Field Level Media
Jul 3, 2019
Corey Dickerson's sacrifice fly produced the winning run in the ninth inning Wednesday as the Pittsburgh Pirates edged the visiting Chicago Cubs 6-5.
Trailing 5-4 against Craig Kimbrel (0-1), who was making his third appearance for the Cubs, Elias Diaz walked with one out in the ninth and went to third on Jung Ho Kang's double that went off right fielder Willson Contreras' glove. Diaz was safe at home on Adam Frazier's grounder to second for a 5-5 tie. Kang scored on Dickerson's fly to left.
Josh Bell hit an RBI double and a solo homer, and Melky Cabrera hit a two-run homer for Pittsburgh, which has won six of eight.
Victor Caratini homered twice, and Javier Baez hit one for Chicago, which has lost four straight.
Pittsburgh starter Chris Archer went five innings, giving up three runs and five hits, and totaled eight strikeouts and three walks.
Richard Rodriguez (3-3) pitched a scoreless top of the ninth to earn the win.
Chicago starter Yu Darvish, who has not won since April 27, gave up four runs and seven hits in 6 2/3 innings, and registered six strikeouts and no walks.
Chicago took a 1-0 lead in the second on Caratini's one-out homer, his third.
The Cubs upped it to 2-0 in the fourth. Contreras drew a leadoff walk. An out later, David Bote walked. Addison Russell followed with an RBI single to left.
In the bottom of the fourth, Starling Marte doubled and scored on Bell's double, his major-league-leading 30th, to make it 2-1. Cabrera followed with his fifth homer, to right-center, to give the Pirates a 3-2 lead.
Baez tied it with a one-out homer, his 22nd, in the fifth.
Bell blasted his 26th homer with one out in the sixth to give Pittsburgh a 4-3 lead. That gave Bell a National League record with 59 extra-base hits before the All-Star break. Albert Pujols had 58 in 2003.
Against reliever Francisco Liriano in the seventh, Contreras reached and gained second base on Kang's throwing error from third. Caratini followed with his second homer of the game to put Chicago back on top 5-4.
--Field Level Media