Monday, May 28, 2012
Associated Press
pittsburgh
Andrew McCutchen and the Pittsburgh Pirates can relate to what the Chicago Cubs are going through.
Perhaps more than anyone, they know what it feels like to be on an extended losing streak — 12 in a row, in the Cubs’ case.
The Pirates used that to their advantage Sunday.
McCutchen, Pedro Alvarez and Garrett Jones homered, Erik Bedard pitched six shutout innings and the Pirates won 10-4, extending the Cubs’ longest skid in 15 years.
Since McCutchen made his major league debut in June 2009, Pittsburgh has had 18 losing streaks of at least five games. The Pirates dropped 12 in a row during their 105-loss 2010 season.
“We’ve been there before, we know how it feels, so we knew if we were able to get on the board early, we pretty much would have them,” McCutchen said. “Just because we’ve been there. When you’re [struggling], and then you’re down early, it kind of knocks the breath out of you.”
Alvarez hit a three-run homer in the first, giving Pittsburgh a lead it would never relinquish. A six-run sixth gave the Pirates a 10-0 lead before the Cubs scored all of their runs in the final two innings.
“Not only to not get results, but to feel like you are getting embarrassed, it is frustrating,” Cubs catcher Koyie Hill said.
This is the Cubs’ worst slide since they started out 0-14 in 1997. Few of their losses during this streak were wipeouts — six were by one run, including the first two games of this series.
Starlin Castro homered during a three-run eighth for Chicago, which had scored only two runs in its previous 33 innings.
“We didn’t score, again, off the starter, so that magnifies everything,” Cubs manager Dale Sveum said. “We didn’t muster up really anything today.”
Alvarez’s homer was Pittsburgh’s first this season with more than one man on. McCutchen added a solo shot in the fifth and Jones went deep to right with Neil Walker on in the fifth.