PITTSBURGH — It wasn’t exactly a victory lap. Nobody on the Cubs is quite ready to take one just yet, even after back-to-back wins for a team that had gone 10 games without seeing its favorite consonant, the W.
Besides, the double gauntlet Pete Crow-Armstrong ran in the Cubs’ dugout after scoring the final run in their 7-2 victory Thursday against Paul Skenes and Pirates was funnier.
Crow-Armstrong was called out by plate umpire Dan Bellino while attempting to score on Alex Bregman’s ground ball to first baseman Spencer Horwitz in the ninth inning. Horwitz threw home to catcher Henry Davis, who applied the tag.
Out, Bellino bellowed.
But PCA didn’t believe it for a second. He ran to the dugout, all the while making a ‘‘put on the headphones’’ gesture to manager Craig Counsell, insisting he challenge the call. PCA didn’t stop there. He jogged down the steps, then skittered the length of the dugout, arms extended to receive high-fives from his teammates.
And when the call was overturned on review, PCA’s splendid slide barely beating Davis’ tag, the irrepressible one did it again, even more enthusiastically than the first time.
Yes, it was a good night to be a Cub. They’ve been missing for a while.
‘‘It was a wonderful slide and a big run,’’ said Counsell, treasuring even a superfluous run for a team that has struggled mightily for the better part of two weeks to put any on the board.
And did Counsell extend a hand to the excitable boy on his dugout dashes?
‘‘The first one, no,’’ Counsell said. ‘‘We were making sure we had the replay. I’m not sure I got [him] the second time.’’
The Cubs knew coming in that Skenes would be a handful, and he didn’t disappoint, striking out seven of the 10 batters he faced in the first three innings, including six in a row (Michael Busch, Bregman, Ian Happ, Seiya Suzuki, Moises Ballesteros and Miguel Amaya going K-K-K-K-K-K).
But Cubs starter Colin Rea met the moment, holding the Pirates scoreless on two hits through the first five innings.
The Cubs, meanwhile, caught a break, the kind of thing that doesn’t happen when you’re losing 10 in a row. Busch drew a one-out walk in the fourth. One out later, Skenes tried to bare-hand Happ’s bouncer to the right of the mound. The ball caromed off flesh, Happ reached without a throw and Suzuki then blooped a run-scoring hit for his first RBI in 12 games.
Skenes was done in by his defense in the sixth, with two infield throwing errors leading to a pair of unearned runs. Happ, who knocked in a season-high five runs in the streak-buster Wednesday, then hit a two-run home run in the eighth, his 12th of the season and second in two nights, to extend the lead.
The victory belonged to Rea, who gave up a solo homer to Bryan Reynolds in the sixth.
Boyd nearing return
Left-hander Matthew Boyd, who has been out since May 4 after having arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee, is scheduled to make a rehab start Sunday at Triple-A Iowa.
Boyd will be checked out Monday, but if all goes well, he could return to the Cubs’ rotation in time for the series against the Giants next weekend at Wrigley Field. In his last start for the Cubs, Boyd gave up two runs and four hits in six innings and was the winning pitcher in an 8-4 victory against the Diamondbacks at Wrigley.
• Utility player Matt Shaw (back) will go through infield progressions this weekend in St. Louis. If all goes well, Counsell said he’ll be sent on a rehab assignment.
