Cubs vs. Pirates Game Highlights (5/28/26) | MLB Highlights

Cubs an opportunity to split the series here in the Steel City and plenty of fans here to hopefully see some more runs from the boys in blue. It's a finale between the Chicago Cubs and the Pittsburgh Pirates here at PNC Park. Here he is, the big man. 12th start of the season for Paul Skeens. Skeens making his 67th career start. Z-R-A on the season and even 3. His career earned run average 2.13. He'll be making his 8th career start against the Cubs. Struck him out looking and P.C.A. Miller. That was 99 miles an hour to me. So two gone for Michael Bush. That 1-2 pitch. Wants to be a star. Struck him out. That's what we figured we'd get from Skeens to start things out. 1-2-3. Well here comes the big ready Colin Ray. He went to season high seven inning Saturday against the Astros. Ground ball rate is up significantly over last year. Gets him looking. Strike three called a beautiful off speed delivery. Strike out for Colin Ray. Now Reynolds. The other way for Reynolds. Diving try but it gets past Happ into the corner. Reynolds will have a double. He's got a six game hitting streak. He's on fire these days. It's been very impressive. Going to opposite field once again. Ian Happ got a nice jump on that ball. He thought when Ian Happ gets a good jump he usually ends up in his glove. But that one just evaded him with that left hand tail from Brian Reynolds. Just ran away from the glove of Ian Happ. They walk Cruz to get to Jostensen Garcia. Neutralizes Jostensen Garcia. Strikes him out. Two K's. Nothing nothing. Let's see if Alex Bregman can get on. He's got a seven game hitting streak. Swing and a miss out in front of that sweeper. And three out of four have been struck out by Skeens. He's really sharp tonight. Here's Ian Happ. One of the hitting heroes last night. Wow. Skeens has struck out four of the first five Cubs. Two outs in the second. Now it's just an explosive 98 mile per hour fastball. Here's Suzuki. Swing and a miss out in front of the sweeper. Skeens strikes out the side. He has fanned five of the first six batters he's faced tonight. Two outs for Jared Triolo starting it short tonight. He's swinging a miss. Strike three and that's out number three. Nice job by Ray. He was behind three and O came back to strike out. Jared Triolo. Paul Skeens has been remarkable yet again. Struck out the side in the second. Five of the first six Cubs have been struck out. Here's Moises Ballesteros. One-two pitch. Oh my goodness. Oh boy. Six Ks and five in a row for Skeens. Another high fastball above the zone. They got to chase it Ballesteros. Nothing nothing game. And the third in the batter is Miguel Amaya. Swing and a miss. Struck him out. Six in a row struck out by Paul Skeens. It's been impressive. I mean he can do it like we said in all different types of ways. Now if Pete can get one of these sliders coming into him that's down. Pete could do some damage. Pop up shallow left field. Triolo can't hang on. Garcia fires to second. He's out there. As Swanson was trying to score on the throw. The password guns it to second. That'll be the final out of the third. Triolo can't hang on. Garcia gets the job done. As PCA is thrown out. Lau applies the tag. A walk and a hit batter here who put two on for the Pirates. Cruz drew a walk back in the first. Nice pitch. Fly ball deep to left field. Pats goes around shy of the track. Makes the catch. Nice job Colin Ray. First and second one out. Strands him both. So that'll be the second walk allowed by Skeens. Bregman will come to bat with a man on. Swing and a high. Fly ball left of center. Cruz moving over. And he'll take care of that for the second out. Here's Ian Happ who struck out his first time. Good bat. Hits off of Skeens. He goes back. He bare hands no throw. As a general rule of thumb. If you're a pitcher and there's a comebacker that you feel like you have to play with your bare hand. Absolutely leave it alone. If you can glove it comfortably go ahead and make a play. Seah Suzuki. Hitting 1-0-2 with runners in scoring position. That's the second lowest batting average with runners in scoring position in all of baseball. Wide drive. Shallow left field. It's a base hit for Seah Suzuki. Michael Bush routes third. It scores. And the Cubs strike first. Seah Suzuki. RBI single. 1-0. Cubs lead to the fourth. Clutch RBI single by Seah Suzuki. And the Cubs lead 1-0. Well a little inside breaking ball from Skeens. He wants this ball away and it doesn't get away. It stays inside and Seah hits this ball right over the shortstop Triolo's head. And in the short left field he drives into Cubs first run. Happer easily with two outs goes first to third. And now Ballesteros. Swing and a pop up. Right along the first baseline. Horwitz underneath it. And he'll make the catch to end the inning. So the Cubs with an infield hit. A little flare and a walk. And they'll pick up a run on two hits. Two left. Cubs one. Pirates nothing. Miguel Amaya to lead it off. Swing and a miss. Amaya down on strikes again. And that's Skeens' eighth strikeout tonight. Two shy of a season high. Three shy of his career most. Dansby Swanson walked in the third. Swing and a miss. Struck him out on the change. Nine strikeouts for Paul Skeens of the Pirates. And only Nico Horner unscathed. Pete Crow Armstrong is coming up. Swing and a miss. He struck him out. Down and away. Change up. Ten strikeouts for Skeens. And he'll walk off the mound with a wry smile. He's in control tonight. Henry Davis will lead it off for the Pirates here in the bottom of the fifth. Call. Strike three. Slow moving front door breaking ball that apparently just clipped the inside edge near the top of the zone. Davis was not happy with the call. One away. Two up and two down in the Pirates' fifth. Brandon Lau has struck out and been hit