Rookie lefty Jordan Wicks records 9 strikeouts in debut as Cubs cruise past Pirates

The Chicago Cubs promoted top-10 prospect Jordan Wicks to make his major league debut Saturday night, only for the Pittsburgh Pirates to give him a wicked welcome to the show.

Before Wicks knew what hit him, Ke’Bryan Hayes sent his second pitch into the left field seats for a home run, Bryan Reynolds hit his third pitch to center for a single and Andrew McCutchen drew a five-pitch walk.

Then Wicks punched back. The rookie left-hander retired the next 15 batters, striking out five in a row and nine total, as the Cubs built a seven-run lead.

Once Wicks came out, the Pirates rallied for five runs in the seventh inning before the Cubs cruised to a 10-6 win Saturday night before a SkyBlast crowd of 34,782 at PNC Park.

“He had his changeup working, was putting it in the right locations, made good pitches and, for a lot of us, it was the first time seeing it,” Pirates outfielder Joshua Palacios said. “So tip your cap and go back, watch some video and try to make some adjustments.”

Before the game, the Pirates honored the four inductees into their second Hall of Fame class — ElRoy Face, Kent Tekulve and the late Bob Friend and Dick Groat — and celebrated with a ceremony on the field.

Rookie right-handed reliever Colin Selby got his first major league start, striking out the first two batters he faced in getting Mike Tauchman and Dansby Swanson swinging before Ian Happ flied out to left.

“It was different,” said Selby, adding that it was his first start since Double-A. “Just trying to keep the team in the game early and get outs efficiently. Just try and go as long as they would allow me.”

Wicks got behind fast when Hayes drove a 1-0 fastball 384 feet inside the left-field foul pole for his 10th home run and a 1-0 lead. It was the second leadoff homer of the season for Hayes, who did so on April 15 at St. Louis. With Reynolds and McCutchen on base, Wicks recovered by striking out Connor Joe, Endy Rodriguez and Palacios on changeups in succession to prevent further damage.

It was a dazzling debut for Wicks, a 2021 first-round pick who is ranked the Cubs’ No. 10 prospect by MLB Pipeline. He threw 47 of his 80 pitches for strikes, relying primarily on a changeup that accounted for nine of his 13 whiffs.

“We got early on the fastball, then he went changeup-cutter,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “The changeup we knew coming in was a good pitch. It’s what made him a little bit reversed, but the changeup has a ton of down action to it, and he did a nice job with it.”

Selby recorded three strikeouts in two perfect innings before giving way to Osvaldo Bido in the third. That’s when things fell apart for the Pirates. In a 35-pitch inning, Bido gave up four walks — twice on full counts with the bases loaded — as the Cubs took a 2-1 lead. Cody Bellinger made it 3-1, scoring Tauchman on a sharp grounder to second baseman Liover Peguero, who lost a double-play opportunity when he dropped the ball.

“He just didn’t have the command we’ve seen him have previously,” Shelton said of Bido (2-5).

The Cubs padded their lead in the fifth, scoring five runs on six hits. Tauchman singled, Swanson walked and both scored on Happ’s double down the right-field line to make it 5-1. Bellinger hit a liner to center to drive in Happ for a five-run edge. Seiya Suzuki hit a fly ball toward the North Side Notch and over the outstretched glove of Reynolds for a triple and 7-1 lead.

Lefty Ryan Borucki replaced Bido, who allowed eight runs on five hits and five walks, and gave up an RBI single to Jeimer Candelario as the Cubs stretched their lead to seven runs.

The Pirates didn’t get another hit until the seventh, when they scored five runs on four hits and a walk against Cubs righty Hayden Wesneski.

Joe hit a leadoff single, raced to third on a Palacios liner to right and scored on Peguero’s sacrifice fly to center to cut it to 8-2. After Jack Suwinski drew a walk, Alika Williams hit a flare to left to drive in Palacios as the Pirates trimmed their deficit to five runs. Hayes singled to right to score Suwinski to make it 8-4.

The Cubs turned to Mark Leiter Jr., but Reynolds hit a 2-1 splitter to right for a book-rule double to score Williams and Hayes. A seven-run deficit was reduced to two runs, with McCutchen coming to bat in search of his 300th career home run. Leiter got McCutchen swinging at a 1-2 splitter in the dirt to escape.

Leiter retired the Pirates in order in the eighth, and Suzuki hit a two-run double in the ninth as the Cubs increased their lead to 10-6. Daniel Palencia walked Suwinski and Hayes in the ninth, so with two outs the Cubs turned to Adbert Alzolay, who got Reynolds looking at a fastball for a called third strike to end the game for his 21st save.

“They continued to play,” Shelton said. “We had to play well defensively. Alika played about as well as you can play at short, made a lot of good plays. But, yeah, they kept going, kept fighting but we just came up short.”