PITTSBURGH (AP) The Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates played a rare major league tie on Thursday night when their game was called off due to rain with scores level at 1-all in the sixth inning.
With the Cubs and Pirates not scheduled to play again this season, officials decided the game would not be made up, since its outcome will not affect postseason positioning. Chicago long ago clinched the National League Central, while Pittsburgh is out of playoff reckoning, sitting third in that division.
So instead of becoming a suspended game, the match was declared a tie – the first since Houston and Cincinnati went seven innings on June 30, 2005, before rain halted them.
Willson Contreras had two hits and scored for the NL Central champion Cubs, who have already clinched the best record in the majors. Josh Bell hit a sacrifice fly for the Pirates.
The game was called in the top of the sixth after a delay of 1 hour, 23 minutes.
Tim Federowicz hit a sacrifice fly in the Cubs second. Pittsburgh tied it in the third.
Cubs rookie Rob Zastryzny gave up one unearned run in 3 2/3 innings in his first major league start after beginning his career with seven relief appearances.
Cubs manager Joe Maddon opted to use all relievers as he prepares his team for the postseason.
Pittsburgh is 78-80 and needs to sweep its season-ending three-game series at St. Louis that starts Friday night in order to extend its streak of winning seasons to four. The Pirates had 20 straight losing seasons from 1993-2012, the record for major North American team professional sports.
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