PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) - At the start of action Wednesday, the Chicago Cubs elimination number was 1 and either a Milwaukee Brewers win or a loss would eliminate them from the postseason and both happened on Wednesday. The Brewers defeat the Reds and Jose Osuna scored the go ahead run in the bottom of the eighth for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Pittsburgh won game two of the series 4-2 Wednesday night at PNC Park and will go for the three game sweep Thursday night at 7:05 pm.
Chicago got on the board first after a one out triple by Willson Contreras in the 2nd inning, Ian Happ brought him home with an RBI single to give the Cubs the early lead 1-0.
Dario Agrazal was able to hold the Cubs to that one run through six innings that allowed the Pirates to take the lead in the ballgame.
In the bottom of the fourth, the Pirates would take a 2-1 lead after Erik Gonzalez brought Jose Osuna home with an RBI double and Gonzalez would score on an RBI single by Jake Elmore.
With his RBI double, Gonzalez extended his hitting streak to 9 games as he went 3 for 3 with 2 singles, a double, a run scored and 2 runs batted in.
Agrazal started the top of the seventh on the mound, but Happ led off the inning with a solo home run to right centerfield to tie the game at 2 and end the night for Agrazal.
The final line for Agrazal in his final start of the 2019 season was 6+ innings pitched and gave up 2 runs on 6 hits while striking out 5 Cubs batters on 72 pitches (50 strikes).
"He's (Josh Bell) making nice progress," said Tomczyk. "With Josh we are just running out of days. Josh wants to be out there, he wants to finish on the field with his teammates, but as a group from a medical team, from an organization standpoint it's best for Josh for his off-season to begin right now and for him to head into that as strong and as normal as he can so Josh Bell will no longer be playing for the 2019 season."
Same with Marte, "Starling wants to (be out there), but he's still having some minor discomfort with swinging," said Tomczyk. "I think if we were in a different stage of the season, a different place in the standings, Starling and Josh would both be out there.
The Pirates and Cubs will close out this three game series Thursday night when Joe Musgrove (10-12, 4.49 ERA) takes the mound for Pittsburgh against Jose Quintana (13-8, 4.55 ERA) and Chicago at 7:05 pm at PNC Park.