The results won’t be the type that will be memorable, but the lessons that came from Jack Neely’s major-league debut can become even more crucial than what the box score says.

Three hits, 4 runs and a home run in an inning of work isn’t how Neely drew up his first time in an MLB contest, but it’s the type that he can build off.

“Everyone wants to have a clean one out, their first one out,” Julian Merryweather said after the Cubs’ 8-2 loss to the Tigers. “But I mean to me, it didn’t look nearly as bad as the box score.

“So that’s something I’ll tell him, like, ‘Hey, bad night, but flush that. Keep doing what you’re doing. You’re not that far off from having an easy inning right there.’”

[MORE: Looking at Jack Neely’s MLB debut]

Debuts are wonky, especially for relievers.

“I mean, it’s a dream come true,” Neely said. “Every kid that’s ever played baseball has wanted to debut. Didn’t go the way we wanted, but hopefully the first of many. Keep rolling from here.”

You can’t draw up when or how you make a debut, so there’s an element to them that you just can’t prepare for. Throw in the situation — pitching in a 2-run game in the 9th inning — and the nerves can skyrocket.

“You’re never going to feel those same kind of emotions on your debut,” Merryweather said. “So your body feels totally different. You’re floating on air half the time. So to get that first one out of the way is big.”

And, at the end of the day, that one game doesn’t signify who Neely will be as a pitcher in the big leagues — and that’s what the Cubs are reminding him.

“That doesn’t dictate what’s going to be his career,” catcher Christian Bethancourt said. “He’s got good stuff, good pitches. They were just laying off the slider, they were not swinging at it. He fell behind in the count. He’s going to learn from it, and he’s going to get better.”

Neely looked to have a perfect situation against his first hitter, Zach McKinstry. Neely jumped ahead 0-2, then threw 3 straight balls, a foul ball and a slider off the plate to walk McKinstry.

After a pair of flyouts, the lineup turned over and Parker Meadows collected his 3rd hit of the game, a single that pushed McKinstry to third, heightening Neely’s debut.

Neely allowed an RBI single, before surrendering a 3-run home run that put the game out of reach for the Cubs.

“I thought that the walk to McKinstry to lead off the inning is the at-bat that, to me, you really want back,” manager Craig Counsell said. “He got ahead of him 0-2 and then just left some sliders, kind of arm-side misses that, I think, he’d like to have that at-bat back, and that’s the at-bat you got to finish.”

The Cubs are still optimistic Neely will be a part of the future — and an outing like Wednesday is exactly why they wanted him up in the big leagues before the season ended. The Cubs would rather have him experience these learning curves now and allow him to grow throughout his major league career.

“It’s hard to judge somebody off their first outing,” Jameson Taillon said. “I mean [Pirates pitcher] Paul Skenes had kind of a weird first outing against us in Pittsburgh and then you saw the roll he went on. I’m not comparing them, but, like, it’s just debuts. They’re so hyped up and you have so many people in town and you’re trying to please everybody and all that.

“So, you learn more about guys in their careers whenever the dust settles.”