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The Cubs' Pete Crow-Armstrong celebrates with Nico Hoerner after the former's two-run home run in the fifth inning Tuesday night at PNC Park.

Through the first three-plus innings of his latest outing tonight, Andrew Heaney was nothing short of perfect. 

He didn't have the same swing-and-miss stuff he had last week in Los Angeles and he didn't rack up the strikeouts like he's done at times this year, but he found a way to remain effective. Heaney attacked hitters with his entire arsenal and let his defense work behind him en route to retiring the first 11 batters he faced. 

Heaney extended his career-best scoreless streak of 16 1/3 innings, but couldn't stymie the Cubs the second time through the order, as he allowed four runs on five hits -- including two home runs -- and three walks over his next inning of work in the Pirates' 9-0 loss at PNC Park. 

"I had some good defense the first three innings," Heaney said. "You can't defend homers or walks. Gotta do a better job of keeping the ball in play and letting guys make plays for me."

The momentum Heaney and his defenders helped generate in the early innings faded in a flash after Seiya Suzuki delivered a two-out double for the Cubs' first hit of the game. After that, Heaney began to make too many mistakes, leaving pitches either up in the zone or too far out over the plate. The Cubs rank among Major League Baseball's top teams in a number of offensive categories, including batting average (.263; second), home runs (42; fourth), hits (278; first) and runs scored (181; first), so there wasn't a chance they would fail in making Heaney pay for those mistakes. 

"I think you gotta credit the Cubs' approach. The one thing they do is they put the ball in play a ton," Derek Shelton said. "We talked about suppressing contact in the pregame with Heaney, but they move the ball all the time. They do a really good job with their approach one through nine and I think we saw that exemplified today." 

The Cubs made adjustments the second time through the order. Their aggressive approach allowed them to generate hits early in counts against Heaney. Both of the home runs he gave up came on either the first or second pitch of the at-bat. 

Carson Kelly sent an 0-1 slider on the inner part of the plate into left for a two-run shot that made it 2-0 in the fourth ... 

... and Pete Crow-Armstrong sent a first-pitch fastball on the inner part of the plate over the Clemente Wall for a no-doubter that doubled the lead in the fifth: 

Crow-Armstrong's homer in particular was preceded by perhaps one of the biggest mistakes Heaney made on this night: 

MLB.com

That's not exactly where you want to leave an 87.5 mph fastball to Nico Hoerner, who entered the night hitting .286 with 14 RBIs on the young season. Hoerner didn't miss on that, either, sending a sharp liner into center for a leadoff double that set the tone for an inning in which Heaney allowed the two hits and lost command by walking three of the final five batters he faced. 

"Definitely not great execution," Heaney said. "I think the first time through, they were on balls. We just made some plays. I think I didn't do a good job of adjusting and making better pitches when they're a good hitting team. You can't just do the same thing every time through the lineup."

While Heaney was flawless early on, he didn't have his best stuff by any means. He experienced a dip in velocity with all five of his pitches, regularly missed outside with his changeup and generated less spin with his curveball -- 2428 RPM -- after entering the night averaging around 2557 RPM.

He threw 28 four-seam fastballs and generated 14 swings. There was only one whiff, five foul balls and eight that were put in play. Of the 15 changeups he threw, one was fouled off and six were put in play. Eight of his pitches were charted as having been hit hard in fair territory.

"You don't know they're going to put the ball in play until the ball is out of your hand," Heaney said. "You have to make good decisions when the ball is in your hand. Make better pitches, I guess."

The four runs Heaney allowed on this night were the first he surrendered since April 12. On that day, he allowed a third-inning grand slam to Cincinnati's Elly De La Cruz before closing out his outing with 3 1/3 scoreless innings. He put together two scoreless performances against the Nationals and Angels to extend his streak and pushed it to an even 20 straight scoreless innings with his early success in this one. 

Heaney's streak was the longest by a Pirates pitcher since Bailey Falter's string of 19 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings last year. Heaney entered today ranked second among qualified major-league pitchers in WHIP (0.77), tied for fourth in batting average against (.165) and sixth in ERA (1.72). That ERA was the second-lowest among qualified left-handed pitchers, behind the Yankees' Max Fried (1.43).

Heaney isn't a fan of losing and he isn't at all happy about the performance he put forth in failing to finish off five innings for the first time this season. Still, it's important for any pitcher to find a way to flush a bad outing. Especially when they've been as productive as Heaney has been through his first six starts -- 2-2 record, 2.50 ERA, 0.89 WHIP -- in a Pirates uniform. 

"It's part of the game," Heaney said. "You win some, you lose some. You have great days, you have bad days. It's not gonna change who I am, or what I do."