Cubs pound Pirates starter Jerad Eickhoff on way to blowout win

When the Pittsburgh Pirates needed a starting pitcher in a pinch, they turned to Jerad Eickhoff because the right-hander had 80 career starts over six major league seasons.

That it ended with Pirates second baseman Diego Castillo on the mound facing a Cubs pitcher in the ninth inning was indicative of how Eickhoff fared in his Pirates debut.

The Chicago Cubs pounded Eickhoff for 10 runs on 10 hits, including a pair of home runs, in a 14-5 win over the Pirates on Wednesday night before 14,083 at PNC Park.

The game lasted three hours and seven minutes, as the teams combined for eight runs on two hits, three walks, two hit batters and two errors in the ninth inning alone.

“It becomes a game within itself,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “That’s a very good way to put it.”

It was the sixth time this season the Pirates have allowed double-digit runs, and four of those have come against NL Central foes. The Cubs handed the Pirates their worst loss, 21-0, on April 23 at Wrigley Field. This one snapped the Pirates’ three-game winning streak.

Eickhoff surrendered a seven-run second inning but remained in the game for 4 1/3 innings, throwing 52 of his 83 pitches for strikes. He was hit hard, as the Cubs put 19 balls in play and had five hits with exit velocities of 101.5 mph or higher, per Statcast.

Not to mention that Eickhoff hit three batters.

“He ended up hitting two guys (in the second inning), which is definitely a bad break but a lot of it was execution,” Shelton said. “He just left too many balls up in the middle of the plate. When you leave them up and in the middle, they’re going to get hit, and that’s what happened.”

The Pirates stranded two runners in the first inning, when Bryan Reynolds hit a one-out triple to right field and Daniel Vogelbach drew a walk to put runners on the corners. Cubs starter Keegan Thompson escaped unscathed by getting Cal Mitchell swinging at a fastball.

After a 14-pitch first inning in which Eickhoff allowed a leadoff single to Rafael Ortega and hit Ian Happy with a pitch, he struggled in the second. A leadoff double by Jonathan Villar was followed by a Nico Hoerner single before Eickhoff hit Jason Heyward with a pitch to load the bases and hit Alfonso Rivas to score Villar for a 1-0 lead.

Ortega followed with a two-run double to right-center to give the Cubs a 3-0 advantage. Patrick Wisdom smoked a double to center for a 5-0 lead, and Happ drove Eickhoff’s first pitch 413 feet to dead center for his eighth home run for a 7-0 edge.

“It was just a weird inning, to say the least,” said Eickhoff, whose contract was selected from Triple-A Indianapolis before the game. “I have pretty good command, so when that happens, something’s just kind of off. Frustrating nonetheless. I’ve gotta be able to minimize and shut down the damage as soon as possible. I just wasn’t able to do that.”

The Pirates cut it to 7-1 in the bottom of the second when Castillo drove a 2-2 fastball 391 feet into the left field bleachers for his fifth home run. They got a break in the third, when Bligh Madris hit a double-play ball that Cubs second baseman Jonathan Villar bobbled for an error. Reynolds beat Villar’s throw to second and Madris reached first on a fielder’s choice, but the Vogelbach went down looking at a 2-2 fastball and Mitchell flew out to right.

Eickhoff served up a two-run homer in the fourth to Patrick Wisdom, whose 407-foot shot to straightaway center for his 14th of the season gave the Cubs a 9-1 lead. Villar led off the fifth with a triple to right and scored on Nico Hoerner’s sacrifice fly to right to make it 10-1.

Where Eickhoff’s start was disastrous, the Cubs got a quality start from Keegan Thompson (7-2). The right-hander allowed one run on four hits and one walk while striking out seven Pirates in six innings.

Pirates reliever Chase De Jong stopped the bleeding, retiring 10 of 12 batters before giving way in the ninth. With the four-game series finale scheduled to start at 12:35 p.m. Thursday, Shelton saved his bullpen by having Castillo pitch the ninth inning.

That saved our butts tonight. He went out, and I think he got through the first 2/3 of an inning in four pitches, and then he was able to throw 42.

Throwing pitches mostly in the 50-mph range, Castillo walked Nelson Velasquez and Andrelton Simmons, then hit Jason Heyward with a pitch to load the bases before giving up a grand slam to Rivas to make it 14-1.

It got so bad that after Ortega singled, the Cubs allowed relief pitcher David Robertson to bat against Castillo with two outs. Castillo got Robertson swinging to become the fifth Pirates position player since 1959 to record a strikeout.

Then it got even weirder for Castillo, who led off the bottom of the ninth against lefty Daniel Norris.

“I get in the dugout and I was so concentrated on pitching that I forgot I was up,” Castillo said. “I’m (living) in that moment so I was a little bit late. When they said, ‘Pitcher, No. 64, Diego Castillo,’ it was a little bit weird, but still gotta compete.”

The Pirates rallied against Norris, as Castillo reached on an error by third baseman P.J. Higgins, Yu Chang drew a full-count walk and Park was hit by a pitch to load the bases with one out. Higgins couldn’t handle Cruz’s chopper or Chang’s slider into third, allowing Castillo to score to cut it to 14-2. Bligh Madris smacked a two-out, bases-clearing double to center to make it 14-5.

“We always say the same thing: We play until out 27. With 26 outs, you still can win,” Castillo said. “Still fighting, still competing in the ninth with two outs. That’s what we always talk about here in the clubhouse. We’re going to fight all the time.”