Here’s something you don’t hear too often about baseball games: we have a tie. Thursday night’s game between the Cubs and Pirates at PNC Park was shortened by rain. The game was officially suspended in a 1-1 tie and the game will not be made up, as announced on the Pirates’ official Twitter account. Major League Baseball has deemed it a tie game and all stats from the game will count. Neither team was involved in the playoff hunt as the Cubs had already clinched the NL Central and the Pirates were recently eliminated from Wild Card contention.
As Travis Sawchik of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports, this is the first tie the Pirates have been a part of since August 24, 1988 against the Cardinals. And it’s the first tie in baseball since the Astros and Reds on June 30, 2005.
Tim Federowicz drove in the Cubs’ only run on a sacrifice fly, scoring Wilson Contreras. Josh Bell brought home the Pirates’ only run on a sacrifice fly of his own, scoring Eric Fryer. As for the pitching, Rob Zastryzny allowed the one unearned run on two hits and two walks with four strikeouts in 3 2/3 innings for the Cubs. Travis Wood pitched four perfect innings of relief. For the Pirates, Ivan Nova yielded the one earned run on four hits with no walks and five strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings.