PITTSBURGH — This is the part when the Pirates must learn how to ride out a tough patch.

An 8-2 blowout Saturday night against the Blue Jays stretched the Pirates’ losing streak to six games. It’s their longest skid since June 7-14, 2022, when they lost nine in a row.

What happens next — how the team responds in the coming days and weeks — will tell us a lot about these 2023 Pirates.

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In a 162-game season, no team can avoid some kind of funk. The Pirates have endured at least one six-game losing streak in each of the past four seasons.

The key is to keep the losing from becoming a week-long thing and to prevent one losing steak from spawning other, longer ones.

In July 2019, the Pirates lost nine in a row. Five days after that one ended, they began an eight-game skid. They had another nine-game losing streak in September.

In June 2021, the Pirates dropped 10 straight. They snapped that jinx, then lost nine of their next 15. They also had an eight-game losing streak that August.

In addition to the nine-game funk last June, there were two seven-game losing streaks later in the season.

This year, the losing streak has happened earlier than in recent seasons. An optimist would say it’s a good thing to get it out of the way now.

“I would say it’s never a good time to have one,” manager Derek Shelton said with a grin. “But I do think we’re better equipped to crawl out of these than we were in the past.”

This funk started on the heels of a fantastic April that included a seven-game stretch that was the Pirates’ longest winning streak since 2018.

In retrospect, it’s not surprising the Pirates dropped three straight this past week against Tampa Bay. The Rays rely on the same kinds of things the Pirates did so well in April — run, put pressure on defenses, pitch well, play solid defense — only they do them much better.

That series was the Pirates’ first time on a big stage this year, and they at times appeared a bit flustered.

For the Pirates, coming home to face the Blue Jays seemed like a quick-fix opportunity. Toronto came to PNC Park riding a five-game losing streak, and top pitchers Alek Manoah and Kevin Gausman would not be used against the Pirates.

But the Pirates ran into a buzzsaw Friday when right-hander Chris Bassitt threw seven shutout innings. Saturday, righty José Berríos was sharp from the outset.

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Berríos set down the first 13 batters he faced, collecting six strikeouts along the way. Ke’Bryan Hayes snapped the no-hit bid by lining a one-out single to right in the fifth inning.

Pirates right-hander Johan Oviedo was awful. He was touched for four runs in the first inning and three in the third. Oviedo ended up working five innings and yielded 10 hits, walked three and struck out three.

“Too many balls in the middle of the plate,” Shelton said. “The last two starts, the slider’s gotten away from him a little bit. We need to make an adjustment and get it back working with the depth that we saw over the course of the first four starts.”

After his first four starts, Oviedo was 2-1 with a 2.22 ERA and a 1.15 WHIP. He averaged 9.25 strikeouts and 2.96 walks per nine innings.

Over his past three outings, Oviedo is 0-2 with a 12.08 ERA and an 8.97 WHIP. He’s averaged 5.68 K/9 and 4.97 BB/9.

The slider was Oviedo’s most effective pitch last season, with a solid minus-8 run value. He’s increased his slider usage from 40 percent last season to 43 percent this year, making it his most-used pitch.

The results, however, haven’t been as good. Going into Saturday’s game, Oviedo’s slider has a plus-1 run value and a .308 wOBA.

“Even if I’m getting outs with the slider, it’s still missing,” Oviedo said. “The other pitches are good right now. It’s just the slider that I need to (improve).”

Against the Blue Jays, Oviedo went fastball-heavy — an approach that fooled no one. George Springer ripped Oviedo’s first pitch of the game, a 96 mph fastball up and in, into left-center field for a single. Daulton Varsho banged a fastball to center for an RBI single.

In a blink, it was 7-0. It didn’t help that the Pirates also were without two injured spark plugs, Andrew McCutchen and Ji Hwan Bae.

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McCutchen has not played since turning his left ankle before Friday’s series opener. Even before the injury, the 36-year-old designated hitter was going through his own slump.

Since boosting his average to .310 on April 19, McCutchen is hitting .140/.225/.302 with three extra-base hits (two homers, one double). “He showed up today trending in the right direction,” Shelton said, referring to McCutchen’s ankle, not his batting average.

The lure of postgame fireworks kept the announced crowd of 34,882 — the largest gathering at PNC Park for a ballgame in May since 2015 — in its seats until the end. The Pirates made it worth their while by rediscovering their spunk in the later innings.

That’s why Shelton said he believes this team is more apt to rebound from a losing streak than those low-wattage clubs in recent years.

“It does give me confidence,” Shelton said. “From the sixth inning on, we had better at-bats. We hit the ball hard. We’ve got to find our groove. We’ve been inconsistent over the last six games, but I know our guys can hit.”

There were positive signs from Jack Suwinski and Hayes. Suwinski walked twice and hit a solo homer in the seventh to break an 0-for-18 slump that included 11 strikeouts. Hayes had a pair of singles to nudge his batting average up to .236.

Bryan Reynolds, who leads the league in extra-base hits, doubled in the fifth inning to extend his hitting streak to 11 games. In that span, he’s gone 16-for-40 (.400) with 10 doubles.

Tucupita Marcano started at shortstop for the third straight game. Although he went hitless, Marcano contributed a dazzling diving stop and flip to second baseman Rodolfo Castro to create a double play.

“I’m feeling a lot more comfortable now,” Marcano said.

(Top photo of Bryan Reynolds: Gregory Fisher / USA Today)