The Cubs traveled to Pittsburgh over the weekend and took two of three from the Pirates. While the Pirates are not very good, they do have two of the most exciting young pitchers in baseball. Chicago faced both in this series. The first was Jared Jones on Friday. The Cubs were able to manage seven hits and two walks off of Jones in the sixth inning. Chicago led 3-2 when Jones left the game. The Cubs proceeded to get four runs off of Hunter Stratton in the seventh. That was enough for Chicago to hold on to win 7-2. Javier Assad started the game for the Cubs and was only able to last 4 1/3 innings. Ben Brown followed Assad and pitched 3 2/3 scoreless. Adbert Alzolay pitched a scoreless ninth.

Saturday’s game featured the Major League debut of Paul Skenes. Skenes, who was the first overall pick in the 2023 draft, had mixed results in his debut. In four innings he allowed three runs but struck out seven. Justin Steele started for the Cubs and was knocked around. He gave up six runs in four innings. Chicago would take the lead by working a Major League record six walks with the bases loaded against the Pirates bullpen in the fifth inning. Chicago’s bullpen was not able to hold the lead and the Cubs eventually lost 10-9.

It took ten innings for the Cubs to win the series on Sunday. They jumped out to a 2-0 first-inning lead on a Christopher Morel homer. Hendricks returned from the injured list to start the game and only allowed one run in five innings. The Pirates would scratch across a run in the fourth and a run in the sixth to tie the game. It would remain tied until the Cubs got three runs in the top of the tenth. The third run came off of a solo shot from Patrick Wisdom off of Aroldis Chapman. It’s a good thing Wisdom hit that homer because Alzolay gave up a two-run homer to Connor Joe in the bottom of the tenth. He was able to shut it down from there to get the save.

The Cubs head to Atlanta today for a three-game series against the Braves.