PITTSBURGH — More than five hours after the game began, Cubs players finally shuffled through the visitors’ dugout at PNC Park toward the tunnel.
After plenty of rain and home runs, a highly anticipated major-league debut and a franchise-history-making inning, the Cubs had fallen short in a 10-9 loss to the Pirates.
‘‘It felt like a doubleheader of sorts,’’ said shortstop Nico Hoerner, who drove in the Cubs’ first two runs with a homer and a bases-loaded walk. ‘‘A lot to break down from a day like that.’’
The game was set to be a marquee pitching matchup. MLB’s top mound prospect, Paul Skenes, made his major-league debut for the Pirates. The Cubs countered with left-hander Justin Steele.
Steele struggled in a rare dud of a start, allowing six runs, all on homers. He gave up back-to-back homers to Connor Joe (a three-run shot) and Oneil Cruz (a solo blast) in the third inning, surrendering homers to consecutive batters for the first time in his career. Both came on sliders.
‘‘I was getting to two strikes by throwing good, competitive sliders,’’ Steele said. ‘‘And then when I would get to two strikes I’d probably try to do a little too much, try to rip it a little too hard, and it ends up just kind of spinning in the middle of the zone for too long. They were able to put a good swing on it.’’
Then in the fourth, a two-run homer by Michael A. Taylor made it the first game in which Steele had allowed three homers since Sept. 4, 2021.
Skenes, on the other hand, notched seven strikeouts in four-plus innings. He gave up the solo homer to Hoerner in the fourth, then left to a standing ovation with two runners on and no outs in the fifth.
‘‘We did a decent job getting some guys on base and putting some pressure on and getting the pitch count moving in the right direction,’’ manager Craig Counsell said. ‘‘But it’s a huge fastball, there’s no question about it. And the sinker is a good pitch, too.’’
Kyle Nicolas took over for Skenes and got two strikeouts. But then he hit Ian Happ with a pitch to load the bases and issued three consecutive walks to push across three runs that pulled the Cubs to 6-4.
Josh Fleming replaced Nicolas, but he walked in another run, trimming the Pirates’ lead to 6-5.
A drizzle already had begun when Mike Tauchman stepped into the batter’s box for the second time in the inning.
Lightning flashed. Thunder rumbled. Then Tauchman hit an infield single to Cruz at short to drive in the tying run.
The rain had intensified, and the game went into a delay with the score knotted 6-6 with two outs in the top of the fifth.
After a two-hour, 20-minute delay, the Cubs made franchise history.
Seiya Suzuki drew a four-pitch walk for the fifth bases-loaded walk of the inning, a club record, and the Cubs took a 7-6 lead. Then Bellinger drew another RBI walk.
The lead, however, didn’t hold for long. Keegan Thompson took the mound for the Cubs after the rain delay and surrendered a three-run homer to Yasmani Grandal to put the Pirates back on top 9-8. In the next inning, Richard Lovelady gave up a solo homer to Andrew McCutchen.
‘‘We gave up 10 runs,’’ Counsell said. ‘‘That’s how you lose games when you score [seven] runs in an inning.’’
Third baseman Christopher Morel didn’t return after the rain delay because of soreness in his right knee.
A trainer had checked on him after a slide into second base in the third, but Counsell said the Cubs were ‘‘not too concerned about it.’’
