PITTSBURGH — It happened again for the Pittsburgh Pirates, the very same ending that had haunted them for a year. They earned the right to host the National League wild-card game yet could not even score a run.
The Chicago Cubs’ Jake Arrieta continued his extraordinary run of dominance Wednesday, throttling the Pirates with a four-hitter and striking out 11. Dexter Fowler and Kyle Schwarber battered Pittsburgh’s Gerrit Cole, and the Cubs survived with a 4-0 victory at PNC Park.
“It’s tough because we definitely feel like we have the team to be able to go,” the Pirates’ Andrew McCutchen said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they end up in the World Series.”
The Cubs have not been there since 1945 and have not won it all since 1908. Their next task: a division series matchup with the St. Louis Cardinals, who won 100 games this season, capturing the NL Central title and forcing the Pirates (98-64) and the Cubs (97-65) to fight for the right to face them.
Those teams had the second- and third-best records in the majors, but by not finishing first, one was guaranteed to be ushered cruelly into the winter after a summer of success. The Pirates are getting used to the feeling.
Last October, they lost here to the San Francisco Giants’ Madison Bumgarner. This time they fell to Arrieta, whose ERA since the start of August is 0.37. He ended his night leaping into the arms of first baseman Anthony Rizzo.
“I didn’t want to see anybody in the bullpen,” Arrieta said. “I wanted to finish what I started and be the guy to get the last out. That was the mindset.”
Arrieta issued no walks but did hit two batters. When the Pirates’ Tony Watson hit him with a pitch in the seventh, the benches and bullpens emptied. The Cubs shook it off and soon were partying in their clubhouse, dousing one another in Champagne and smoking cigars with celebrity fans — John Cusack, Eddie Vedder — along for the fun.
“We moved past it,” Arrieta said, “and after that, it was baseball as usual.”
The managers took opposite approaches to lineup construction. The Pirates benched their slugging first baseman, Pedro Alvarez, for a better defender, Sean Rodriguez. The Cubs prioritized offense, with Joe Maddon tucking his power-hitting rookies, Kris Bryant and Schwarber, in the outfield corners and using Tommy La Stella at third.
Maddon conceded it was not his best defensive lineup, but he could change that as the game moved along. More important, he said, was the setting. While he saw no competitive advantage to playing at home, Maddon said, there is a benefit to playing on the road.
“If you’re on the road, if you get on the board first, that might take a little bit of steam or wind out of somebody’s sails,” Maddon said.
And so they did, before Cole recorded an out. Fowler singled, stole second and scored when Schwarber lashed a fastball to left for a single.
Maddon had his early lead, and the Pirates fans tried gamely to rattle Arrieta, as they had in 2013 with Cincinnati’s starter, Johnny Cueto. But Arrieta was ready for the taunting.
When a Pirates fan tweeted at him Sunday, promising a sea of black in the stands and predicting “#crowdIsGoingToEatYoualive,” Arrieta responded, “Whatever keeps your hope alive, just know, it doesn’t matter.”
Predictably, as the crowd chanted his last name while he faced the first batter, Gregory Polanco, Arrieta calmly notched his first strikeout. McCutchen rapped a clean single up the middle that inning, but it was harmless. Arrieta fanned the cleanup man, Starling Marte, with 96-mph heat.
A soaring two-run homer by Schwarber gave the Cubs a 3-0 lead in the third, and a Fowler home run in the fifth made it 4-0. Cole was pulled after the inning.
“It just happens,” Cole said. “One of those off nights. I got burned on a couple of bad pitches in some key situations.”
The barrage scrambled Clint Hurdle’s plans. He pinch-hit for Rodriguez before he even had a chance to hit. But Alvarez proved no help, striking out three times. The Pirates squandered their best chance in the sixth, when Marte hit into a double play with the bases loaded. Arrieta, McCutchen said, continued to masterly work the corners.
“Taking advantage of the strike zone — that’s it; that’s what he does,” McCutchen said. “If he’s locating, he’s going to get those calls that are a little off the plate. He’s going to take advantage of it; that’s what makes him difficult.”
The Pirates’ tension boiled over in the seventh, after Arrieta was hit, and perhaps it had been building between these teams. A September slide by the Cubs’ Chris Coghlan had wrecked the knee of the Pirates’ Jung Ho Kang, who was wheeled onto the field for pregame introductions.
That had inspired the fans, who rose and yelled again as the players jostled on the field in the seventh. But there was really nothing they could do. Arrieta was in charge — he even stole a base — and Rodriguez, who said he was grabbed around the neck by the Cubs’ David Ross, was left to reflect the city’s frustration, attacking a Gatorade cooler with his fists in the dugout.
“I was pretty heated,” he said. “I couldn’t control myself at that point.”
Officially, Rodriguez was ejected from the game. But it was pointless, a formality, because he was already out of the game. So, too, were the Pirates, by then. Arrieta was carving up their hitters and carving out their hearts.