PITTSBURGH — When the biggest moment of Christian Bethancourt’s brief Chicago Cubs career arrived in the ninth inning Wednesday at PNC Park, a heckler behind home plate greeted the veteran catcher as he entered the batter’s box.
The Pirates fan let Bethancourt hear it, screaming, “You stink!” among the sparse crowd. Bethancourt embraced the jeer, letting those words fuel him in the bases-loaded situation with two outs and the Cubs trailing Pittsburgh 10-8.
“I was like, you cannot stink this time, you’ve got to make him shut up — and that’s what I did,” a grinning Bethancourt said.
Bethancourt connected on Pirates closer David Bednar’s 0-1 fastball left over the plate, hitting it hard enough for the grounder to deflect past lunging shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa. The go-ahead, two-out, two-run single sparked a six-run ninth inning for the Cubs as Ian Happ, Mike Tauchman and Seiya Suzuki each followed with an RBI single.
Right-hander Porter Hodge came back out for a second inning of work and delivered a shutout frame for a 14-10 comeback victory to secure the sweep. The Cubs (68-66) entered the seventh inning facing a seven-run deficit and scored 11 unanswered runs over the final three innings.
Bethancourt made sure to point to the fan behind home plate after reaching first base following his clutch go-ahead hit.
“This is your time to shine,” Bethancourt said of his mindset. “You’ve got to find a way somehow. … I came here wanting to play, showing that I can still play in the big leagues and trying not to do too much.”
The 32-year-old’s timely hit was part of a career day that helped fuel the Cubs’ relentless comeback. He finished with a career-high seven RBIs, also hitting a two-run home run, a two-run double and an RBI groundout. Bethancourt, who joined the organization in July as Triple A depth, is the sixth Cubs catcher since 1901 with at least seven RBIs in a game, joining Willson Contreras (May 11, 2018), Geovany Soto (Aug. 26, 2008), Barry Foote (April 22, 1980), George Mitterwald (April 17, 1974) and Ed Bailey (July 22, 1965).
In spot starts backing up Miguel Amaya since his call-up in late July, Bethancourt is 11-for-27 (.407) with seven extra-base hits and 15 RBIs in 11 games (eight starts).
“I don’t know how you could play better than he’s played,” manager Craig Counsell said. “Sparingly at-bats and every time he’s in there there’s extra-base hits, there’s RBIs, there’s throwing out runners so he’s been unbelievable. Like, how could you play better than he’s played since he’s been here?”
Pete Crow-Armstrong’s hot stretch set up Bethancourt’s heroics. His first four-hit game continued an electric offensive stint for the rookie, prompting the Pirates to intentionally walk Crow-Armstrong once Bednar fell behind 2-0 to bring up Bethancourt. During the three-game set against Pittsburgh, Crow-Armstrong became the first MLB rookie in the modern era dating to 1901 to record multiple games with at least three hits, steal at least three bases in a game and score four or more runs in a game all within a single series.
“We played a heck of an offensive game,” Counsell said. “Pete had a heck of an offensive game. He was outstanding. And just big hits all over the place, great at-bats up and down the lineup.”
The contributions the Cubs have received one through nine in the order over the last month are at least allowing them to stick around to see if they can make an improbable run to the playoffs. Memorable wins like Wednesday’s are the kind that, at this point in the season, start the what-ifs percolating. The opposite remains true too — the Cubs wouldn’t be in chase mode if they hadn’t played so inconsistently for three months.
They get to savor the wild win a little longer with Thursday’s off day, but a 5-1 road trip can quickly turn from great to a missed opportunity if they don’t play well against the Nationals.
A short bullpen was tested early after Kyle Hendricks couldn’t get out of the second inning. The Pirates tagged him for six runs in 1 2/3 innings, wasting the offense putting up three runs on the Pirates’ star rookie Paul Skenes. Ethan Roberts prevented the game from getting further out of hand early by cleaning up Hendricks’ bases-loaded jam with just one pitch to end the second.
“That was freaking unbelievable, to say the least,” Hendricks said of the win. “I mean, it just shows the character, the fight, the resiliency of our guys. Freaking incredible, absolutely incredible to stay with that when I put us that far behind the eight ball to start. … A loss for words, to be honest with you. It was an absolutely incredible game, the fight out of them was insane.”
Hodge’s role in Wednesday’s victory shouldn’t be overlooked. The Cubs were down multiple relievers because of usage while veteran Jorge López was unavailable the entire series. López strained his groin Monday and the Cubs are trying to give him some time to recover. However, if he won’t be available to pitch by Saturday or, at the latest, Sunday, the Cubs will need to put López on the injured list.
Hodge was essentially their last available reliever at that moment with the lead, and he rose to the challenge of throwing two full innings in a big-league game for the first time since late June.
“Getting that run support and letting our pitching doing what it’s been doing, that’s why we’re playing good baseball,” Hodge said.
