New-look lineup produces one hit, shut out by Cubs taken in Chicago (Courtesy of StepOutside.org)

Colin Moran drops his helmet after striking out as a pinch-hitter in the eighth inning Saturday. - AP

CHICAGO — Starling Marte sprinted towards left-center field, quickly waved off Austin Meadows and slipped on the wet outfield grass while trying to catch a fly ball at Wrigley Field. The ball bounced towards the ivy-covered wall and put two Cubs in scoring position with no outs in the first inning.

One pitch later, the Cubs took a one-run lead. The other run scored two pitches after that. It was all they would need against a scuffling offense. The Pirates, using a reconstructed lineup with Josh Bell no longer batting cleanup, managed only one hit and had 19 retired in a row to complete a 2-0 loss to the first-place Cubs on Saturday afternoon.

It was the Pirates' 16th loss in their last 21 games, a stretch that began May 17 when they were atop the Central Division at eight games over .500. They've since fallen to 31-33, owning the fourth-worst record in the National League, as seemingly every bat in the lineup has gone cold over the past three weeks.

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"I don’t like to say everything is contagious, but a lot of things are, it seems like," Clint Hurdle said. "Today, though, I’m going to tell you flat out [Jordy] Mercer hit the ball on the screws today three times and got no hits. Everybody in the lineup with the exception of [Gregory] Polanco barreled up a ball hard. … We came out with nothing. We came out with one hit. That’s part of the mercy of the game sometimes."

The Pirates can ill afford to settle for hard-hit balls. They were shutout for the third time this week and are now eight games back in the Central Division. The Cubs, meanwhile, are a season-high 13 games over .500 and have won 12 of their last 15 games. Nearly two months earlier, on April 12, the Pirates earned a series win at Wrigley Field with a 6-1 win, sparked by Polanco's two home runs.

They've now lost seven series in a row, and Polanco is batting only .143 over the past 21 games. Bell has also struggled during that span, leading Hurdle to reshuffle his lineup with Bell moving to the six-hole and Francisco Cervelli, who was removed from the game in the fourth inning after taking a foul ball off his catcher's mask, batting cleanup.

The lineup had an underwhelming debut. The Pirates went a combined 1 for 28, including 0 for 3 in scoring position, against Jon LesterJustin Wilson and Steve CishekAustin Meadows' triple to the right-field corner with two outs in the third was their only hit.

One batter later, Starling Marte, a catalyst for the Pirates' offense before his oblique injury last month, grounded out to third base. Lester, whom the Pirates scored four runs on in their last meeting, retired the next 12 batters he faced to finish seven scoreless innings.

The left-hander had only three balls hit to the outfield in that span. He struck out five and walked two, retiring 21 of the 24 batters he faced. "He got the best of us," Marte said.

Wilson and Cishek combined to strike out three of the final six batters, and the game ended when Marte hit a pop fly to foul territory in shallow right field. As Hurdle stated previously, bad luck may have factored into some of the offense's issues. It began in the first when Marte drove this ball to the left-field corner, where Kyle Schwarber did this:

 

Cervelli drove a ball to the warning track to lead off the second. Freese hit a ball into the gap in right-center that Ian Happ chased down in the fourth and Sean Rodriguez sliced a ball to deep right that went directly to Heyward in right field. Additionally, Mercer hit a ball to center in the sixth and Bell lined out to right in the seventh.

However, some tough luck doesn't mask the overall numbers, as Hurdle later admitted.

"Again, you just deal with the facts," he said. "We have to work to get better. Maybe we shuffle the personnel around. You look at lineups, I’ve been scratching them out for a while now to try to make some subtle adjustments, where you go with that. I usually don’t have to worry about showing up and having nothing to do. I think that’s where they’re at."

Here's where they're at:

• Marte, batting .303 at the time of his oblique injury last month, is 9 for 48 with 13 strikeouts and three extra-base hits in 13 games since being activated from the disabled list. He went 0 for 4 against the Cubs.

• Bell, the Pirates' RBI leader and a National League Rookie of the Year finalist last season, went 0 for 2 with a walk and is 11 for 71 (.154) over the past 21 games.

• Rodriguez, starting Saturday with Josh Harrison away from the team because of a personal matter, went 0 for 3 with two more strikeouts and has five hits in his last 35 at-bats for a .142 average, striking out 12 times during that span.

• Polanco, the NL's RBI leader when the Pirates completed the series win here in April, went 0 for 3 and has struck out 17 times in his last 52 at-bats.

"The mentality is to remain focused, keep everyone focused, keep working hard, keep making adjustments," Marte said. "When the game is going well, we celebrate and enjoy it. When the game is going wrong, that’s when we need to make mental and physical adjustments. That’s what we’re working on right now."

Therein lies the challenge. Hurdle moved Bell to provide the 25-year-old first baseman with lower-leverage at-bats to try to spark positive change, but what does a manager do when seemingly the whole lineup is struggling? Polanco continues to do drill work with hitting coach Jeff Branson, focusing on pitch selection and keeping his swing short.

Timing was to blame for Bell's issues in April, yet he's now struggling with a mechanical flaw where his lower and upper body are out of synch. Rodriguez, meanwhile, is swinging and missing at hittable pitches. Marte has swung at too many pitches out of the strike zone since returning from the disabled list, leading to non-competitive at-bats.