with a pitch. To two from right. Swing and a miss. Strike three. Brandon Lau strikes out. Swing and Colin Wray. One, two, three. Fifty from five scoreless frames. Bush gets the walk. And the batter is Alex Bregman. Bouncing ball slowly toward third. Charging. Picking is Callahan. Low throw. Not able to be dug out at first. Everybody is safe. Horowitz could not dig out the low throw by Callahan. It might go as a base hit. It was not a routine play at all. Safe at second is Bush. As Ian Happ comes up. Happ taps one over the mound. Charging the shortstop. He will throw to first. And he throws the ball away. The Cubs are going to get a run. Bush scores. Bregman goes to third. Everybody is safe. Happ is safe at first. Triola, the shortstop, gloved it and made a running throw low when it got past Horowitz. The Cubs lead two to nothing. Big break. After back-to-back errors and a walk, Skeens will get a round of applause. Mason Montgomery, the lefty, coming out in relief for Skeens. Yeah, Mason Montgomery, that hard-throwing lefty that he is. And he's looking to get that ground ball here against Seah Suzuki. Bounder to short. Triola fields. Looks a second to one over. It's close. And he's safe. He legged it out. It scores a run. Great hustle by Seah. And it's three to nothing, Cubs. Kevin Alcantara, a right-handed batter, will bat for Ballesteros. And Alcantara could not hold up. Strike three. And Montgomery allows one of the two inherited runners to score. So, in the inning for the Cubs, two runs on one infield single, two errors, and a man left. Two strikes on Reynolds. Had a double today. One of the Pirates. Two hits off Colin Ray. Swing and a deep drive to right. And Brian Reynolds has hit one of the seats in right field. And he'll get them back up and live again. Reynolds with home run number five. And the Pirates are on the board. It's three to one. Yeah, really nice job. Brian Reynolds on a 0-2 count. A line drive. You see Brian Reynolds coming back, using the opposite field. Had a couple doubles earlier yesterday. And bringing himself back into a place where he can barrel a ball, not miss a mistake. 93 miles per hour, right down the middle of the plate. And he beats the fans with it. The manager of the Chicago's are going to take Ray out of this game. Mel Hoby Milner enters the fray. 24 appearances, 24 and a third, a 2-5-9 ERA. Tyler Callaghan, his Pirates debut, traded over from the Reds this spring. Swing, fly ball, right center and deep. This one's headed toward the wall. And just off the glove of Suzuki, a round third. Garcia is going to come in to score. How about Tyler Callaghan? Welcome to Pittsburgh. RBI double. It's three to two. Oh, what a beautiful at bat that was for Tyler Callaghan. Battle with two strikes against a tough left-on-left matchup. That was a great effort by Suzuki just to get glove on that ball. But I thought he had really smoked that ball. I really thought Suzuki was going to make that play. I was watching him perfectly run route to the ball. It just went off the tip of his glove. It was right in between PCA and himself. And once he missed the ball, they collided. Tyler Callaghan batting 1,000 as a Pirate. Callaghan, the tying run for Jared Triolo. Wrapped on the ground, a short. Swanson gets down on it and throws to first in time. Pirates get two on three hits. They lead one. Two on, two out. Cruz is coming up. Payoff hit. Swing and a miss. Strike three. Caleb Thielbark gets O'Neal. Cruz swinging. Strands a pair. Three-two. Cubs lead. Ian Happ has two hits and three tries tonight. Neither hit left the infield. Ian Happ deep to right field. Magnum watches. Buckeye for the second consecutive night. Ian Happ homers in Pittsburgh. Twelfth of the year. Two-run shot. Five-two. Cubs lead. And that's a big one. The Cubs lead 5-2. And it left the park in a hurry. Yeah, that's the line drive bullet to right center field. And Ian gets this pitch. It's a fastball up and out over the plate, and he didn't miss it. And that is, as you said, Pat, a big swing of the bat. Cubs up 5-2. Four straight Cubs have reached with two outs and nobody on. And the batter is Miguel Amaya. Goes back to the screen behind home plate. Here comes San. He slides it safely. A walk and a wild pitch. It gives the Cubs a 6-2 lead. And now Swanson trying to add another run to this rally. And a high pop-up out to left field for Garcia. And he'll make the catch, and the inning ends. Cubs get three. They lead 6-2. Bregman hit an 0-2 slider for a base hit his last time up. Batting was second and third. One out. Ground ball right side. Fielded by the first baseman. The throw home is going to be in time. And Pete Armstrong says, no, we're going to have to take a look at that one. Pete thought he dove in before he was tagged by the catcher, Davis. And we'll see. Yeah, I think the Cubs are going to challenge it. Yep. Chicago is challenging the out call at the plate. Throw is there in plenty of time, but he sneaks in the back door. He's safe. Yes. Ruling on the field is overturned. The runner is safe. Chicago will retain the challenge. Great base running by Pete Armstrong, and the Cubs lead 7-2. Two outs and nobody on here in the ninth. Horowitz worked an eight-pitch walk his last time up. In the air. Right field and deep. Say a fast warning. Trap makes the catch. Cubs win. Series split here at PNC. Cubs lose the first two. They win the next two. Final score tonight, Cubs 7, Pirates 2. Nicely done. Yeah, nice follow-up here tonight after breaking that long losing streak last night. Contributions from a number of different guys. I think, for me, the star of the game is Colin Wray going toe-to-toe the way he did against Keens. Into the middle innings of this game, that kind of set the table. And the Cubs will head off to St. Louis to deal with the Cardinals for the first time this year.