Cubs win finale against Pittsburgh, 9-6

PITTSBURGH Asked recently about wanting to earn homefield advantage in the playoffs, New York Mets manager Terry Collins said, “It beats facing those two animals out there in the shadows.” He was referring to Los Angeles Dodgers Cy Young candidates Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw, the next two pitchers on the Pirates’ schedule, and he was referring to Dodger Stadium, where the Pirates begin a three-game series Friday night.

“You just got to go out there and play,” Pedro Alvarez said. “Doesn’t matter who’s throwing on the mound, doesn’t matter who we’re playing. We just have to go out there and try to play our best baseball.”

After losing a poorly pitched game, 9-6, to the Chicago Cubs on Thursday at PNC Park, the Pirates will have to go through Greinke and Kershaw next as they attempt to hold off the Cubs and catch the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cubs are two games back of the Pirates in the wild-card standings, an important distinction: The wild-card team with the best record plays host to the one-game playoff, and the Pirates would prefer to play it at PNC Park instead of Wrigley Field.

“They’re just like any other guys, man,” Neil Walker said of Greinke and Kershaw. “Obviously, they’ve had a lot more success. It’s no different from (Jon) Lester and (Jake) Arrieta here.”

They might have to proceed, for the time being at least, without Jung Ho Kang, who left the game Thursday because of an injury to his left knee.

With the bases loaded and nobody out in the first inning, Anthony Rizzo grounded to second. Walker threw to Kang at second to start a double play. As Kang planted his left leg and threw to first, Chris Coghlan, attempting to break up the double play, slid hard into Kang’s left knee, buckling it slightly.

Kang, who is in his first major league season after the Pirates signed him out of the Korea Baseball Organization, has been one of the Pirates’ most productive players this season, hitting .287 with a .355 on-base percentage and 15 home runs in 467 plate appearances.

The Pirates got three home runs, one each from Alvarez, Travis Snider and Gregory Polanco and scored two runs in the seventh to pull within three. But a poor start by Charlie Morton, defensive mistakes and ineffective relief pitching rendered the homers irrelevant.

Morton (9-8) allowed six runs, five earned, in four-plus innings. He wasn’t fooling the Cubs, who hit everything hard. Morton gave up five extra-base hits.

“That was just bad pitching,” Morton said. “It wasn’t like they were hitting really good pitches, and I just didn’t get out of it. They were just bad pitches.”

The Cubs already had three runs off Morton before scoring six runs in the fifth. Coghlan doubled and Rizzo homered on a down-and-in changeup.

“My changeup’s been a pretty good go-to pitch for me, and (Thursday) it was just terrible,” Morton said. “I wasn’t consistent with my fastball location and my curveball, I wasn’t throwing for strikes.”

Then, Kris Bryant singled, ending Morton’s outing.

Alvarez’s error put runners on the corners and Addison Russell drove in one run with a single. A passed ball moved the runners into scoring position, meaning reliever Clayton Richard, batting because Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks left the game after giving up four runs and three homers in three innings, didn’t have to bunt. Richard, who started the year in the Pirates minor league system, doubled, and both runners scored.

Tommy La Stella’s single drove in another run and drove Blanton from the game after he allowed three runs, two earned, without recording an out.

“We continue to get in our way,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. “We got in our way on the bases, we got in our way on the field, we missed execution off the mound. We didn’t play a very good game. We’ve been outplayed these last three games.”

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