SAN FRANCISCO -- As with the Chicago Cubs' pace of winning games, excellence from their starting pitching was bound to come back down to Earth after a great start to the season. A string of 48 consecutive outings in which Cubs starters lasted five or more innings ended Saturday as Jon Lester got hit hard over just 2⅔ innings in a 5-3 loss to the San Francisco Giants.

In losing, Lester saw his ERA rise above 2.00 just as Jason Hammel did days earlier in Milwaukee. The starting staff's 2.38 ERA coming into the game simply wasn’t sustainable, and Lester reverted to a hiccup that plagued him sometimes in 2015, failing to keep his team closer early in the game. That was the most disappointing aspect of Saturday’s start. The left-hander gave up six hits -- all seemingly hard-hit balls -- before exiting with Chicago facing a four-run deficit. His ERA rose to 2.60, still very good, but no longer do the Cubs have three of the best ERAs in baseball. At least the bullpen performed admirably, shutting out the Giants for 5⅓ innings.

The Cubs are going through a bit of a reset. They’re 4-6 in their past 10 games, with some offensive slumps and rising ERAs. Not to the point of panic, but to the point of coming back to the pack a little. Now they have to grind through a few days without their best defensive player (Jason Heyward) and face an unfavorable schedule with a Sunday night game in San Francisco followed by a three-game series in St. Louis. A .500 mark during this stretch might not be such a bad thing to hope for.