Owners of the longest current winning streak in the majors, the Chicago Cubs will look to continue their dominant starting pitching when they face the reeling Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday night.

Chicago recorded its seventh straight win with a 7-4 decision Tuesday over Philadelphia, which has lost seven games in a row.

Since Chicago’s 13-7 loss to the Phillies on April 13, the Cubs’ starters have allowed an average of 1.6 runs per outing, helping manager Craig Counsell’s club post its longest winning streak since an eight-game run in July 2023.

“The starting pitching has been the key to this,” Counsell said. “When you’re getting that deep into a game with your starters and consistently going 6 2/3, seven innings, one run each night, you’re putting your team in a really good position. You’re not making the offense do everything.”

Shota Imanaga’s seven innings of one-run ball prolonged that trend on Tuesday, and fellow left-hander Matthew Boyd (1-1, 6.75 ERA) will get his chance in the third contest of a four-game set on Wednesday.

Boyd allowed eight runs in 9 2/3 innings in a pair of starts to open the year before serving a stint on the 15-day injured list due to a left bicep strain. Making his return after one start with the Triple-A Iowa Cubs, Boyd is eager to continue the club’s momentum.

“It’s been good,” he said of his time away from the big-league club. “Obviously I would have loved to be up here that whole time, but we’ve used it to clean up some mechanical stuff. After that lingering soreness passed, we dove into the mechanics and continued to work down that path. Excited to go out there tomorrow and excited to compete and help our team get a win.”

Boyd, 35, has faced the Phillies twice in his career, compiling a 2.25 ERA in a pair of no-decisions.

Philadelphia, meanwhile, is riding its worst stretch in seven years. The franchise last lost seven straight games in June 2019. The Phillies’ four runs on Tuesday matched their most across the current slide.

Slugger Kyle Schwarber was one of Philadelphia’s lone bright spots in Tuesday’s loss, connecting on his eighth home run — tied for most in the National League.

Schwarber knows the team’s season is far from over in April, but halting the extended losing streak is a necessity.

“Obviously on both sides of the ball, we’re really struggling to find our stride,” said Schwarber, who’s hitting .217. “It’s our job to keep going out there, batting, working, figuring out what we have to do. … This isn’t the start that we wanted by any means, but we have to come in and focus on the controllables.”

Left-hander Kyle Backhus (0-0, 5.40 ERA) will serve as the opener and make the first start of his career in his 40th appearance in the majors. The 28-year-old faced the Cubs twice last week, allowing one run across 2 1/3 innings.

–Field Level Media

After an exceptional regular season, this wasn’t the start to the NBA playoffs that the Detroit Pistons envisioned.

Reeling from a stunning Game 1 loss in which only two players reached double figures, the Eastern Conference’s top seed heads into Game 2 Wednesday against the visiting Orlando Magic facing early pressure to reset the best-of-seven series.

The eighth-seeded Magic controlled the opener from the start, never trailing and leaning on a balanced offensive attack. Paolo Banchero led the way with 23 points while Franz Wagner scored 11 of his 19 in the fourth quarter to help close out the 112-101 win.

For Detroit, the issue wasn’t just the loss — it was how it happened. The Pistons never established their defensive identity and struggled to find consistent offense beyond star guard Cade Cunningham, two areas that will be central entering Game 2.

“It starts, always, with us defensively,” said Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff. “When you go back and watch the film of that (game), we weren’t ourselves defensively. The telling tale is typically when we play them, they go to the free-throw line a ton.

“… We went 38 (times) but they went 19. So that means we weren’t playing our brand of basketball, being physical, being handsy, being aggressive. That kind of sets the tone for us.”

Offensively, the Pistons leaned on Cunningham, who scored 39 points, but got little other support — scoring their fewest points in nearly three months, since a loss to the Phoenix Suns on Jan. 29. Detroit will need more help from All-Star center Jalen Duren, who was held to just eight points and seven rebounds in Game 1.

“They came out ready from the jump,” Duren said. “We didn’t really meet their intensity. They’ve been playing with their backs against the walls the last few weeks, so they were already kind of already rolling. I think we just got to do a better job meeting that intensity.”

Duren said the Pistons remain confident despite the loss, which extended their home playoff losing streak to 11 games, the longest in NBA history.

“We know the type of team we are,” Duren said. “We feel like we’re the better team. We know that we’ve just got to make adjustments and come out smarter, come out playing harder.”

Orlando coach Jamahl Mosley said he has talked to his team about not becoming too overconfident coming off Sunday’s win.

“It’s one game at a time,” Mosley said of his message to the team. “It’s the reality that, yeah, you did get the Game 1 win, but now you have to go and figure out how to get a Game 2 (win). There’s going to be, obviously, the positive talk about what you’ve done, and thinking there’s reasons to celebrate, but at the end of the day, it’s one game, and that’s the most important piece that we’ve talked about: just taking it one game at a time.”

Banchero said the team has received the message, and he believes the key for the Magic is to play defense like they did in the opener.

“I thought we were on a string, just communicating, talking out coverages,” Banchero said. “I think it’s just going to continue to take that, being aggressive, being the aggressors on defense and just not trying to give them much. Obviously they’re going to make shots, but just not trying to give them any free looks.”

–Field Level Media