Cubs blown out by Pirates, lose 10th straight after authoring pair of 10-game win streaks earlier this season

The Chicago Cubs are in free fall.

They plummeted to a new low on Tuesday in Pittsburgh, where their May malaise continued with a 12-1 defeat to the Pirates. The Cubs, who were 27-12 on May 8 after stitching together their second 10-game winning streak of the 2026 campaign, are now 29-26, having lost 10 straight and 14 of their past 16 games.

They keep losing ground in a crowded NL Central, the only MLB division that doesn’t have a team below .500.

Chicago’s offense has been dormant during this winless stretch. The Cubs have struggled mightily with runners in scoring position, a development that flared up again Tuesday at PNC Park. They piled up eight hits, but their lone run came in the second inning. They had men on first and second with no outs in the ninth yet came away scoreless once more to finish the blowout defeat with a whimper.

Chicago’s 10-game skid is its longest since 2022. That slide took place between June 4 and June 16 four years ago. This year’s drought arrived before June, and so did the club’s two 10-game winning streaks.

Has an MLB team experienced highs and lows like this before?

Yes. Back in 2017, the Los Angeles Dodgers won 10 games in a row in June and 11 in a row in July, only to drop 11 straight contests in September. For what it’s worth, the Dodgers made the World Series that season before losing in seven games to the Houston Astros.

As for the Pirates, they’re now 29-26, too. They’ve won five of their past seven contests. They came into Tuesday tied for the fourth-highest batting average (.249) in MLB and produced 15 hits. It didn’t take them long to rough up Cubs lefty Jordan Wicks.

Wicks, whom Chicago recalled from Triple-A Iowa on Sunday, gave up five runs right off the bat. A disastrous first inning began with him issuing a four-pitch walk to Pirates rookie Konnor Griffin, who became the franchise’s youngest player to hit leadoff since Bobby Del Greco in 1952.