Cubs 14, Pirates 10: The Christian Bethancourt Match

Imagine not seeing the game, not hearing anything about it, and not having any news this afternoon.

And then I told you Kyle Hendricks would have the shortest and worst start of his career, Paul Skenes would be on the mound for the Pirates, and the Cubs would trail by seven after five innings.

You would sigh and accept another defeat and maybe even be happy that the Cubs won two of the three games.

And then I’ll tell you about the Cubs’ most incredible comeback in the 2024 season, perhaps the team’s best comeback since that ice-cold, same-score win over the Braves in 2018.

I write these words and can hardly believe what I just witnessed, the Cubs putting 11 runs on the board at PNC Park in the final three innings to complete a three-game sweep with a thrilling 14-10 victory. As Jim Deshaies noted on the broadcast, teams before Wednesday were 3-379 this year when trailing by seven runs at any point in a game. (One of those three was the Cubs’ 8-0 lead blown in San Diego on April 8.) And this game…improbably…was the fourth.

It was all led by Christian Bethancourt, who probably only started on a hot, muggy afternoon to give the hot Miguel Amaya a break. Bethancourt was 3-for-5 with a homer and seven RBI, a career high, and that also prompted this note from BCB’s JohnW53:

Bethancourt’s seven RBI are the most by anyone batting ninth for the Cubs since 1901.

The previous record stood at five, done seven times, including once in each of the last three seasons: Alfonso Rivas in 2022, Alexander Canario on September 19 last year and Miguel Amaya last Thursday.

Well. This is going to be a long recap—a happy one!—so brace yourself.

The Cubs got on the board first. Ian Happ led off the game with a double, his 32nd (he has a shot at 40). He went to third on an infield out and scored on this single by Cody Bellinger (VIDEO).

Hendricks, however, as noted… did not have a good day. It started with serving a home run to Bryan Reynolds in the final inning to tie the game.

And the Cubs took back the lead at the top of the second. Nico Hoerner led off with a single and stole second. From there, he scored on this Pete Crow-Armstrong single (VIDEO).

PCA finished in third place on a throw-in error by Oneil Cruz, who was playing his first professional game in center field. PCA then scored on this ground-out by Bethancourt (VIDEO).

About that RBI result, from JohnW53 of BCB:

From Opening Day through last Friday, the Cubs were 8 for 74 with two outs and a runner on third, including 0 for 13 since July 31. Cody Bellinger’s first-inning RBI single today moved the Cubs to 5 for 6 since Saturday. They fell to 5 for 7 after Christian Bethancourt’s RBI groundout in the second.

So you think, hey, the Cubs are doing well, Hendricks only gave up one run and the Cubs scored three against Skenes.

Unfortunately, that was it for Hendricks, who gave up five runs in the second inning and had to be replaced by Ethan Roberts, and that was unfortunately the case for “good outing”. From JohnW53 of BCB:

It was the shortest start of Hendricks’ career. It was his 265th. He made two two-inning starts earlier this year, then two 2⅔ inning starts, one in 2018 and one in 2019.

The Pirates scored five runs in the second inning to make it 6-3, but hey, it’s only the third inning. Maybe the Cubs can get Skenes out and make a game of it?

Yeah, I thought so too, but I had no idea what was going to happen.

The Pirates put two on Roberts’ plate in the fourth, including a home run by Connor Joe, who simply crushed the Cubs’ pitching. That made it 8-3, and then two more Bucs runs in the fifth by Drew Smyly, one of which came in part on a rare error by Ian Happ, made it 10-3 after five.

A seven-point deficit. Well, it’s only the sixth, but… I refer you to the 3-379 record above. That’s a winning percentage of .008.

Let’s get to the good stuff. The Cubs didn’t score in the sixth, and then Tyson Miller pitched a scoreless bottom of the sixth — he’s been SO good since joining the Cubs — and then the Cubs bats went to work again in the top of the seventh.

Pete Crow-Armstrong led off the inning with a single, his third hit of the game.

Bethancourt brought that up (VIDEO).

That ball got crushed! (VIDEO)

Okay, it’s 10-5 and you’re thinking, “Hmmm. Maybe there’s a chance.” Okay, maybe YOU didn’t think that, but I did.

Daniel Palencia pitched the bottom of the seventh, and as is his wont, he ran into trouble with walks. Eventually, the Pirates had the bases loaded with two outs, but Palencia got out of the inning with a ground out.

