Alec Mills, who usually starts out well then runs out of gas in the middle innings, had the opposite problem Tuesday night in Pittsburgh. He was touched up for four straight hits and three runs with one out in the first inning.
But then Mills settled down, for a while, anyway, and the Cubs scored six unanswered runs.
And then... Mills did his usual sixth-inning fade, the Pirates came back, and the end result was an 8-6 loss, the Cubs’ seventh in a row. The defeat snapped a seven-game winning streak against the Pirates and was the Cubs’ 90th loss of 2021, making this their first 90+ loss year since the 96-loss 2013 season.