The end of this game felt inevitable in the worst way possible. After a roller-coaster game that saw the Cubs with leads of 1-0 and 4-2, the Pirates with leads of 2-1, 5-4, and 8-5, and ties at 1-1 and 5-5, Mark Melancon stood on the mound with an 8-6 lead. Seeing what this dynamic young Cub offense had already done to the Pirates over the first 17 innings of this series, it felt like the Pirates had already lost. Melancon’s first pitch was an 89 mph cutter that Anthony Rizzo hit for a single. His second pitch was an 88 mph cutter that Jorge Soler whacked for a double. He walked Kris Bryant on six pitches, four of which were curveballs. Melancon’s cutter/curveball ratio last year was just about 5/1, so seeing him throw four curves on six pitches felt like a surrender to the inevitable. He threw three pitches to Starlin Castro (two curves and a cutter), and Castro hit the third for a game-tying single. He struck out Chris Coghlan next, but the last two cutters he threw to Coghlan only registered 87 on the run. By the end of the inning, he threw Addison Reed three straight curveballs.
It was awful to watch. It has been apparent to anyone with eyeballs and a familiarity with the Pirates that Mark Melancon is not right this year. Watching him serve up batting practice with his cutter, then try to fall back on his curveball was brutal. He was fooling no one, but there was never any serious attempt to get another reliever in the game. He was hung out to dry, except that he was already dry before he was even put on the line. I’m almost positive that Melancon will be on the disabled list before he throws another pitch, but I can’t figure out why it was necessary to allow this to happen before trying to figure out what’s wrong with him. Nothing that happened in that ninth inning was fair to anyone; not Melancon, not the Pirates, not Pirate fans. Honestly, I don’t know if I’m mad or confused. The whole thing was stupid and avoidable, and the Pirates ran right into it like a de-railed train.
There was plenty else from this game that would probably be worth talking about on a different night. The Pirates continued their recent trend of horrible infield defense. Josh Harrison is playing third base like a plexi-glass wall right now, Jung Ho Kang does not have great range at short, Neil Walker belongs in a rocking chair, and Corey Hart looked like he’d never played first base before. Francisco Liriano couldn’t throw strikes, but the Cubs couldn’t stop swinging and missing at sliders out of the strike zone. Starling Marte hit a ridiculously long home run off of Travis Wood. Francisco Cervelli came up with a huge hit in the sixth inning and Jung Ho Kang finally got his first big hit as a Pirate with a laser to right center with the bases loaded that seemed to finally tip this game in the Pirates’ favor. Alas.
Some nights the Pirates can’t hit. Some nights the Pirates can’t pitch. The season is now 14 games old, and the Pirates are 1-7 against teams that are not the Brewers. This is not great.
Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images
