Pirates 8 – 
Cubs 5
The Pittsburgh Pirates boasting one of the best offenses in baseball through the early stages of the season, took out one of the best pitching staff’s in baseball, spoiling the Chicago Cubs home opener with an 8-5 win on Tuesday afternoon at Wrigley Field.
Among the Top Performers:
Ivan Nova pitched 7 solid innings, allowing 7 hits and 3 earned runs. Nova struck out 6 and walked none as his command was very good, tossing 66 strikes on 102 pitches.
Starling Marte and Francisco Cervelli each homered. Cervelli who has struggled at the plate this season, hit a 3-run blast in the 7th inning and went 3-4.
Corey Dickerson had a 3-hit day, going 3-5 with 2 RBIs and a double.
Josh Bell had 2 hits, 2B and an RBI.
— The big story is the Pirates are 8-2 after 10 games for the first time since 1992 and this group is having fun for the first time in a while.
All of the talk this off-season and in spring training was that the Pirates had a toxic room and poor “atmosphere” last season as noted by veterans such as David Freese who pretty much went off on the organization and coaching staff for letting guys get away with stuff.
Now players can’t stop raving about the chemistry this group has and what new guys such as Corey Dickerson who was loved by teammates in Tampa Bay have brought to the team.
Stars drive the mood of a clubhouse and two stars are gone so people can draw their own conclusions…….
