Henry Davis slugs late go-ahead homer as Pirates send Cubs to a 9th straight loss in 2-1 victory

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PITTSBURGH (AP) — Henry Davis hit a go-ahead solo home run in the seventh inning, and the Pittsburgh Pirates sent the Chicago Cubs to their ninth straight loss with a 2-1 victory on Monday.

Davis turned on a 91 mph cutter from Cubs reliever Trent Thornton (2-1) and sent it well over the right-field fence for his fourth home run of the season.

Pittsburgh's bullpen made it stand up. Wilber Dotel (1-0) tossed three scoreless innings in relief to pick up the victory. Gregory Soto worked a perfect ninth for his sixth save as the Pirates beat the Cubs for the third time in four tries so far this season.

Brandon Lowe had two hits for Pittsburgh, including an RBI double. Spencer Horwitz also had a pair of hits and a handful of excellent plays at first base, all of them against Cubs star Pete Crow-Armstrong. Horwitz was perfectly positioned to snatch a couple of line drives and then made a brilliant diving grab on a sharp grounder before tossing to Dotel covering first to rob Crow-Armstrong of a hit.

Michael Busch hit his sixth homer of the season for Chicago, but it wasn't enough to halt a funk that is nearing three weeks. Chicago's nine-game skid is the franchise's longest since a 10-game slide in 2022. The Cubs have dropped 13 of 15 overall to fall into the middle of the pack in the hyper-competitive NL Central, where all five teams started Memorial Day above .500.

Cubs starter Ben Brown allowed one run and four hits over six innings with two walks and seven strikeouts, whittling his ERA to 2.01.

Pirates starter Carmen Mlodzinski — fighting hard to stay in the rotation as Jared Jones nears his return from elbow surgery — allowed one run over five innings with three walks and three strikeouts.

The series continues on Tuesday. Braxton Ashcraft (3-2, 2.89 ERA) starts for the Pirates.

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