CHICAGO \u2014 As Pete Crow-Armstrong glided across the Wrigley Field grass Tuesday night, the Chicago Cubs\u2019 Gold Glove center fielder reached up to catch what looked like a routine fly ball. Suddenly, the ball popped out of Crow-Armstrong\u2019s glove and fell to the ground, allowing Sal Frelick, the No. 8 hitter in the Milwaukee Brewers\u2019 lineup, to run to second base and keep up the pressure.<\/p>\n
The Cubs were already down by three runs in the fourth inning, and the Brewers ultimately did not score during that sequence. With the way Jacob Misiorowski was pitching, and how the Brewers could line up their bullpen, one play might not have mattered all that much in the end. But the moment was emblematic of a Cubs team that is currently in a rut.<\/p>\n
Crow-Armstrong\u2019s error happened the day after he apologized for a vulgar exchange with a Chicago White Sox fan during Sunday\u2019s game on the South Side, an incident that reportedly got him fined by Major League Baseball.<\/p>\n
With Tuesday\u2019s 5-2 defeat, the Cubs fell out of first place for the first time since the beginning of May. It\u2019s happening again, the Brewers refusing to concede the National League Central and defying the external expectations after a splashy offseason produced by their big-city rivals.<\/p>\n
Chicago\u2019s historically great start \u2014 two separate 10-game winning streaks and 15 consecutive victories at the Friendly Confines \u2014 hasn\u2019t created any meaningful separation from the small-market franchise that spent roughly $100 million less on its Opening Day payroll.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know how these series go,\u201d Brewers manager Pat Murphy told reporters after Monday night\u2019s 9-3 victory over the Cubs. \u201cThey don\u2019t even know most of our guys\u2019 names, you know what I mean? So they\u2019re never going to be intimidated by us, but we\u2019re not looking for that. We\u2019re looking to turn around and play good again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Murphy\u2019s schtick aside \u2014 it\u2019s a long season, we\u2019re just trying to get better every day, yada yada \u2014 the Brewers have a winning formula that will push the Cubs all summer long.<\/p>\n
Subtracting yet another All-Star pitcher (Freddy Peralta) has not disrupted Milwaukee\u2019s plans, which now revolve more around \u201cThe Miz,\u201d who completely shut down the Cubs for six innings (zero runs, three singles, one walk, eight strikeouts) that required only 74 pitches.<\/p>\n
Going against the grain, the Brewers have built a high-scoring offense with speed and contact skills while hitting the fewest home runs in the majors. The organization targets certain types of hitters in the draft and on the trade market and further develops those traits.<\/p>\n
Milwaukee scored all three of its runs against Cubs starter Ben Brown with two outs in two different innings (via two singles and a wild pitch). Even when Brice Turang\u2019s two-run homer off Cubs reliever Trent Thornton landed in the left-field bleachers in the eighth inning, the crowd of 38,190 mostly stayed rather than head toward the exits.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re a hot team right now,\u201d Brown said. \u201cAll the games we play seem like they\u2019re really close. In the postseason, obviously, but even in regular-season battles everyone\u2019s a little bit more on edge. This is getting us better as a team. The more and more you can play in these environments, the better we\u2019re going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Losing four consecutive series is a sign the Cubs are feeling the effects while so many of their top pitchers are sidelined. Refilling the rotation thins out the bullpen, which usually has to cover more innings after lesser starters, and all of those daily workload decisions compound.<\/p>\n
But the Brewers have an injured list, too, and the names on it include starting pitchers Brandon Woodruff (right shoulder inflammation) and Quinn Priester (thoracic outlet syndrome). In a rematch of last year\u2019s playoff series \u2014 the Brewers won the decisive Game 5 at home and then posed with a Chicago \u201cL\u201d flag \u2014 the Cubs have not led at any point during their first 18 innings against Milwaukee this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery year has periods like that,\u201d Cubs outfielder Ian Happ said. \u201cIf we had the same record today, but we just won every single series, it would feel a little bit different, a little bit more consistent.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you reflect on the whole thing, we\u2019re (nine) games over .500 and sitting in a good spot. If you would have told us this was going to be our record at this point in the season, I think everybody would have signed up for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
A collective slump, however, has bunched the Cubs (29-20) with the Brewers (28-18) and St. Louis Cardinals (28-19) in a surprisingly competitive division that also features the Cincinnati Reds (25-24) and Pittsburgh Pirates (24-24). The Brewers won the NL Central in each of the last three years, which followed four straight playoff appearances (and two division titles) between 2018 and 2021.<\/p>\n
The Cubs are still waiting for a bigger impact from Alex Bregman (.685 OPS), the All-Star third baseman signed to a five-year, $175 million contract last offseason. The league has adjusted to rookie Mois\u00e9s Ballesteros, who\u2019s 3-for-40 with a .286 OPS in May. Dansby Swanson\u2019s streakiness has yielded seven home runs and a .195 batting average.<\/p>\n
Nico Hoerner has leveled off after an MVP-caliber start to the season, while Crow-Armstrong hasn\u2019t reached the same heights that carried him to last year\u2019s All-Star Game and a six-year, $115 million contract extension.<\/p>\n
In light of recent events, Cubs manager Craig Counsell didn\u2019t read too much into Crow-Armstrong\u2019s error, saying, \u201cThe ball was probably hit a little harder than he thought, and the wind was helping a little bit in that direction, and it just got farther above him\u201d than anticipated.<\/p>\n
Counsell, who became the sport\u2019s highest-paid manager when he separated from the Brewers after the 2023 season, also isn\u2019t making any sweeping conclusions before Memorial Day weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got (113 games) to go,\u201d Counsell said. \u201cThey beat us the first two games (here). They beat us, for sure, flat out. We got to come out (Wednesday night) and try to salvage a game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO \u2014 As Pete Crow-Armstrong glided across the Wrigley Field grass Tuesday night, the Chicago Cubs\u2019 Gold Glove…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":655529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[479,363,99],"class_list":["post-655528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}