Arrieta loses lead but Cubs outlast Pirates 3-2 in 12

The Cubs are in Pittsburgh for a four-game set and open with a day-night doubleheader. On Tuesday night, the game ended with Lester on the mound and not the opposing team celebrating a victory after defeating the Cubs’ bullpen.

Arrieta was attempting to become the first Cubs pitcher to win 20 games since 2001, when Jon Lieber went 20-6.

“One of the things I’ve always used as a benchmark is an extra-inning win on the road”, said Maddon, in his first season at Cubs’ manager. “It’s just so hard to do now”. I would post some of the more colorful criticisms, but I won’t, because we should all be ashamed of ourselves. “That to me, in that dugout, that dugout was absolutely electric tonight”. Worley was 3-1 with a 2.38 ERA in five starts for Indianapolis after being designated for assignment earlier in the season. This will be Burnett’s 23rd start of the season.

The Cubs outlasted the Bucs in a four-and-a-half-hour game on Roberto Clemente Day on Wednesday, scoring in the 12th to earn a 3-2 win. The Pirates scored a run on the play, but Lester didn’t allow another base runner to reach first. He pitched a clean 11th inning to keep a 2-2 tie intact; then after Anthony Rizzo knocked in the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly in the 12th, Rondon marched out there for a second inning. Additionally, Burnett is 13 strikeouts away from being the 32nd pitcher in major league history to record 2,500 strikeouts. As he did that, Sean Rodrigues scored. I too raised an eyebrow at the lineup until I quickly realized that this was the second game of a doubleheader. He struck out, and the Cubs left two men on. That was because we didn’t want Mercer to play in back-to-back games. “I think I got a beer shower from (Kerry Wood) and the congratulations from teammates”. “We’re very happy with the results”.

“I had some good weapons today”, Cole said. Clemente’s wife, Vera, threw out the first pitch.

“A hit sandwiched in there would have been nice”, manager Clint Hurdle said. “When you perform the way he did professionally and live as he did personally, the legacy continues”.

Their magic number for clinching a berth dropped to 10 (any combination of Cub victories or Giants losses) – while they closed to three games behind the Pirates for home-field in the wild-card game, with four meetings left. Neil Walker led off the Pittsburgh eighth with a single and pinch-runner Pedro Florimon raced to third when Francisco Cervelli’s sharp liner glanced off shortstop Javier Baez’s glove and into shallow right. Tony Watson has made a Major League-leading 281 appearances among left-handers since the beginning of the 2012 season…

While the split with the lowly Phillies hurt the team’s momentum coming out of a successful trip to St. Louis, a strong stretch against their NL Central foes would put them right back on track.

Pittsburgh improved to 32-15 in one-run games, including 21-5 at PNC Park.

The NFL said the New England Patriots can reinstate the two employees at the center of what a league investigation found was a scheme to use improperly inflated footballs in the AFC championship game.