Cubs 8, Pirates 4: Postseason-bound!

The Cubs defeated the Pirates 8-4 Wednesday afternoon at PNC Park. It completed a series sweep — their first on the road since they swept the Angels in Anaheim last month — and more importantly, gave the Cubs their first postseason berth since 2020, and first in a full 162-game season since 2018. It was also the team’s fourth win in a row and seventh in their last eight games.

I’ll have more thoughts on the Cubs and October play tomorrow. First, let’s look back at this victory, the team’s 88th of 2025. It took a while, too: At three hours, 17 minutes, it was the fourth-longest nine-inning Cubs game this year.

They didn’t waste any time getting on the board in the first off Johan Oviedo, who had no command of the strike zone in the first inning. Michael Busch walked and advanced on a wild pitch. Nico Hoerner singled with Busch stopping at third.

Oviedo then balked, scoring Busch. And it was about the most obvious balk you’ll ever see [VIDEO].

Ian Happ, who was at bat during the balk, then smashed his 23rd home run [VIDEO].

Moises Ballesteros followed that blast with a long home run of his own to make it 4-0 [VIDEO].

That ball was crushed! [VIDEO].

A couple of notes on the home runs and the Cubs’ four-run first from BCB’s JohnW53:

The first-inning home runs by Ian Happ and Moises Ballesteros were the Cubs’ first back-to-back blasts since July 19. They were the 13th this season, breaking the franchise record set in 2004. They had only five last season. The all-time total since 1876 now is 417 sets of consecutive homers: 406 back-to-back and 11 back-to-back-to-back.
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The Cubs’ four runs in the first inning were their 22nd inning this season with exactly four runs, but just the third in their last 22 games.

That was all good!

What was not good was Matthew Boyd also struggling. He had a rough first inning, issuing a walk and allowing a single after the first two hitters were routine outs. Joey Bart then hit a three-run homer to cut the Cubs’ lead to one run. The Pirates plated another run off Boyd in the second to tie things up at 4-4.

Boyd lasted only three innings, throwing 83 pitches (only 48 for strikes). He’s going to have to do better for the Cubs to have a good postseason. Perhaps after the Cubs clinch the top wild-card spot and home field in a wild-card series, Boyd can be given some rest.

No one else scored until the sixth. Porter Hodge threw a scoreless fourth, allowing just one hit and throwing 11 strikes in 19 pitches, much better than his outing on Monday. Aaron Civale entered to throw the fifth and completed three scoreless frames, allowing one hit and striking out three. He’s been a really useful multi-inning reliever since he came over on waivers Aug. 31. Civale had some defensive help from Nico [VIDEO].

The Cubs finally broke the tie in the top of the sixth thanks in part to some sketchy Pirates defense. Pirates reliever Yohan Ramirez booted a Dansby Swanson grounder a few times, then threw it away. Swanson reached, then got to third on ball four to Matt Shaw. If that sounds odd, it was. Bart threw to second even though he didn’t have to on ball four, and Swanson took third, where he scored on a sac fly by Busch [VIDEO].

Hoerner followed with a single, his second hit of the game, sending Shaw to third. Shaw then scored on this single by Happ [VIDEO].

Hoerner’s two hits raised his BA to .303, only two points behind NL leader Trea Turner, and extended his hitting streak to 12 games.

The Pirates switched to a lefty reliever, so Justin Turner, who hadn’t played in a week, was sent up to bat for Ballesteros.

Turner singled, scoring Nico to make it 7-4 [VIDEO].

The Cubs might have scored more in the seventh, with a walk by Swanson and single by Reese McGuire with one out. But old friend Alexander Canario made this spectacular catch which turned into a double play [VIDEO].

Credit to Canario for that play — if he doesn’t catch that ball it’s probably a two-run triple.

The Cubs added one more run in the eighth. Hoerner and Happ walked, and Turner’s second hit of the game, a single, scored Nico [VIDEO].

For Turner, it was just his fourth multi-hit game and third multi-RBI game of the season. Who knows? Perhaps he can show up with some key hits in October.

Drew Pomeranz threw a scoreless eighth, though he hit a batter and allowed a single, throwing 24 pitches. After the Cubs went down in order in the ninth, Taylor Rogers finished up.

Here’s the final out that clinched a postseason spot for 2025 [VIDEO].

The Cubs can’t ease up as they still would like to clinch home field for a wild-card series, presumably against the Padres. Their magic number for doing that stands at 6, pending the result of the Mets/Padres game this evening. And… it’s a long shot, but the win brings the Cubs to within 4.5 games of first place in the NL Central. Likely? No. Impossible? Also no.

The Cubs head to Cincinnati to play their final road series of the 2025 regular season, a four-game set against the Reds. The series opener will be Thursday evening at 6:15 p.m. CT. The Cubs do not have a starter listed for this game at this writing, but if they stay on rotation, it should be Colin Rea. Hunter Greene will start for the Reds. TV coverage will be via Fox-TV (regional — coverage map).

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