Pirates won’t concede anything to Cubs

CHICAGO — Kris Bryant and Addison Russell, among others, struck on Friday. The specter of Jake Arrieta lurks on Saturday.

Could be a tough weekend for the Pirates.

Not that Clint Hurdle will let you know he’s worried.

Hurdle knows what everyone is thinking — that the Cubs have left the Pirates and the Cardinals behind in the National League Central, left to fight for one of the NL’s Wild Card spots. But he’s not drawing any conclusions before Memorial Day, even if the Cubs have won six games in a row over the Pirates, including Arrieta’s shutout in the NL Wild Card Game last October.

Hurdle felt no reason to speak to his players before this series. He believes they know the situation as well as he does.

“Sometimes we don’t give players enough credit,” Hurdle said before the Cubs’ 9-4 victory on Friday. “They’ve got most of that figured out on their own. They’ve been doing this for most of their lifetimes. This isn’t the first time they’ve run into stiff competition on any level.”

Baseball seasons aren’t predictable, like the tides. They ebb and flow without set schedules, almost always leaving teams in choppy waters at some point. That’s the beauty of the exercise.

“[Players] know the season’s 162 games long, and they’ve all possibly been on clubs that got off to good starts and maybe not finished that way,” Hurdle said. “It’s like everything else that we talk about. We remind them periodically; it’s not like we remind them when we play the Cubs. Honor …

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