PITTSBURGH — As injuries to their pitching staff pile up and players desperately try to pull themselves out of a tailspin, the Chicago Cubs sent Jordan Wicks out to the mound on Tuesday night. Five runs allowed in the bottom of the first immediately spelled doom for a club that can’t seem to find any offense of late, as the Cubs lost their 10th straight game, a 12-1 loss to the Pirates.

“Look, five runs in the first inning, you’re up against it all night,” manager Craig Counsell said. “It’s tough. We had a rough first inning. Not good enough. That’s a big hole to dig out of.”

Once the hottest team in baseball, the Cubs are searching for answers. Over its last 16 games, Chicago has won just two. This, after a 20-3 stretch that included two separate 10-game winning streaks.

The bats have been silent of late, and it’s not just in big moments. Although on Tuesday night, Counsell did lament the team’s inability to get back in the game when they had opportunities, going 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position.

Are the Cubs pressing?

“It doesn’t matter what they’re doing,” Counsell said. “You don’t deliver every time, but we gotta have some level of production. Pressing? I don’t know. I’m not sure what the answer is to that. The answer is it’s a big-league at-bat with men on base. It’s the at-bat you want in a game. It’s the at-bat you can make a difference for your team. It’s the at-bat you can flip the course of a game. And it’s time for us to deliver.”

Whether there are men on base or not, that hasn’t been happening. The Cubs are hitting .181 over the last 16 games with very little power. The offense has been in an extended slump at a time when the club keeps losing members of their rotation.

Cade Horton made just two starts before right elbow surgery ended his season. Matthew Boyd recently underwent surgery on his left meniscus and is currently on the injured list for the second time this season. Over the weekend, Edward Cabrera went on the IL with a blister issue.

Prior to Tuesday’s loss, the club did share an update on the status of Justin Steele, which was presented as a step forward, but the timeline for his return to the mound remains uncertain.

The left-handed starter underwent elbow surgery early last summer and was working his way back, but suffered a setback in late April and was shut down. Steele saw Dr. Keith Meister on Tuesday morning as he works to try and return this season.

“So we’re at the start of making progress in terms of moving forward,” Counsell said pregame. “No timelines created from it. He’s not going to be throwing a baseball for multiple weeks still, but we’re going to progress to active strengthening and then to plyo balls.”

Counsell said he would “term it as good news,” which it is in the sense that Steele can at least move forward in his rehab. But for a team that needs starting pitching help, a realistic return to MLB action for Steele doesn’t seem close. Steele has been shut down from doing almost any baseball activity for nearly five weeks now. Multiple weeks before he throws again only adds to the time he’ll need to build up to being a starting pitcher.

“Until he starts throwing, it’s just hard to put that in an accurate timetable,” Counsell said.

The standard thought process is that a pitcher needs as many weeks to build up as they took time off from throwing. Even in the most ideal scenario, Steele would not be throwing again until mid-June. That would put him in line to get back to game action in early to mid-August.

That is the rosiest scenario.

“We’re just hopeful to get him back,” team president Jed Hoyer said. “Obviously, there comes a point where you run out of days, but I don’t think we’re there yet. I know Justin wants to come back more than anything.”

The longer Steele goes without throwing, the longer it will take him to return.

The reality is that relying on Steele to get to the point where he can consistently give the team five-plus innings would be a huge risk for the Cubs to take. Before the setback occurred, Steele never reached the point in his build up where he was ready to throw in minor-league rehab games.

Getting Steele back this season is certainly possible. Having him impact the team as a starting pitcher who can eat innings for multiple starts? That’s getting harder to feel confident about with his current status and timeline.

“Right now, we’re focused on our team, the guys that are out there and grinding through this,” Hoyer said. “But, obviously, our hope is that we can get him back by the end of the year and he can really help us.”

While the losses continue to pile up, there are some positive developments brewing for the pitching staff. Boyd threw a live BP session at Pittsburgh on Monday, throwing what amounted to three innings and 52 pitches. The next step for Boyd is a rehab start with Triple-A Iowa on Sunday, which is expected to be the first of two outings he’ll need before rejoining the club.

Cabrera’s blister issue is expected to only require a minimum stay on the IL. With the emergence of Ben Brown as a legitimate arm in the rotation, the Cubs could be in much better shape with their rotation two weeks from now.

But a return for Steele keeps getting pushed back. Dreams of a playoff rotation fronted by Horton and Steele are gone. And the longer it takes for the Cubs find a way to get back in the win column, even the idea of a postseason appearance may feel far away.