Old friend Aroldis Chapman came in to pitch the eighth for the Pirates, and the Cubs gave him a lot of hits. Dansby Swanson walked with one out and PCA singled again for his fourth hit. That’s PCA’s first career four-hit game, and he’s had a great August. More on PCA’s four-hit game from BCB’s JohnW53:

Pete Crow-Armstrong had four hits today, at 22 years old, 156 days. The last Cub to have four hits in a game at a younger age was Kyle Schwarber, who was 4 for 7 in a 13-inning, 7-4 win at Cincinnati on July 21, 2015. He was 22 and 138 days. Schwarber also was the last to do it in a regulation-length game: 4 for 5 in a 17-0 rout at Cleveland on June 17, 2015, at 22 and 104 days.

PCA’s game was the 34th of at least four hits by a Cub his age or younger. Starlin Castro had eight; Ken Hubbs, four; Phil Cavarretta and Woody English; three; and Charlie Hollocher, Ron Santo and Schwarber, two.

Cavarretta was the youngest, going 4-for-5, all singles, in a 13-inning, 10-8 victory at Pittsburgh on July 6, 1935, at age 18, 352 days.

Hey, there’s that guy Bethancourt again! (VIDEO)

If you count, that’s five RBIs for Bethancourt. The Pirates weren’t paying attention to him, so he stole third, where he scored easily on this single by Happ (VIDEO).

Ten to eight. Well… that almost seems doable! (NARRATOR: “And it was!”)

The Cubs might have scored more in that inning, but Mike Tauchman didn’t hit this strange double play (VIDEO).

The ball was in play, though Happ stayed close to first base in case it had lined out. So when Pirates second baseman Akila Williams threw the ball to Joe, all Joe had to do was tag Happ and Tauchman to end the inning. Craig Counsell came out for a talk, but presumably got that explanation and the inning was over.

Porter Hodge was called up to work in the eighth inning after throwing just five pitches Tuesday. He retired the next three Pirates after a leadoff single.

Now, what you’ve been waiting for, the Cubs’ ninth-inning comeback against Pirates closer David Bednar. Bednar has missed some spectacular saves this year, but perhaps none as spectacular as this one.

Seiya Suzuki led off with a single. Cody Bellinger forced Suzuki to second, but that was followed by a single by Isaac Paredes. Luis Vázquez ran for Paredes and Hoerner ran to load the bases.

Swanson won this double-play relay and Bellinger scored (VIDEO).

Now it’s 10-9, but there are two outs and runners on first and third. Swanson stole second to take away any potential force play there, and the Pirates then elected to intentionally pass PCA to get that force play back.

It seems the Cubs took personal offense to this, because that’s when the fun really started.

Bethancourt gave the Cubs the lead with this single (VIDEO).

PCA came in second with that hit and after the Pirates replaced Bednar with Jalen Beeks, Happ scored on this single (VIDEO).

The merry-go-round continued on this single from Tauchman (VIDEO).

Bethancourt scored to make it 13-10. Happ moved to third base, where he scored again on a single, this time by Suzuki (VIDEO).

Six hits in the inning, all singles, plus two walks (one intentional), led to that winning six-run rally, one of the best innings the Cubs have had this year.

The Cubs were down seven runs. Now it’s not even a save situation, so instead of Jorge López, Hodge was called in to finish it off, which he did with this strikeout (VIDEO).

Special kudos to Bethancourt, who had the game of his life — and remember, the Marlins let him go because he was hitting .159/.198/.268 in 88 plate appearances. For the Cubs, he’s now hitting .407/.448/.889 (11-for-27) with four doubles, three homers and 16 RBI — that’s in just 11 games as a Cub. You never know. More on Bethancourt’s day:

Also congrats to PCA for his first four-hit game, to Happ for three hits, and to the team as a whole for taking advantage of a poor Pirates bullpen to collect 16 hits, seven walks, and 14 runs. The 41 runs the Cubs scored in this series are the most the Cubs have EVER scored in a three-game series in Pittsburgh, according to the Marquee broadcast.

One final note: The game lasted 3:37 — all three games in this series have lasted more than three hours — largely because 391 pitches were thrown (201 by Cubs pitchers!). The average for a nine-inning game is about 250.

Sometimes too much can be said about wins like this that create “momentum” — usually momentum is only as good as what you put on the field every afternoon or night. But I’m going to say right here and now that if the Cubs make an improbable run and reach the postseason, they will look back on this game as one of the defining moments of the 2024 season. I’ve been saying all year that the Cubs were playing below their talent level, and now they appear to be playing at that level. It’s a lot of fun to watch.

If the Twins can beat the Braves tonight, the Cubs will win a game in the wild-card bracket, which would be huge. The Cubs are 5-1 on this important road trip and have a nice day off on Thursday before opening a three-game series against the Nationals in Washington on Friday night. The Cubs have not yet announced any starters for the Nats series, but Shōta Imanaga is expected to be the starter on Friday. The Nats will start Jake Irvin in the series opener, which is Friday night at 5:45 p.m. CT. The televised game will be on Marquee Sports Network.