You knew the Cubs’ losing streak wasn’t going to last forever.
Right? Right?
The Cubs exploded with a 14-hit, seven-walk, two-homer offense and crushed the Pirates 10-4 Wednesday evening in Pittsburgh, at last ending their 10-game losing streak. The 10 runs were as many as they had score in the last six games of the streak — combined.
The onslaught began in the first inning. Pete Crow-Armstrong had an excellent at-bat, working a 10-pitch walk. Nico Hoerner singled him to second. Michael Busch also walked,
loading the bases.
You could have been forgiven at that point if you thought, “In what soul-crushing yet entertaining fashion will they fail to score in this situation?”
But they did score. Alex Bregman struck out but then Ian Happ singled in two runs [VIDEO].
Seiya Suzuki, unfortunately, hit into a double play but the Cubs had a two-run lead. They’d led in only two other games during the entire losing streak.
They made it 3-0 in the second. Carson Kelly and Dansby Swanson hit singles with one out. One out later, Nico singled in Kelly [VIDEO].
That’s when the home run bug bit Jameson Taillon again. A walk, single and three-run homer by Brandon Lowe tied the game 3-3. Lowe, who spent his entire career with the Rays until this year, has absolutely worn out Cubs pitching this year: .350/.435/.850 (7-for-20) with three home runs. I’ll be glad after today when the Cubs don’t have to see him again until after the All-Star break. Maybe by then they’ll be able to figure out how to slow him down.
A not-so-fun fact about that homer from BCB’s JohnW53:
The three-run homer off Jameson Taillon that wiped out a three-run lead was the 12th of its kind surrendered by the Cubs since 2021.
The previous one was Sept. 25 of last season, by Brett Baty of the Mets at Wrigley Field in the fourth inning off Shota Imanaga. It made the score 3-3.
The Cubs gave up four such homers in 2024, including one by TJ Friedl of the Reds off Jameson Taillon at home. It also made the score 3-3, as did three of the others, served up by Adbert Alzolay to Jack Suwinski of the Pirates in 2022, and by Jeremiah Estrada to Fernando Tatis of the Padres and by Jose Cuas to Joshua Palacios of the Pirates, both in 2023. All were at Wrigley.
The Cubs took the lead again in the fourth. Dansby Swanson hit a two-out double and PCA doubled him in [VIDEO].
But Taillon again could not keep the ball in the yard. Konnor Griffin’s solo homer tied the game. For Taillon it was the 19th home run he had allowed this year in 60.1 innings, yikes. That’s on top of 10 homers he allowed in Spring Training in just 13.1 innings. The 19 homers is four more than anyone else in MLB (Zack Littell of the Nationals, 15).
Taillon was removed after five innings and Jacob Webb threw a 1-2-3 sixth, striking out all three batters he faced. After a rough start to his 2026 season, Webb’s been really good lately.
Then the Cubs blew the game open in the seventh.
Michael Busch was hit by a pitch and Bregman doubled him to third.
Happ sent a ball deep into the right-field seats at PNC Park [VIDEO].
The scorebug on that clip says that the homer was on Pirates reliever Yohan Ramirez’s eighth pitch but looking at the pitch-by-pitch, Busch had a five-pitch at-bat before he was hit and both Bregman and Happ jumped on the first pitch. Pretty efficient, seven pitches, three runs.
The Cubs weren’t done in that inning, either!
Seiya Suzuki singled off Ramirez and the Pirates brought in reliever Justin Lawrence to face Michael Conforto, who was batting for Kevin Alcántara.
Conforto wasted no time, sending Lawrence’s first pitch out of the yard [VIDEO].
So if you’re counting, that’s six more pitches, so the Cubs put five runs on the board on just the first 13 pitches of the seventh inning. Impressive!
One more run crossed the plate in that inning for the Cubs. Swanson reached base on an error and stole second. After PCA struck out, Hoerner walked. Busch’s single to right scored Swanson with the sixth run of the inning [VIDEO].
About the six-run inning, from John:
The Cubs’ seventh inning was their first of the season with six runs. They scored seven on May 7 in an 8-3 win at home over the Reds. They scored five in three games, all between April 1 and 13.
Phil Maton, Caleb Thielbar and Ethan Roberts finished up with one scoreless inning each. They allowed two hits total, walked two and struck out two. Maton got this double-play ball to end the seventh [VIDEO]. The Pirates challenged both calls and were wrong on both.
Now that’s the way to end a losing streak, just blast out of it with a huge offensive display. In addition to all the runs, hits and walks, the Cubs had five hits with RISP (okay, 5-for-16, but still). They could have had even more runs, as they left 13 on base. That’s not a complaint, just a comment. Speaking of comments, here are Craig Counsell’s postgame remarks [VIDEO].
And here’s Happ on his five-RBI night [VIDEO].
The comments are spot-on. A game like this really takes the pressure of that streak off, gives the guys a chance to have some happy moments in the dugout, and hopefully resets everything so, perhaps, another winning streak can follow.
One more fact from John:
This was the Cubs’ sixth game of the season with at least 10 runs: four between March 28 and April 17, then May 15 in a 10-5 win at the White Sox, their last win before Wednesday.
Which is, of course, interesting — they book-ended the losing streak with two 10-run outbursts. Hopefully there are more of those to come. The 10-run game put the Cubs back in sixth place in MLB in runs, passing the Brewers. The seven walks allowed them to maintain their MLB lead in that category, with 255 — that’s 4.55 walks per game, or a pace for 738, which would shatter the franchise record (656, set in 2016).
The win pulled the Cubs out of a last-place tie with the Pirates, and combined with the Cardinals’ loss to the Brewers, the Cubs are now in a virtual tie with St. Louis (one percentage point behind) for second place, 4.5 games behind Milwaukee. 106 games remain in the 2026 season. There’s plenty of time to turn this ship around.
And the Cubs now have the opportunity to split this four-game series, though it will not be easy, with Paul Skenes starting for the Pirates. Colin Rea will go for the Cubs. Game time is 5:40 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.
