackey] is a guy who’s been pushed,” Hurdle said. “We had two innings to push him. We didn’t convert. Those are innings we needed to make something happen.”
Taillon, making his second start since returning from the disabled list, received a rude welcome from Rizzo, who entered the game 4 for 8 with two home runs against him. The Cubs swung and made contact with the first four offerings from Taillon, starting with Rizzo’s leadoff double. Willson Contreras then clobbered a RBI double off the base of the wall in center field.
“They’ve seen me a few times,” Taillon said. “They know I’m going to be around the zone. Dating back to last year, if you’re going to get me, the first inning is a good time. … You want to have them chasing pitches, using their aggressive energy to my advantage as opposed to theirs.”
Taillon’s velocity spiked to 98.4 mph in a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the third before Contreras roped a double to left field, racking up his second and third RBIs of the game. Taillon said the speed boost was a good sign, since it was controlled, but his curveball wasn’t crisp.
“The misfires he had were barreled,” Hurdle said, stressing command was the culprit.
Once Taillon (3-2) departed, Rizzo blasted a two-run home run off left-hander Wade LeBlanc for his 16th home run this season, improving to .409 with three homers in five starts at leadoff.
As rain showers swept overhead after the game and drenched PNC Park, the Pirates team bus pulled away and headed for the airport. They concluded an 11-day, 10-game homestand — their longest this season — with a 5-5 record, failing to gain ground in a tightly packed division. Their next stop is Milwaukee to face the first-place Brewers, and then St. Louis.
There are plenty of days left in the season, Hurdle advised, “Keep things simple. We lost the series. We’ve got to get on that plane, go get Milwaukee and figure something out there.”
