Unlucky 13th stings Bucs on wild night at Wrigley

CHICAGO — For five hours, Miguel Montero sat on the Cubs bench, watching a seesaw battle against the Pirates at Wrigley Field. The veteran catcher has been relegated to a backup role with the emergence of rookie Willson Contreras, but Montero showed his expertise in the 13th inning.

Anthony Rizzo delivered a game-tying RBI single in the 13th and Montero followed with the game-winning hit, a walk-off RBI single to lift the Cubs to an 8-7 victory over the Pirates in a game that began Monday night and stretched into Tuesday morning.

“The resiliency of our team was incredible,” Chicago starter Jake Arrieta said. “Just a crazy ballgame all the way around. So many things happened.”

The Cubs were weary after a delayed flight from Los Angeles — the Pirates played in Milwaukee on Sunday and had a 90-mile drive — but gutted this one out. Manager Joe Maddon quipped that the Cubs were comfortable because they wore pajamas on their charter flight.

“Look at how they played tonight — it must have been the onesies,” Maddon said. “If you’re flying on a charter airplane, and you have onesies on, you feel better the next day.”

The Pirates had taken a 7-6 lead in the top of the 13th on Josh Harrison’s sacrifice fly. But Dexter Fowler singled off Jeff Locke, who was pitching his fourth inning, and reached third on Kris Bryant’s single. The Pirates had intentionally walked Bryant in the 10th to face Rizzo, and got him to hit into an inning-ending double play. This time, Rizzo delivered an RBI single to tie the game. Ben Zobrist was intentionally walked, and Montero slapped a single to left for the game-winner.

“It’s one of those situations where you’ve got to go until something happens. If it’s good, we win. If it’s bad, we tie and maybe we lose,” Locke said. “I wouldn’t do it any differently. I would just try to do it better next time.”

“I guess they didn’t check my stats with the bases loaded,” Montero said. “When they load the bases, I feel pretty good about myself.”

With the win, the Cubs improved to 20-6 in August, while the loss snapped the Pirates’ win streak at four. Chicago is 7-4 in extra-inning games.

Josh Bell smacked a solo homer in the fourth and Gregory Polanco hit a three-run homer in the sixth to help the Pirates open a 6-3 lead. But Contreras belted a two-run homer in the eighth off Neftali Feliz, and Jorge Soler tied the game at 6 with a one-out blast in the ninth off Tony Watson.

The Cubs loaded the bases in the 10th, and thought they had scored the winning run when Javier Baez slid home on Rizzo’s fielder’s choice. Baez was ruled out, and the Cubs challenged the call but after a review, the call stood. Baez also tripled in the 12th and tried to score on Addison Russell’s fly ball to left but again, was thrown out at the plate.

“It was a really, really good ballgame to watch and be a part of. Our guys played hard all night,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. “At the end of the day, we came up one run short. We kept pushing. We kept battling. Proud of everybody …

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