{"id":203155,"date":"2026-05-27T04:20:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T04:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/203155\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T04:20:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T04:20:17","slug":"chicago-cubs-vs-pittsburgh-pirates-preview-tuesday-5-26-540-ct","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/203155\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Cubs vs. Pittsburgh Pirates preview, Tuesday 5\/26, 5:40 CT"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tuesday notes\u2026<\/p>\n

NOT SOMETHING YOU HAD HOPED TO READ THIS YEAR: The Cubs<\/a> are the 26th team since 1901 to have at least one double-digit winning streak and at least one losing streak of nine games in the same season. The Guardians were the previous team to do it. Last year, they won 10 and lost 10, to become the 19th team with double-digit streaks of both kinds. The three others with 10 or more wins and at least nine losses since 2000 were the Dodgers<\/a> in 2017 (11 of each), Guardians in 2008 (10 of each) and Pirates<\/a> in 2004 (10 and nine). The Cubs did it once before, in 1970 (10 and 12). The Guardians have had four seasons of at least 10 and nine; the Orioles<\/a> and Senators\/Twins, three; and the Phillies, Pirates, Red Sox<\/a> and Reds<\/a>, two. Teams besides the Cubs with one: Athletics, Braves, Brewers<\/a>, Dodgers, Giants, Yankees<\/a> and White Sox<\/a>. That makes a total of 15 teams that have done it at least once. The 1976 White Sox and 1985 Twins both won 10 and lost nine and 10. The 1987 Orioles won 11 and lost nine and 10. (Courtesy BCB\u2019s JohnW53)<\/p>\n

CAN\u2019T WIN IF YOU DON\u2019T SCORE: Yesterday\u2019s game was the 12th this season in which the Cubs gave up exactly two runs. They have lost three of them. They are 3-0 when yielding both no runs and one. They are 2-2 with three runs allowed, 6-4 with four, 3-3 with five \u2014 and 6-16 with five or more. (Courtesy BCB\u2019s JohnW53)<\/p>\n

LIKE NIGHT AND DAY: After Monday\u2019s loss, the Cubs are only 13-15 in day games, while going 16-10 under the lights.<\/p>\n

TODAY IN CUBS HISTORY: A two-run homer by Alfonso Soriano<\/a> in the eighth ties the game against the Reds and a double by Welington Castillo<\/a> in the ninth gives the team a 5-4 win in Cincinnati<\/a>. The win ends a six-game losing streak. It happened 13 years ago today, Sunday, May 26, 2013.<\/p>\n

Cubs lineup:<\/p>\n

Pirates lineup:<\/p>\n

Jordan Wicks<\/a>, LHP vs. Braxton Ashcraft<\/a>, RHP\"\"<\/p>\n

So here we are, with another pitcher from Triple-A Iowa pressed into service because of a rotation injury.<\/p>\n

Jordan Wicks was the Cubs\u2019 No. 1 pick out of Kansas State in 2021 and there were great hopes for him to be a solid starter. He did reasonably well in seven starts in 2023 but the next two years were filled with bad pitching and injuries. This year, he suffered nerve irritation in his left forearm and had to start the year on the IL, then had a rehab assignment to Triple-A Iowa and then one start there after being optioned.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Potential hope: Over his last three starts at Iowa, Wicks has allowed only one run in 15 total innings. His walk rate is a bit high, though.<\/p>\n

This, obviously, is his MLB season debut for 2026. Hopefully it goes well. The pitch chart below is from last year. It was obviously a very different Pirates team, but Wicks made his MLB debut at PNC Park Aug. 26, 2023<\/a> and threw five two-hit innings, striking out nine. Perhaps he can channel that tonight. To date, that\u2019s Wicks\u2019 only career appearance against the Pirates.<\/p>\n

Braxton Ashcraft has done well as a full-time member of the Pirates rotation this year: 10 starts, 2.89 ERA, 1.027 WHIP. That includes five innings of one-run ball against the Cubs April 11 at Wrigley Field<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This month he has a 1.91 ERA and 0.882 WHIP in four starts, with 26 strikeouts and only four walks in 28.1 innings.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

So tonight will not be an easy task for Cubs hitters.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

Here is the weather forecast for the area around PNC Park.<\/a><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s game is on Marquee Sports Network.<\/p>\n

Here is the complete MLB.com live streaming page for today.<\/a><\/p>\n

MLB.com Gameday<\/a><\/p>\n

Baseball-reference.com game preview<\/a><\/p>\n

Please visit our SB Nation Pirates site\u00a0Bucs Dugout<\/a>. If you do go there to interact with Pirates fans, please be respectful, abide by their individual site rules and serve as a good representation of Cub fans in general and BCB in particular.<\/p>\n

The 2026 game discussion procedure has been changed, so please take note.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll find the game preview, like this one, posted separately on the front page two hours before game time (90 minutes for some early day games following night games).<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

At the same time, a StoryStream containing the preview will also post on the front page, titled \u201cCubs vs. (Team) (Day of week\/date) game threads.\u201d It will contain every post related to that particular game.<\/p>\n

The Live! (formerly \u201cFirst Pitch\u201d) thread will still post at five minutes to game time. It will also post to the front page. That will be the only live game discussion thread. After the game, the recap and Heroes and Goats will also live on the front page as separate posts.<\/p>\n

You will also be able to find the preview, Live! thread, recap and Heroes and Goats in\u00a0this section link<\/a>. The StoryStream for each game can also be found in that section.<\/p>\n

Discuss amongst yourselves.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Join the conversation!<\/p>\n

Sign up for a user account<\/a>\u00a0and get:<\/p>\n

Comment on articles, community posts<\/p>\n

Rec comments, community posts<\/p>\n

New, improved notifications system!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tuesday notes\u2026 NOT SOMETHING YOU HAD HOPED TO READ THIS YEAR: The Cubs are the 26th team since…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203156,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[89708,71622,58642,4702,39131,51888,89220,69700,18203,73767,73,75,74,10997,51891,70841,89707,37445,89208,42344],"class_list":["post-203155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-alfonso-soriano","tag-braxton-ashcraft","tag-brewers","tag-cincinnati","tag-cubs","tag-dodgers","tag-jordan-wicks","tag-orioles","tag-pirates","tag-pirates-lineup","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-red-sox","tag-reds","tag-welington-castillo","tag-white-sox","tag-winning-streak","tag-yankees"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}