Colin Rea and Cubs Keep Same Lineup After 12-1 Loss
Colin Rea was not the story here. Craig Counsell kept the same Cubs lineup against the Pirates one day after a 12-1 loss, and the same nine starters stayed in place at PNC Park for a 5:40 PM CT game. The Cubs entered at 29-26 and carried a 10-game losing streak into the matchup.
Cubs Stick With Nine Starters
Pete Crow-Armstrong led off again, with Nico Hoerner second, Michael Busch third and Alex Bregman fourth. Ian Happ hit fifth, Seiya Suzuki sixth, Moisés Ballesteros seventh, Carson Kelly eighth and Dansby Swanson ninth. It was the same order Counsell used in the previous game, a direct response that kept the top and bottom of the order intact after the Pirates handed Chicago a 12-1 defeat.
Carson Kelly stayed in the lineup instead of Miguel Amaya. That choice mattered because it kept the catcher spot unchanged even after the previous loss, when the Cubs had plenty to sort through in a game that slipped away early and badly enough to leave them searching for any cleaner offensive start.
Crow-Armstrong And Suzuki
Crow-Armstrong’s spot at the top remained under a microscope. He had two hits in his 17 plate appearances as a leadoff hitter, so Counsell still gave him the first at-bats against Pittsburgh rather than moving him down the order.
Suzuki stayed in the sixth spot even though he had not hit his way on base since May 19 against the Brewers. Swanson, batting.183, held the ninth spot, leaving Counsell with the same late-order setup despite the skid and the blunt reminder from the 12-1 loss.
PNC Park Rematch
The matchup itself was simple: the Cubs and Pirates both came in at 29-26, and Chicago had already dropped the first game of this series by 11 runs. That left Counsell with a lineup choice that leaned on familiarity rather than a full shuffle, even after the team had tried to shake things up over the prior week.
For Chicago, the immediate takeaway was the same nine names and the same batting order in a game that followed one of the season’s roughest losses. The pressure now sits on that group to turn a repeat lineup into a different result, because the streak and the record leave little room for another flat night.
