Javier Baez, Cubs cruise past error-prone Pirates

The Pittsburgh Pirates took one step toward strengthening their starting rotation when Joe Musgrove was activated off the injured list and pitched in a major league game for the first time in almost a month.

The Pirates took a step toward bolstering their bullpen when they scratched Derek Holland from his start against the Chicago Cubs, using the veteran lefty instead as a middle reliever.

But it is the missteps that proved costly.

Reliever Nick Tropeano replaced Musgrove, and Javier Baez drilled his first pitch into the left-field seats for a three-run home run to lead the Cubs to a 8-2 victory over the error-prone Pirates on Wednesday night at PNC Park. The Pirates (10-24) committed three errors and also had a catch overturned on a challenge.

“We cannot give teams extra outs and extra bases, especially a team that’s the best team record-wise in our division,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “We have to continue to work on it, we have to continue to make adjustments. (It) was sloppy. We’ve got to be better than that.”

Before the game started, the Pirates and Cubs endured a 71-minute rain delay, their second of the same span in as many days.Musgrove (0-4), who was out with right triceps and right ankle injuries, returned to the mound for the first time since Aug. 4 and allowed two runs on three hits with four strikeouts on 46 pitches.

“I thought his stuff looked really sharp,” Shelton said. “The one thing that really stood out was the sharpness in the breaking ball. It was really sharp, for a guy who’s missed a month. We were only going to get him to 50 pitches, so we weren’t going to extend him past that on Baez, even though he’s got really good numbers against Baez. We knew that, but we were strictly going to stay where we were at.”

Musgrove gave up a leadoff double to Mt. Lebanon’s Ian Happ, then retired the next nine batters. Through the first three innings, Musgrove threw 29 of his 37 pitches for strikes, with five groundouts and four strikeouts.

“That was one of my main priorities, was to get myself healthy and get myself to where I can go out there and throw without hesitation. That’s how it felt,” Musgrove said. “The biggest thing for me was the ability to feel confident in my fastball again. It wasn’t 95 or 96 that I was hoping for, but the spin on the ball and the life and everything felt good … whether it was 90 or 95, it felt like it was playing the same.”

Colin Moran gave Musgrove a cushion by hitting Kyle Hendricks’ 3-2 four-seamer 450 feet to center for his seventh home run and a 1-0 lead in the second inning. By the fourth, Musgrove started to wear down, as the velocity on his fastball dipped from 94 mph to 90. After he allowed a single to Willson Contreras and a double to Anthony Rizzo, the Pirates pulled Musgrove, who allowed two runs on three hits with four strikeouts and no walks.

Javier Baez sent Tropeano’s first pitch 443 feet to left for a 3-1 lead. Tropeano gave up a two-out double to Cameron Maybin and walked David Bote, and the Cubs loaded the bases when catcher Jacob Stallings was called for catcher interference when Nico Hoerner’s swing hit his glove. Tropeano got out of the jam by getting Happ to pop out to third.

Holland replaced him for the fifth, and the stadium’s loudspeakers played the Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood theme song, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” while he warmed up. Holland paid tribute to Rogers and the children’s television show with sky-blue custom spikes.

After cruising for two innings, Holland ran into trouble in the seventh. He surrendered singles to Nico Hoerner and Contreras, then Anthony Rizzo ripped a two-RBI single to right for a 5-1 lead.

It only got worse from there, as Rizzo reached second on a balk and went to third when first baseman Colin Moran missed a Baez pop fly in shallow right. Holland recovered to strike out Steven Souza Jr. and force Jose Martinez to hit into a fielder’s choice, but the Pirates faced a four-run deficit.

Hendricks (4-4) allowed one run on six hits and two walks with six strikeouts, including three of Ke’Bryan Hayes a day after his smashing debut. Ryan Tepera replaced Hendricks in the seventh and gave up a 428-foot blast to the visiting bullpen on a 1-1 cutter to Anthony Alford to cut it to 5-2.

Where Alford showed the power potential that caused the Pirates to claim him off waivers by the Toronto Blue Jays, he had a couple of mishaps in his first start in spacious left field. In the seventh, he was charged with an error when he threw to third on a Contreras single that allowed him to take second. Alford made a diving catch that appeared to end the eighth, but the Cubs challenged the call and video review showed the ball bouncing before going into his glove.

“Umm, I thought so,” Alford said of making the catch. “When I looked at the replay, I obviously didn’t. When I extended for it, I kind of turned my head. I kind of felt it go in my glove. I didn’t realize it hit the ground. After reviewing the play, it showed that it did. They made the right call.”

Contreras an RBI double for a 6-2 lead, and Kevin Newman’s error on Rizzo’s grounder to short allowed Contreras and Happ to score to give the Cubs an 8-2 lead. By throwing 83 pitches in five innings in relief, Holland was eliminated from starting the second game of Friday’s doubleheader with the Cincinnati Reds.

“I don’t know what we’ll do with the second game (on Friday) yet,” Shelton said. “Holland took the ball and I thought he was really good. He gave up some runs, but we didn’t catch a few balls that cost him pitches and cost him runs. That’s where we just have to be better.”