PITTSBURGH — Jed Hoyer flew into Pittsburgh on Tuesday night because that's what Jed Hoyer does when things are going badly. And things are going badly.
Jordan Wicks allowed five runs in the first inning of his first major league start since 2024. The Cubs scored once — on an Ian Happ double in the second — and never threatened again. Braxton Ashcraft cruised through 6⅓ innings. Craig Counsell was ejected in the ninth arguing a check-swing call with his team down big. Pittsburgh won 12-1, and the Cubs have now lost ten consecutive games, their longest streak since June 2022.
Hoyer, before the game, tried to make sense of a team that was 20 games over .500 a month ago: "I'm sure at some point in my career we had hot streaks and cold streaks within the same season like this, but definitely not in the first third of the season."
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CHC | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 1 |
| PIT | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | — | 12 | 15 | 3 |
The First Inning
Konnor Griffin walked on four pitches. Brandon Lowe singled. Ji-Hwan Triolo reached. Bryan Reynolds doubled to left — Griffin and Lowe both scored. Oneil Cruz singled — Reynolds scored. Esmerlyn Valdez hit a two-run homer 415 feet to center. Five to nothing after the first inning.
Wicks eventually settled into three consecutive scoreless innings before the Pirates added three more in the fifth. He lasted 4⅓ innings, allowed nine hits and eight earned runs, and left with a game score of 17. His ERA is 16.62. The bullpen had to cover 4⅔ innings in a game that was already out of hand.
Wicks Came Back to Where It Started
Jordan Wicks made his major league debut at PNC Park on August 26, 2023. He retired 15 straight Pirates, struck out nine, and won. He became the first Cubs starting pitcher since 1901 to win each of his first three MLB starts. Tonight he returned to that same ballpark for his first start in nearly two years and got five runs hung on him before the first inning was over.
Wicks is a pitcher who hasn't been fully healthy since 2023, being asked to plug a rotation that has four starters on the injured list. He did what he could. It wasn't enough.
Ashcraft Keeps Rolling
The Cubs had one run on eight hits against Pittsburgh's pitching. Braxton Ashcraft is 3-0 with a 1.82 ERA in five starts in May. He completed 6.1 innings for the fifth straight start and the sixth time in his last seven outings. He hit two Cubs batters — Crow-Armstrong and Suzuki — and gave up back-to-back doubles by Bregman and Happ that produced Chicago's only run in the second. After that, nothing.
When you're in a losing streak and you're going to face Ashcraft on night two of a four-game series, you need your starter to at least keep you in it. The Cubs' starter gave up five in the first. There was no game after that.
Griffin Leads Off, Reynolds Hits 500
Two footnotes worth noting from the Pittsburgh side:
Manager Don Kelly moved 20-year-old shortstop Konnor Griffin to the leadoff spot for the first time in his career. Griffin became the youngest Pirates player to bat leadoff since Bobby Del Greco in 1952, and the youngest to bat leadoff in all of MLB since Jackson Chourio did it in 2024. He walked on four pitches to open the game and scored on Reynolds' double. Kelly's explanation: he liked the matchup against a left-hander, and Griffin has sprint speed in the 98th percentile. "He's electric," Kelly said.
Bryan Reynolds played in his 500th career game at PNC Park, the third-most in the stadium's history behind only Andrew McCutchen (876) and Jack Wilson (583). He went 2-for-4 with two RBI.
Pitching Lines
Pitcher Stats
| Pitcher | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wicks (L, 0-1) | 4.1 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 1 | 5 |
| Rolison | 1.2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Palencia | 1.0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Milner | 1.0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| Ashcraft (W, 4-2) | 6.1 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| Bidois | 1.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Santana | 1.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
What's Next
The Cubs and Pirates play again Wednesday night at PNC Park. Jameson Taillon (2-4, 5.20 ERA) starts for Chicago. Pittsburgh sends Bubba Chandler (1-6, 4.60 ERA), who struck out a career-high 11 in his last outing. First pitch is 6:40 p.m. Central.
There is a small piece of good news buried at the bottom: Matthew Boyd, recovering from knee surgery, is scheduled to make a rehab start at Triple-A Iowa on Sunday. It's not imminent help. But it's something.