LDN - Sports

Jaso's cycle powers Pirates past Cubs, Arrieta

[September 29, 2016] PITTSBURGH -- The Pittsburgh Pirates once couldn't have hit for the cycle against Jake Arrieta in a week's worth of starts against him. John Jaso did it in a single night.

Jaso became the first player to hit for the cycle in PNC Park, driving in five runs with a three-run homer, triple, double and a single as the Pirates beat up on Arrieta -- their longtime nemesis -- and the Chicago Cubs 8-4 on Wednesday night.

Rookie right-hander Jameson Taillon (5-4), who began the season in the minors but ends it as the Pirates' emerging staff ace, limited the Cubs to one hit -- Anthony Rizzo's home run in the first inning -- while striking out four and walking three in six strong innings.

"I know we're out of it (the playoffs)," Taillon said a night after the Pirates were eliminated from the postseason. "But I wanted to show them I'm here."

So did Jaso -- who, in a bit of a quirk, became only the second player in major league history to hit for the cycle and catch a perfect game. Jaso caught a Felix Hernandez perfect game for Seattle in 2012.

"When you have a season and don't make it to the playoffs, there are these little moments during the season that you don't want to forget about," Jaso said. "You don't want to take it for granted being here."

The Pirates -- beating the Cubs for only the fourth time in 18 games -- had only 13 earned runs in their first 12 starts against Arrieta, last season's National League Cy Young Award winner, only to score at least six runs against him for the third straight start.

Arrieta (18-8) left after giving up 10 hits and seven runs in his final start before the postseason, raising his ERA from 2.85 to 3.10. Jaso did much of the damage with his homer in the fourth and an RBI double an inning later. Jaso went 4-for-4 and scored two runs.

Arrieta seemed out of sorts from the start with home plate umpire Chris Guccione's ball-strike calls and a constant shuffling of a Cubs lineup in which manager Joe Maddon used 20 players.

"It felt like a spring training game from the get-go, I just wasn't crisp and didn't have much working," Arrieta said. "The feeling of the game from the first pitch just wasn't there, switching catchers (in the fifth inning) felt like we were trying to do too much instead of win a ballgame. But I didn't throw well, (there's) no way around it."

Maddon wasn't worried that Arrieta didn't pitch well in his final start before the playoffs, saying, "It was kind of weird, I thought he had a great delivery, throwing strikes, his stuff looked good but he looked out of sorts. ... He was upset with the umpire, and I don't know how much that had to do with it."

The Cubs, down by 7-1, scored three times in the seventh against three relievers on a walk, a hit batter, third baseman David Freese's throwing error and Tommy La Stella's two-run single.

But the Pirates got a run back in their half of the inning on Jaso's final hit, a triple to center in which he initially stopped at second but then ran hard to third to complete his cycle -- the first by a Pirates player since Daryle Ward in St. Louis on May 26, 2004.

The Cubs lost for only the second time in nine games.

Arrieta wasn't the pitcher he was in shutting the Pirates out for eighth innings in the NL wild-card game in Pittsburgh last season -- or when he beat them 2-0 with seven shutout innings on May 3 or 6-0 with six shutout innings on June 17.

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Cubs starting pitcher Jake Arrieta (49) delivers a pitch to Pittsburgh Pirates center fielder Andrew McCutchen (22) during the first inning at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Arrieta gave up a combined 12 runs in July 8 and Aug. 29 starts, and he literally couldn't get Jaso out.

With the score tied at 1 in the fourth, Arrieta hit Matt Joyce with a pitch and Sean Rodriguez singled before Jaso powered a thigh-high curveball just outside the strike zone into the right-field seats for his seventh homer of the season.

"He hung it and I did what you're supposed to with that ball," Jaso said.

Cubs left fielder Chris Coghlan ran hard into the wall trying to run down Rodriguez's double and left the game with a mildly sprained left ankle.

An inning later, Arrieta was hurt by the extra-base hit again. He retired the first two batters, but Rodriguez, Jaso and Freese doubled in succession, giving Jaso four RBIs and the Pirates a 6-1 lead.

The Cubs, who won the first two games of the four-game series, had taken a 1-0 lead in the first on Rizzo's 32nd homer of the season, a drive off Taillon that just reached the first row of the right-field seats.

The Pirates tied it in their half of the inning on a double play grounder after Adam Frazier and Josh Bell each singled.

NOTES: With the Pirates officially eliminated from the postseason for the first time since 2012, OF Gregory Polanco, OF Starling Marte, 3B Jung Ho Kang, SS Jordy Mercer and C Francisco Cervelli were left out of the starting lineup. ... Cubs general manager Theo Epstein agreed to a five-year contract worth a reported $50 million. The deal was worked out over four meetings during the summer and was formalized last weekend. ... The Pirates will play exhibition games against the Toronto Blue Jays at Olympic Stadium in Montreal on March 31 and April 1, 2017. ... Pirates C Elias Diaz (left leg infection) will resume working out next month and expects to begin playing winter ball in November. ... LHP Rob Zastryzny, the Cubs' second-round pick in 2013, makes his first major league start Thursday. He has a 1-0 record and a 1.46 ERA in seven relief appearances since joining the team Aug. 19, striking out 13 and walking three. He has pitched only three times this month.

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