CHICAGO -- For more than six innings Thursday night, Joe Musgrove found effective and interesting ways to keep the Cubs from scoring, including with some help from an unconventional inning-ending double play.

The only problem for the Pirates right-hander, however, is that his pitching counterpart, Chicago’s Jose Quintana, was equally up to the challenge.

Musgrove avoided trouble as long as he could before the the Cubs got to him thanks to an error that led to a pair of seventh-inning runs in a 2-0 loss in a game that included a rain delay of 1 hour, 9 minutes.

Quintana, meanwhile, limited the Pirates to four hits and struck out 11.

“I feel good about the way I threw the ball, but anytime you go out there as the starter, you want to have the ‘W’ whether it’s yours or it’s someone else’s - as long as the team gets the win, it’s a good feeling,” Musgrove said. “But I did everything I could to keep us in the game.”

Daniel Descalso delivered an RBI single in the seventh inning to score Jason Heyward, who reached on an error. Heyward dropped a flare down the third-base line that was chased after by shortstop Erik Gonzalez and third baseman Jung Ho Kang. When neither made the play, Heyward reached second base and then scored on the Descalso hit before Victor Caratini followed with an RBI double off reliever Francisco Liriano.

“[Heyward’s ball] needs to be caught and there needs to be communication for it to be caught,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “... We had two guys with a lot of want-to, but we needed how-to to catch the ball.”

Both unearned runs were charged to Musgrove, who struck out six over 6 1/3 innings while scattering four hits and walking two.

Prior to the seventh, Musgrove’s greatest escape act came in the sixth inning. Ben Zobrist led off the inning with a single, Kris Bryant drew a walk and both runners advanced on an Anthony Rizzo groundout. Javier Baez then sent a ground ball to Kang, who threw out Zobrist at home. Baez, who believed he had fouled the ball off his foot, didn’t run to first base and was tagged out by catcher Francisco Cervelli to end the inning.

Musgrove anticipated Baez would be looking for a fastball to drive that could produce the game’s first runs. Instead, Musgrove threw a sinker in off the plate. He said he didn’t realize Baez hadn’t left the batter’s box until Cervelli tagged him out.

"That was my biggest pitch of the night, I think," Musgrove said. "... At that point, I kind of knew we were going to have the double play because there was no way they can reward him the base and there was no way they can to make us do it over. So there was a little bit of luck there and a good, executed pitch."

In the fifth, Musgrove pitched out of trouble with runners on second and third. After walking Heyward and allowing a Descalso single, Musgrove struck out Caratini in an at-bat that saw Cubs manager Joe Maddon ejected for arguing balls and strikes on a pitch that would have loaded the bases. Musgrove retired Caratini before getting Quintana to ground out to Gonzalez.

Musgrove got some defensive help in the fourth inning when right fielder Melky Cabrera made a lunging catch on a fast-sinking foul ball that robbed Bryant of an extra-base hit. But for all of Musgrove’s efforts, Quintana’s ability to shut down the Pirates made a bigger difference.

“You’ve got to score runs to win,” Hurdle said. “Our guy pitched really well, their guy pitched well match for match. I mean, zeros through six [innings], and they scratched some runs off him in the seventh. But that’s been the nature of our start here. We’ve been getting good starting pitching -- our guys have put us in a good position.”