Joshua Palacios delivers pinch-hit, 3-run homer as Pirates beat Cubs to win series

Joshua Palacios has a flair for the dramatic, so the Pittsburgh Pirates had confidence he could come up with a big pinch hit in the ninth inning against the Chicago Cubs.

Palacios exceeded expectations.

After working a full count, Palacios blasted Julian Merryweather’s slider 384 feet to right field for a three-run home run that provided the cushion for an 8-6 victory Thursday night at Wrigley Field.

“I like playing in big moments,” Palacios said in an on-field interview with AT&T SportsNet. “This is why I play the game for, right here. This is what you dream about as a kid. Just get nice and comfortable and enjoy the moment.”

The Pirates (72-81) won the three-game series against the Cubs (79-74) and will play a three-game weekend series at the Cincinnati Reds (79-75), another NL Central rival fighting for a wild-card spot.

That gave the game a playoff atmosphere, as the Cubs rallied back against the Pirates’ bullpen after starter Johan Oviedo threw six scoreless innings despite allowing more walks (five) than hits (four).

The Cubs scored three runs against Colin Holderman in the eighth before Palacios delivered his heroics. Bryan Reynolds drew a leadoff walk and tried to score from first on a double off the left field wall by Ke’Bryan Hayes, but Nico Hoerner’s relay throw to Cubs catcher Yan Gomes at home beat Reynolds to the plate.

Hayes was nearly caught in a rundown before Mastrobuoni made an errant throw, allowing Hayes to reach third. Suwinski drew a full-count walk. Palacios completed the seven-pitch at-bat with his 10th homer, the second consecutive game he hit a three-run shot.

“I was just hoping he would get the ball in the air so we could get the runner home,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said on the AT&T SportsNet postgame show. “Then he got the breaking ball that hung. He’s done an unbelievable job all year long pinch-hitting. It’s not an easy thing to do. He’s seemed to have a pretty good knack for it.”

The Pirates had to withstand another Cubs rally in the ninth. Dansby Swanson hit a two-run homer off All-Star closer David Bednar, who responded by getting Seiya Suzuki looking at a called third strike, Christopher Morel swinging and Gomes to fly out to Palacios in right for the final out.

“The Cubs are a good team. Their offense is good, and they showed it tonight, in terms of how they continued to go,” Shelton said. “The crowd fuels them here. They get one runner on and it gets pretty loud. Our guys did not bend. They kept going.”

Miguel Andujar went 3 for 4 with three RBIs as the Pirates took an early three-run lead. Andujar is batting .368 (14 for 38) with four doubles and 10 RBIs in a dozen games since being recalled from Triple-A Indianapolis on Sept. 1. Counting his statistics in the minors, where he had 86 RBIs, Andujar surpassed the 100-RBI mark for the season.

After stranding one runner in the first and two in the second, the Pirates didn’t waste a scoring opportunity in the third. Connor Joe (3 for 5) hit a leadoff single and advanced to second when Swanson bobbled a grounder up the middle by Reynolds. Suwinski grounded into a forceout at second, but Reynolds slid to break up the double-play turn. With two outs and two strikes, Andujar doubled to right-center to score both Joe and Suwinski for a 2-0 Pirates lead.

Oviedo got into trouble in the bottom of the third, when Mike Tauchman singled and Nico Hoerner and Cody Bellinger drew walks to load the bases with two outs. Endy Rodriguez visited the mound to talk with Oviedo, who responded with three consecutive fastballs to get Swanson swinging for a strikeout to escape the jam.

“After he put himself in the jams, he was able to execute pitches,” Shelton said. “Two of the biggest jams he got in, Endy went out and had really good visits. That’s important. That’s a really good sign of a young catcher, knowing the time to go out. After both of those visits, he was able to execute pitches. I don’t know what was said, but it was a real big growth moment for Endy.”

Oviedo kept the Cubs scoreless in the fourth. After walking Gomes and giving up a single to Mike Mastrobuoni to put runners on first and third with two outs, Oviedo got Tauchman to ground out to short.

Andujar extended the Pirates’ lead in the fifth with an RBI single. After Hayes doubled to right-center and advanced to third on Suwinski’s single to right, Andujar hit a fly ball to left field that a sliding Ian Happ had in the heel of his glove before it bounced out. Hayes scored to give the Pirates a 3-0 lead.

After going 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position against Oviedo, the Cubs finally scored off Colin Selby in the seventh. Happ singled to center, advanced to second on a wild pitch and to third on a groundout before scoring on Swanson’s single to left to cut it to 3-1.

The Pirates answered with a pair of runs to make it 5-1. Jared Triolo drew a leadoff walk and scored on a hit-and-run when Ji Hwan Bae hit a sharp grounder down the first base line for a triple. Joe followed with a single to center to drive in Bae but was thrown out when he slid past second base and was tagged out.

They would need the insurance, as the Cubs rallied against Colin Holderman in the eighth. Gomes drew a full-count walk, reached second on Mastobuoni’s single to left and scored on Tauchman’s single to center to cut it to 5-2.

The Cubs made it a one-run game when Mastrobuoni scored when Holderman threw a wild pitch and Tauchman scored on Hoerner’s groundout to short. The Pirates brought in lefty Ryan Borucki to get Happ to fly out to center for the final out of the inning.

“We’re seeing that there’s not a lot of fear there,” Shelton said. “This is a playoff-type atmosphere. The crowd was into the game. They got back in the game, just because the Cubs kept punching back. I think you saw from our young players, they continued to go, continued to play, continued to execute and it was fun to watch.”