While nobody would confuse Mitch Keller with his teammates, Paul Skenes and Jared Jones, he was equally effective in defeating the Cubs 3-2 yesterday. His fastball did touch 96mph a few times, he held the Cubs to only two hits in 6 innings of work. He did hit two batters, Christopher Morel (0-1, RBI SF) and Seiya Suzuki (0-1 RBI SF and run).

Heading into the game, Keller averaged 6+ innings in each of his starts, including a recent, 9-inning complete game. Former Pirate, 1st round pick, Jameson Taillon pitched somewhat effectively if not inefficiently against his former team. His 92 pitches in only 4.2 innings were greatly impacted by some shoddy fielding by the Cubs trio of Morel, Mastrobuoni, and Madrigal.

I think the pregame crowd hovering around the park was anticipatory, if only of a split against the anemic Pirate offense. While they would outproduce the underwhelming Cubs over the weekend, the team lacks any pop or punch.

With my StubHub ticket securely locked on my phone, I surveyed the forever changing Wrigleyville scene for a few minutes before settling into Mexican Burrito for a quick lunch. As is always the case, the usual assortment of first timers took the requisite photos in front of the usual landmarks. However, the usual weekend vibe was missing.

The biggest cheer of the afternoon was for newcomer stud pitcher, Shota Imanaga when he went out to the bullpen before the game.

My expectations for a good pitching matchup were somewhat muted by some pathetic hitting and both teams’ inability to take advantage of weak catching, increased base size and winds that intermittently blew in and out all afternoon. Both teams played and batted as if it were a hitter’s day.

Taft H.S product, Jack Suwinski, got the ball rolling for the Pirates with a solo homer in the second inning. The other local kid, Mike Tauchman, a Fremd H.S grad responded with a triple into right and scored on a Suzuki sac fly. The aforementioned iffy infield defense was a problem for Taillon all day and would have resulted in more runs were it not for burly first baseman, Rowdy Tellez-who grounded into two rally-killing double plays. Coincidentally, Counsell has been the only manager able to coax a respectable power display out of Tellez. To date, he’s only hitting .181 with one homer and 8 RBI. Second baseman, and former 1st round pick, Nick Gonzales drove in two runs (charged to Taillon) with a 5th inning single off reliever Hayden Wesneski.

As has been the entire series, the Cubs couldn’t muster much against the Pirates but did manage one more run in the 6th on a leadoff hit batter, (Suzuki) and Cody Bellinger double. What followed was three successive fly outs, the first resulting in a run.

Rookie Ben Brown followed Wesneski with 2 innings of one-hit, 3 strikeout, shutout relief before giving way to Luke Little. Unfortunately for the Cubs, Pittsburgh’s bullpen was up to the task. Colin Holderman, Aroldis Chapman and David Bednar shut down the Cubs on one dramatic walk and 4 strikeouts over the last three innings.

Pictured Ben Brown.

As I moved around the ballpark to execute a quick exit, the Cubs sort of mounted a two-out rally in the bottom of the ninth. Michael Busch walked and was immediately replaced by the speedier, Pete Crow-Armstrong, who immediately stole second. Unfortunately, pinch-hitter Patrick Wisdom hit a routine fly ball to right to end the game and the series.

Patrick Wisdom flying out to end the game, from my view on the lower aisle.

Maybe the perfect weather and relative speed of the game (2:45) dulled the Cubs fans senses because I didn’t sense or hear the usual postgame loss moans and groans.

Other than the Cubs infield woes and some extended innings, it was a well-played game under the perfect conditions.