The 2015 National League Wild Card Game was a

play-in game A play-in game ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

's (MLB) 2015 postseason played between the

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

's (NL) two wild card teams, the

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Division. Th ...

and the

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central ...

. In MLB at that time, the two teams with the best record in each league who did not win a division played against each other in the

Wild Card Game The Wild Card Series (formerly known as Wild Card Game from 2012 to 2019 and in 2021) are games that serve as the opening round of the Major League Baseball (MLB) postseason. A single wild card game was instituted in 2012. This became a best ...

. The game was held at Pittsburgh's PNC Park on October 7, 2015. This was the third consecutive year that the NL Wild Card Game was played in Pittsburgh. This was the third consecutive postseason appearance for the Pirates, all of which came as a wild card qualifier, while the Cubs made the postseason for the first time since

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

. This was the first postseason meeting between the Cubs and the Pirates. The Pirates and Cubs had finished with the second and third-best records in all of baseball during the 2015 season, with 98 and 97 wins respectively. However, since they were in the same division as the 100-win

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Centra ...

, they were slotted into the wild card game. The Cubs won the game 4–0, and advanced to play the Cardinals in the NL Division Series. This is the Pirates' last postseason appearance to date.

Game results

Line score

The starting pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates was

Gerrit Cole Gerrit Alan Cole (born September 8, 1990) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Houston Astros. Cole played for the bas ...

and the starter for the Chicago Cubs was Jake Arrieta. Kyle Schwarber drove in the games' first run with an RBI single in the top of the 1st to give the Cubs a 1–0 lead. In the top of the 3rd, Schwarber hit a two-run home run to right field that went into the

Allegheny River The Allegheny River ( ; ; ) is a tributary of the Ohio River that is located in western Pennsylvania and New York (state), New York in the United States. It runs from its headwaters just below the middle of Pennsylvania's northern border, nor ...

to give the Cubs a 3–0 lead. In the top of the 5th, Cole allowed another Home Run to Dexter Fowler to make it 4–0. Cole was pulled after 5 innings, giving up 4 runs and striking out only 4 batters. In the bottom of the 5th, Arrieta hit Pirates catcher Francisco Cervelli on a 1–0 count. An inning later, Arrieta hit another Pirate that being Josh Harrison which caused a lot of anger from the Pirates dugout. In the bottom of the 7th, Arrieta was hit by Pirates pitcher Tony Watson on the first pitch which caused the benches to clear. Arrieta went the whole 9 innings giving up 5 hits and struck out 11 batters as the Cubs won the game 4–0 to advance to the NLDS.

References

External links

* {{Pittsburgh Pirates National League Wild Card Game Major League Baseball Wild Card Game Chicago Cubs postseason Pittsburgh Pirates postseason 2015 in sports in Pennsylvania October 2015 sports events in the United States 2010s in Pittsburgh