PITTSBURGH — Michael Chavis had one loud hit that prevented a Pirates loss — a home run in the bottom of the eighth inning. A softer hit from Chavis in the bottom of the 10th brought home a walkoff win.
One that came with a scare at the end, as the Pirates celebrated an 8-7, 10-inning victory over the Cubs in muted fashion.
After Chavis’ bloop hit fell and Ke’Bryan Hayes slid into home plate, the Pirates third baseman was clearly uncomfortable — though he was called safe. Music played for a second, then was cut. Teammates and team staffers rushed onto the field to check on Hayes, who was eventually helped off the field.
The bigger issue, of course, is Hayes. But it is a big win for the Pirates, one that helps them take three of four in this series.
Some fine Pirates defense kept the Cubs scoreless in the top of the 10th inning, as Chavis threw home to Tyler Heineman, who tagged out third baseman Patrick Wisdom, a play that was challenged and ultimately upheld.
Just when it looked like the Pirates might cruise to an easy victory, a bumpy eighth inning disrupted those plans. With the Cubs facing a 6-2 deficit to start, Wisdom singled through the right side off Wil Crowe to bring home Chicago’s first run.
Crowe had pitched the inning before, and when he walked second baseman Jonathan Villar — the 10th plate appearance of Crowe’s outing — manager Derek Shelton turned to another reliever, although the one he chose was surprising.
Right-hander Yerry De Los Santos has pitched well but had just eight career MLB appearances before Thursday. Shelton had gone to David Bednar in similar situations before but chose not to on Thursday.
Nevertheless, De Los Santos was in the thick of things when he entered the game — and did not fare terribly well. The first batter De Los Santos faced was shortstop Nico Hoerner, who drilled an elevated slider back up the middle, scoring two to make it a 6-5 game.
A walk to pinch-hitter Rafael Ortega followed before De Los Santos gave up another single, this one coming on a well-placed, 0-2 slider to pinch-hitter Alfonso Rivas, who shot the ball back up the middle past a diving Diego Castillo.
That scored two and put Chicago in front, 7-6, before Chavis tied the game at 7 in the bottom of the eighth with a solo homer.
The Pirates first baseman tends to handle high pitches well, and Chavis did it again with a slider from Cubs reliever David Robertson in the upper portion of the zone, cranking it 410 feet to center field.
Chavis’ homer was the third for the Pirates on the afternoon after Hayes and Bryan Reynolds went deep in the same game for the first time in their careers.
Hayes gave the Pirates a 3-2 lead in the third when he pulled a slider over the fence in left-center for a two-run shot.
Reynolds opened the scoring with a solo homer in the first inning. It represented his 200th career RBI. Reynolds’ 12th of the season happened when he launched a fastball to center field. After a slow start, he’s now on pace for a career-high 29 home runs this season.
If those two weren’t entertaining enough, Oneil Cruz put his sizable hand in the pile during a terrific run in the bottom of the sixth and top of the seventh.
With the Pirates looking to build on a 4-2 lead — they scored their fourth run when the Cubs made two of their four errors — Cruz lashed a low fastball 106.2 mph off the center-field wall for a run-scoring double, the ball making a loud “thump” sound as it hit the padding.
That gave Cruz RBIs in each of his first six MLB games, a feat that has only happened twice in baseball history and not since George Shuba did it with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1948. With 10 total RBIs through his first six games, nobody in MLB history has more.
Tyler Heineman extended the Pirates’ lead to 6-1 with his second hit of the game, a line-drive single into center field that scored Cruz, the big man booking it and sliding safely into home with ease.
It was pretty but not as gorgeous as what followed in the top of the seventh, when Cruz made another spectacular defensive play. Cruz ranged to his left and dove to snare a ground ball off the bat of right fielder Nelson Velazquez.
Although he’s obviously gigantic, Cruz had no problem quickly hopping to his feet and delivering a strike across the diamond for the out.
Buried beneath a bunch of other stuff that happened in this game, Jose Quintana pitched well for the Pirates. Having allowed 11 earned runs over 13 2/3 innings in his past three starts, the veteran left-hander gave the Pirates six innings of two-run ball, striking out six while picking up his third quality start of the season.
Shelton lifted Quintana in favor of Crowe after just 83 pitches.
