True, the Pirates are young and inexperienced. Some of them are learning on the fly at the major league level. But they all possess fundamental baseball skills, including the knowledge of what to do with a hanging breaking ball with two runners on base.
Michael McKenry found himself in that very predicament Friday night when Cubs closer Carlos Marmol left a slider, the eighth pitch of the at-bat, sitting on a tee for him.
"Everybody knows his M.O., he's got an electric fastball and a real good slider," McKenry said. "I was just trying to battle, put a ball in play."
He put it in play for a moment, but soon it was out of play again. McKenry hit a three-run home run into the left-field seats that capped a four-run eighth inning and gave the Pirates a 7-4 win against the Cubs at PNC Park.
A crowd of 37,140 witnessed McKenry's first major league home run, then egged him out of the dugout for a curtain call.
"That's a little boy dream of mine," he said. "You see Cal Ripken and big-name people do that. I got one and I'm 26 years old, I got a little over two months in the big leagues. It's awesome."
McKenry took a called strike, then fouled off six consecutive pitches. He hammered the eighth pitch of the at-bat.
"I don't know if I've ever seen anybody hit a ball like that before," James McDonald said. "He got all of that."
The chain of events that set up the home run began with the Pirates trailing, 4-3, in the eighth.
Pinch-hitter Matt Diaz walked and Pedro Ciriaco pinch-ran for him, then broke up a potential double play on Neil Walker's ground ball. Lyle Overbay singled, and the Cubs replaced Sean Marshall, who was the loser and fell to 5-3, with Marmol.
Josh Harrison, on his 24th birthday, singled to center to score Walker and tie the score before McKenry came to the plate.
"He's hit quite a few balls hard on the screws," Harrison said of McKenry. "He's been putting some good swings on the ball. It just shows. He just stuck with his plan and got a pitch and just drove it."
Daniel McCutchen (3-1) earned the win in relief and Joel Hanrahan converted his 26th save, striking out two in the ninth.
The eighth overshadowed McDonald's start. He allowed three runs in 52/3 innings but his pitch count was elevated again, this time to 99.
"I attack hitters but sometimes they put together good at-bats, they foul off good pitches," McDonald said.
Chris Resop allowed an RBI double to Alfonso Soriano, though the runs were charged to McDonald, and Jose Veras allowed a run on two hits and two walks in two-thirds of an inning, but the bullpen kept it close.
"Nobody broke," Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said.
Marlon Byrd and Aramis Ramirez had their way with the Pirates pitching staff, going a combined 5 for 7 with all four runs scored and a home run. Ramirez has seven home runs in his past 11 games and 15 on the season.
The Cubs took a 3-2 lead in the sixth with Soriano's double, but Andrew McCutchen tied the scores in the bottom half with a solo home run, his 13th.
The Cubs took the lead again in the eighth when Byrd walked and Soriano doubled off the Clemente Wall in right field, giving the Cubs runners on second and third with one out. With the infield in, Darwin Barney grounded a single through the hole between short and third, scoring Byrd, and putting the Cubs ahead, 4-3.
Daniel McCutchen relieved Veras at that point and left the bases loaded by getting Starlin Castro to fly out.
Aggressive baserunning, timely hitting and a good swing of the bat erased the deficit.
"He caught one as good as you can hit it," Hurdle said of McKenry's home run.
McKenry joined the Pirates via trade and was one of an ever-shuffling rotation of catchers to fill in for the injured Chris Snyder and Ryan Doumit. His defense has earned him high praise. Friday, his bat joined the party.
"Early when he came he was kind of struggling a little bit, pressing for a hit," McDonald said. "He was always positive, picking us up in times where we probably should pick him up. It's really good to see him succeed like that."
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