{"id":891031,"date":"2026-09-13T23:10:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T23:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/891031\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T23:10:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T23:10:15","slug":"brandon-lowe-helps-the-pirates-top-the-cubs-4-3-in-series-finale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/891031\/","title":{"rendered":"Brandon Lowe helps the Pirates top the Cubs 4-3 in series finale"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO — – Brandon Lowe<\/a> hit a tiebreaking two-run single in Pittsburgh’s three-run sixth inning, and the Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs<\/a> 4-3 on Sunday to avoid a sweep of their weekend series.<\/p>\n

Bryan Reynolds<\/a> had two hits for Pittsburgh, including an RBI single in the first. Carmen Mlodzinski<\/a>, Luke Weaver<\/a> and Mason Montgomery<\/a> combined for 3 2\/3 hitless innings in relief of Bubba Chandler<\/a> (8-9).<\/p>\n

The Pirates (75-75) closed out a 4-2 stay in Chicago. They swept the White Sox before dropping two of three against the Cubs.<\/p>\n

Miguel Amaya<\/a> homered for Chicago, and Michael Busch<\/a> had two hits. Matthew Boyd<\/a> (8-5) allowed four runs and seven hits in 5 1\/3 innings in his second straight loss.<\/p>\n

The Cubs (83-67) dropped into a tie with Philadelphia<\/a> for the top spot in the NL wild-card standings.<\/p>\n

Montgomery worked a perfect ninth for his 13th save in 15 chances. The Pirates had a 3-2 lead on Saturday before a wild Gregory Soto<\/a> surrendered two runs in the eighth inning of a 4-3 loss<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Chicago jumped in front in the series finale on Amaya’s sixth homer, a two-run drive to left with two out in the fifth. It was his first homer since Aug. 16.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh responded with three runs in the sixth. Reynolds reached on a leadoff walk and scored on Nick Gonzales’ ground-rule double. With one out and the bases loaded, Lowe made it 4-2 when he drove in Rafael Flores Jr<\/a>. and Gonzales with a pinch-hit liner to center off Aaron Civale<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Chicago closed to 4-3 on Nico Hoerner<\/a>‘s grounder to second in the bottom half. But the Cubs left the bases loaded when Pedro Ram\u00edrez flied to right against Mlodzinski, ending the inning.<\/p>\n

Up next<\/p>\n

Pirates: Following an off day, the Pirates host the Milwaukee Brewers<\/a> on Tuesday night in the opener of a nine-game homestand.<\/p>\n

Cubs: LHP David Peterson<\/a> (7-8, 5.28 ERA) starts on Monday night against Atlanta. RHP Reynaldo L\u00f3pez (4-4, 4.13) takes the mound for the visiting Braves.<\/p>\n

——<\/p>\n

See AP’s full MLB coverage here<\/a>br\/]<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO — – Brandon Lowe hit a tiebreaking two-run single in Pittsburgh’s three-run sixth inning, and the Pirates…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":891032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[460793,64,63,5158,794,591,5160,85],"class_list":["post-891031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-460793","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-espn","tag-mlb","tag-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=891031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/891032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}