Corey Dickerson has been the Pirates' only consistent hitter this season. They'll need more than only one of nine starters to provide offense in order to salvage what's become an ugly first half to the season, yet Hurdle and players expressed confidence that better times are ahead.

"Overall, we’ve got some guys we’d love to be more consistent," Hurdle said. "There’s no doubt about it, and they’re working hard to be more consistent. It has been challenging offensively, our overall consistency, because we throw out a couple games we score a lot of runs and then we have games like this."

1. Marte in the wrong, regardless of field conditions.

Marte, a two-time Gold Glove winner as a left fielder in 2015 and 2016, remains one of the best defensive outfielders in the sport and is an upgrade in center over Andrew McCutchen. So, you can imagine what he was thinking when Heyward smoked a ball to left-center in the first inning:

 

"You're a center fielder, you've won a Gold Glove, I think you call for the ball if you think you can get to the ball," Hurdle said. "I think if you're looking at anything else you're picking scabs, really, with the process. ... He fell."

That's a fair assessment by Hurdle. After all, Marte clearly had the speed to get to the ball in time. On the other hand, his ability to get to a fly ball shouldn't be the only requirement when determining if he or one of the corner outfielders should go for a ball. It was no secret to either team or the 41,045 fans in attendance the grass was wet.

It rained all morning in the Windy City and didn't stop until roughly 90 minutes before a game-time first temperature of 65 degrees. With that in mind, it would have been a routine play for Meadows to make. Instead, Marte tried to do too much, and it cost the Pirates two valuable runs in the first inning.

Every run counts when your offense is scuffling, and the opponent is as talented as the Cubs. Nick Kingham, who was on the mound for the Pirates, deserved better.

"Unfortunately, the grass was still wet," Marte said. "Running at the speed I was running, I grabbed the ball and slipped. You guys saw the results."

2. Again, Kingham deserved better.

Kingham, making his sixth major-league start this season, had his best outing since his major-league debut against the Cardinals on April 29. The right-hander allowed two earned runs in 6 1/3 innings, striking out five with two walks. Like his start in St. Louis six days earlier, Kingham responded well following an early deficit.

He hit Kris Bryant with a fastball on the arm to lead off the top of the first, and Heyward reached second base on Marte's slip to put two on with no outs. Kingham got Ben Zobrist to ground out to first, allowing the Cubs' first run to score from third. Anthony Rizzo then flied out to right, and Heyward tagged from third to score for a 2-0 lead.

"You just have to keep pounding, keep attacking the hitters," Kingham said. "They were swinging early, so I tried to use that to my advantage, try to get through the at-bat as quick as I could."

That's how he struck out Willson Contreras to end the first. Kingham walked back-to-back hitters to lead off the second before striking out three in a row, including Bryant with a changeup at the knees. All in all, Kingham retired 15 of the final 18 batters he faced, retiring the side in order in the fifth and sixth innings.

Kingham left the game with one out in the seventh after allowing a one-out single to Addison Russell. He threw 65 of his 99 pitches for strikes, mixing his 94-mph four-seam fastball with a wipeout slider, drop-off-the-table changeup and a curveball.

While the Cubs' left-handers tortured Kingham at PNC Park on May 29, he held them to three hits in 17 at-bats.

"If we don’t slip on a ball in the outfield we could still be playing," Hurdle said. "He was in command of everything. ... Excellent outing."

However, it may be Kingham headed back to Triple-A. Hurdle announced following the game that Ivan Nova will be activated from the disabled list in time to start against the Cubs on Sunday.

Kingham has pitched well enough to stay, yet the Pirates really have no room for him. Trevor Williams has been terrible in his last three starts, and Chad Kuhl is unpredictable, but neither one has pitched his way out of the rotation yet. Plus, Nova deserves a chance to reclaim his spot since his finger injury led to some of his struggles in May.

Still, the Pirates seem to have developed a capable sixth starter who could take a rotation spot if underperformance continues or another injury pops up.

"The growth we’ve seen, the development we’ve seen, it’s all trending up," Hurdle said. "He’s learning, I think, at a very, very quick rate and a very, very solid rate."

3. Cervelli's injury a difficult blow. 

The extent of Cervelli's injury isn't known, but it didn't look promising. When Heyward's foul ball struck Cervelli on the left shoulder and ricocheted to hit him on the left side of the jaw in the bottom of the third inning, Cervelli stood at home plate looking dazed, touching his jaw and shaking his head with his mask off

Cervelli was checked on by Hurdle and head athletic trainer Bryan Housand at the conclusion of the at-bat, but he remained in the game and led off the fourth with a ground out. Hurdle watched closely as Cervelli walked slowly back to the dugout and decided to replace him with Elias Diaz.

Sure, the Pirates do have catching depth. Diaz has gone 19 for 61 (.311) with two doubles, four home runs and 13 RBIs in 17 starts this season. Additionally, pitchers have a combined 4.21 ERA with him behind the plate. Jacob Stallings, meanwhile, is batting .294 with a .740 OPS in 40 games with Triple-A Indianapolis and knows this pitching staff well.

But the Pirates can't replace Cervelli. He entered Saturday ranked first among catchers in the majors in OPS and on-base percentage. Plus, he's invaluable behind the plate with his pitch-calling and improved arm strength.

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