Paul Skenes had one of his best starts in months. Ryan O’Hearn came off the injured list and flipped the game with a go-ahead, three-run homer.

It wasn’t enough for a win.

The Chicago Cubs beat the Pirates, 4-3, on Saturday afternoon at Wrigley Field. O’Hearn’s blast had given the Pirates the lead when Skenes left after seven innings, but Gregory Soto issued a bases-loaded walk, then hit the next batter to blow the save in the eighth.

The loss moved the Pirates (74-75) below .500 and snapped a streak of five consecutive series wins.

“That one hurts,” manager Don Kelly said on the SportsNet Pittsburgh postgame show.

While the Pirates’ postseason chances were already near-zero, the eighth inning is one Kelly will want back. He said he went with Soto because Pete Crow-Armstrong, an MVP candidate, was up in the inning. Soto allowed a leadoff double to Pedro Ramirez, then struck out the next two batters, including Crow-Armstrong.

That’s when the outing went south. Soto hit Alex Bregman, then walked pinch hitter Seiya Suzuki to load the bases. Soto walked another pinch hitter, Matt Shaw, to tie the game, then his next pitch hit Nico Hoerner for the winning run. All four are right-handers, and the Pirates had right-hander Yohan Ramirez warming in the bullpen throughout the inning.

Soto hadn’t allowed an earned run in his last 12 outings. Neither Suzuki or Shaw had had a hit against Soto in their careers. Kelly referenced both, but is still left second-guessing.

“Maybe in hindsight, I should have had [Luke] Weaver up and [ready] to come in,” Kelly said. “Just something with Soto — he's been so good and made some huge pitches. The wheels haven't fallen off like that. He's been really good for the most part for us.”

Any loss hurts, but this one was particularly painful. Skenes allowed two solo homers, but no other damage, in seven innings, his longest start since July 19 in Cleveland. He struck out four, allowing just four hits and a walk.

Kelly turned to Soto for the eighth, even though Skenes had thrown just 82 pitches. Skenes hasn’t thrown a pitch in the eighth inning since May.

“To give us seven innings at 82 — he hasn't been over 93 pitches and has been dealing with some stuff in this second half — he gave us everything he had today,” Kelly said.

The Pirates have been waiting weeks to get O’Hearn back in the lineup so he can have moments like Saturday’s homer. They’re glad to have him back, but dropping the first two games of the series likely put the postseason out of reach.

“It's a sprint to the end of the season now,” Skenes said. “We’ve got to show up and win every game, basically.”

It was over when …

Rafael Flores Jr. led off the top of the ninth by reaching with a pinch-hit infield single, a grounder Alex Bregman bobbled. The top two in the Pirates’ order were then retired by Cubs lefty Ryan Rolison.

Right-hander Ryan Zeferjahn struck out Bryan Reynolds looking for the final out. Reynolds challenged the 3-2 pitch, but the call was confirmed.

On the mound

Early on, the Cubs capitalized on Skenes’ mistakes. Michael Busch hit Skenes’ eighth pitch, a 95.6-mph fastball on the outer half of the plate, to left-center for a solo homer in the first. In the third, Skenes left a 94.8-mph fastball down the heart of the plate that Ramirez hit out for a solo homer of his own.

But that was the only real damage. Skenes leaned heavily on his slider and got ahead of batters, throwing a first-pitch strike to 16 of 25 hitters. He recorded 12 whiffs, induced two double plays and threw four or fewer pitches to 20 of 25.

“Solo home runs shouldn't beat you unless you give up a bunch of them,” Skenes said. “To only give up two solo home runs today, I think it was a pretty good day.”

Seven innings were meaningful for a Pirates team with just three healthy starters. Skenes did his part, but the Pirates couldn’t end up with the win.

“It’s been a little bit of a battle this year [to go deep], so it's great to cover my innings,” Skenes said, before praising Jared Jones and Bubba Chandler. “... This last turn, I think we've done a really good job of covering the innings that we need to. Really just trying to keep the line moving on that.”

At the plate

The Pirates made the most of their chance against right-hander Clay Holmes in the sixth. Brandon Lowe led off the inning with a single, then Bryan Reynolds reached on Nico Hoerner’s error. After Konnor Griffin flew out, O’Hearn blasted a 2-0 cutter over the right-field wall for a go-ahead homer.

O’Hearn was glad to contribute, but disappointed in the end result.

“That's why I'm back here, just driving [in] runs,” O’Hearn said. “But obviously, ultimately it’s about winning games, especially at this point in the season. Everybody knows how important these games are. Tough to have it kind of fall apart and unravel there in the eighth.”

They had other chances. Holmes allowed five hits and walked four batters in his 5 2/3 innings, striking out six. But Holmes retired nine of 10 Pirates in the middle innings, then right-hander Jacob Webb got Oneil Cruz to ground out to strand two more in the sixth.

The Pirates had six hits. They went 1 for 4 with runners in scoring position and left nine on base.

Bucs bites

— Before the game, the Pirates placed outfielder Esmerlyn Valdez on the 10-day injured list with a left hamstring strain. In his place, they recalled outfielder Ronny Simon from Triple-A Indianapolis. Simon had been optioned on Friday when O’Hearn was activated.

Up next

The Pirates will conclude six games in Chicago and their three-game set against the Cubs at 2:20 p.m. Sunday. Chandler (7-9, 4.25) will face Cubs lefty Matthew Boyd (8-4, 4.03).

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