One thing you could say about the Pirates on Thursday night at Wrigley Field: they never gave up. They were two outs away from defeat in the ninth inning, but Pittsburgh tied the score before the Cubs won the game, 6-5, in the bottom of the 11th inning.

The Pirates were behind, 5-3, when Michael Perez swung at a pitch from Rowan Wick and hit a two-run single, scoring Jacob Stallings and Wilmer Difo.

“These guys don’t give up,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “We put ourselves in good situations. Mikey Perez with a big base hit there. These guys continue to get after it. They continue to play hard every night. It’s the most important thing I appreciate from this team.”

Two innings later, however, Difo was the goat. With one out, it looked like left-hander Sam Howard was going to induce Ian Happ to pop out to Difo at second base, but Difo dropped the easy popup and it allowed Sergio Alcántara to score the winning run. Did Difo do anything wrong while trying to catch the ball? 

“I think off the bat, instead of getting behind it, [Difo] drifted to it,” Shelton said. “You cannot drift at any balls in this ballpark with the way the wind plays. Obviously, it’s a frustrating loss because we battled our butts off the entire game. He’s gotta get behind the baseball.”

Prior to Thursday’s action, right-hander Mitch Keller was having a rocky season. He had already lost 10 games and had a 6.75 ERA. But on Thursday at Wrigley Field, Keller’s parents were in the stands and he pitched the best game of his career.

It was Keller’s night from the start. He pitched a career-high six shutout innings and struck out eight batters, also a career high. With the exception of the first inning, the Cubs failed to get a runner in scoring position against Keller. 

At one point, Keller retired 17 of 21 hitters. His fastball was clocked as high as 96 miles per hour. Keller commanded everything and went right after opposing hitters. It helped that he improved his release point on the mound.  

Keller was going strong after six, but was taken out of the game in the top of the seventh in hopes that the Pirates would score more runs.  

“Mitch was outstanding. He commanded the fastball,” Shelton said. “In the first inning, he got in a little trouble. He kept his composure and continued to execute pitches.”

Keller, who is from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was proud to have his parents in the stands, while performing so well. 

“I threw fastballs and sliders. I threw a couple of curveballs later in the game,” Keller said. “I was feeling good, but when they take me out, they take me out.”  

The Pirates were able to give Keller run support in the first inning, when Colin Moran hit a three-run homer off right-hander Keegan Thompson.

It appeared Keller was going to win his fifth game of the season. But the Cubs had other ideas. They scored five runs off reliever Chad Kuhl, who had nothing in the tank in the seventh inning.

Cubs center fielder Rafael Ortega hit a three-run-homer to tie the score at 3, and it meant Keller would not figure in the decision. Two batters later, Happ hit a two-run homer to give Chicago a two-run lead.

“I think it was the execution of pitches,” Shelton said about Kuhl. “Just seeing the replays, there were a lot of pitches in the middle of the zone. When you miss in the middle of the zone in the big leagues, you are going to get hit.”