Pirates offense shows a spark, but too late

Colin Moran drops his batting gloves after a fourth-inning strikeout Friday in Chicago. - APCHICAGO -- While they did show some life late in the game, the Pirates' offense struggled for most of Friday, and wound up dropping the first leg of a five-game road trip to the Cubs, 6-3.

After being one-hit in Wednesday's loss, the Pirates only had two hits going into the eighth inning Friday. There, they did manage to scrap out a run on a Jarrod Dyson single, snapping a 16 inning scoreless streak, before Josh Bell and Colin Moran went deep on back-to-back Craig Kimbrel pitches in the ninth.

"Tonight, obviously the best swings we took of the night were in the ninth, which was encouraging, especially…