Anthony Alford's 2 homers not enough as Pirates lose to Cubs

Steven Brault was sitting next to Michael Perez on the lower bench in the visiting dugout with an obstructed view of Wrigley Field when they heard Anthony Alford make contact with the pitch.

It was so loud that the Pittsburgh Pirates battery mates turned and looked at each other, recognizing the sound of a home run off the bat. The left-hander had one word for Alford’s 469-foot shot that cleared the left-field bleachers and landed on Waveland Avenue: Wow.

It was the first of back-to-back home runs by Alford and Hoy Park and the first of two homers to left by Alford against the Chicago Cubs. The second, a two-run shot, tied the score in the sixth inning.

For all of the noise Alford made, the Pirates went out with a whimper when Frank Schwindel answered with a solo homer off Shelby Miller to lift the Cubs to a 6-5 win Friday afternoon.

“We continue to fight,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “We had good at-bats, Alford with the two homers, Park with a homer. You know, we just weren’t able to finish it off.”

The loss was the fourth consecutive for the Pirates (48-87) in Chicago, and the second to the Cubs after losing a two-game series to the White Sox. The Cubs (61-75) won their fourth consecutive, thanks to three-hit games by Michael Hermosillo, Schwindel and Ian Happ and a bullpen pitching a scoreless final 3 1/3 innings.

Miller (0-1) took the loss, but only after Brault dug a 5-0 hole by giving up seven hits and four walks with four strikeouts in four innings. The left-hander struggled from the start, as he gave up a double to Hermosillo, then walked the leadoff batters in each of the next two innings. Hermosillo drove in two runs with a single to left, then scored on Frank Schwindel’s single for a 3-0 lead in the second inning. Austin Romine singled to right to score Matt Duffy in the third for a 4-0 lead.

Coming into the game, Hermosillo was batting .138 (4 for 29). By the fourth inning, he was a triple shy of hitting for the cycle after hitting a 425-foot homer to left for a 5-0 lead.

“We know he’s aggressive, we know he swings the bat,” Shelton said. “When you leave balls in the middle of the plate against an aggressive hitter, (he is) gonna make hard contact and he did that today.”

The Pirates, however, got homers by Alford and Park in the fifth to cut it to 5-2. Alford led off with his 469-foot blast, and Park followed with a 451-foot shot to right.

“Anthony’s got some crazy, stupid pop,” Brault said. “He’s just unbelievably strong, super athletic. He’s a guy who’s going to come into his own. I have no doubt about that. And the guy played football and baseball at the same time. It’s pretty insane, so it’s pretty cool to see.”

The Pirates escaped a jam in the fifth after lefty reliever Anthony Banda gave up a leadoff double to Happ. The Mt. Lebanon native was thrown out at home on an Alfonso Rivas grounder to first baseman Colin Moran, who made the throw to Perez at the plate for the tag. The call was challenged by the Cubs but upheld after a video review.

Cubs bench coach Andy Green — filling in for manager David Ross, who tested positive for covid-19 — erupted and was ejected by second-base umpire Tom Hallion.

The Pirates answered with three runs in the sixth. Moran singled and scored on a fielder’s choice by Perez, as Kevin Newman’s slide broke up the double play and caused an errant throw by Cubs shortstop Sergio Alcantara. Alford homered again, this time a 435-foot shot to left to tie the score at 5-5.

Alford, who struck out 17 times in his first 34 plate appearances after being recalled Aug. 7, became the third Pirates player with multiple homers of 435 feet or more in a single game since Statcast started tracking them in 2015. He joined Josh Bell (May 14, 2019) and Jung Ho Kang (Aug. 22, 2015).

“I guess it’s just positive things happen when you connect with the baseball,” Alford said. “It felt good today. Felt good in the box. It just felt good having good at-bats.

“I think the key for it is confidence now. I’m confident. I was comfortable up here in the beginning. I just faced some adversity, went down to Triple-A and I was able to make some adjustments and build that confidence up and really just believe in myself.”

The Cubs took a 6-5 lead when Schwindel hit Miller’s 3-0 fastball over the middle of the plate for a one-out home run. Their bullpen protected it, as Trevor Megill (1-0), Codi Heuer and Rowan Wick combined for seven strikeouts without a hit or a walk, with Wick striking out the side in the ninth for his second save.

“This team has shown a lot of fight,” Alford said. “We’ve competed from the first inning to the ninth inning. Sometimes, we just fall short.”