{"id":703678,"date":"2026-05-20T04:12:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T04:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/703678\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T04:12:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T04:12:16","slug":"chicago-cubs-lose-5-2-to-the-milwaukee-brewers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/703678\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Cubs lose 5-2 to the Milwaukee Brewers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly two weeks ago, the Chicago Cubs were riding the high of their second 10-game winning streak<\/a> of the season.<\/p>\n

How quickly things can turn.<\/p>\n

For the first time since April 30, during their most recent streak of 10 straight victories, the Cubs do not sit at the top of the National League Central division after Tuesday\u2019s 5-2 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, who leapfrog their rivals. The Cubs have lost four consecutive games, while winning just two of their last 10, and look to avoid getting swept<\/a> Wednesday at Wrigley Field.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery year has periods like that,\u201d Ian Happ said after going 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and one walk. \u201cI do think that if we had the same record we had today, but we just won every single series, it would feel a bit different, a little bit more consistent. There\u2019s pros and cons to winning 10 straight twice and having the record we have, but I think when you reflect on the whole thing, we\u2019re (nine games) over .500 and sitting in a good spot.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf 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, so move on from here and attack tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

The offense again fell short in big spots, a frustrating trend within this skid.<\/p>\n

Hard-throwing right-hander Jacob Misiorowski certainly made it tough on the Cubs, giving up just three hits and one walk while striking out eight in six innings. They had a chance in the first inning to get to Misiorowski before he could settle in. Nico Hoerner\u2019s walk and Michael Busch\u2019s reaching on an error immediately put pressure on Misiorowski, but he got Alex Bregman to fly out and struck out Happ and Seiya Suzuki to end the inning. The Cubs didn\u2019t put another runner in scoring position until the eighth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we took some good swings and just missed some balls, and then he got locked in, and so you\u2019re stuck in between trying to get into a count or attack him early because he\u2019s got obviously strikeout stuff, and he just pumped a lot of tons of strikes, and you\u2019ve got to be aggressive,\u201d manager Craig Counsell said. \u201cSitting there hitting with two strikes, you\u2019re going to be in trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n

The most encouraging part of Tuesday\u2019s loss came from starter Ben Brown\u2019s performance<\/a>. The sequence from the fourth inning won\u2019t stand out within Brown\u2019s final pitching line, but he showed important development that has big-picture implications.<\/p>\n

Too often in the last two years, a good Brown outing would be derailed by a one-inning implosion. The Cubs believe the addition of a sinker and using a changeup to complement his fastball-curveball combination would help decrease the volatility with less predictability in his pitch mix.<\/p>\n

Brown faced his toughest challenge since being moved to the rotation. He entered the game riding back-to-back four shutout-inning starts against the Texas Rangers and Atlanta Braves. Milwaukee put Brown and the Cubs in an early hole, scoring three runs within the first three innings, and the Brewers were positioned to blow the game open in the fourth.<\/p>\n

Pete Crow-Armstrong dropped a routine fly ball to open the inning, and shortstop David Hamilton reached on an infield single when his bunt ricocheted high off home plate that Brown fielded, but the throw didn\u2019t beat Hamilton to first. The 2025 version of Brown might have seen the inning spiral away from him after that sequence.<\/p>\n

\"ChicagoChicago Cubs starting pitcher Ben Brown delivers to the Milwaukee Brewers in the first inning of a game at Wrigley Field in Chicago on May 19, 2026. (Chris Sweda\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

The right-hander did not let that happen Tuesday. Facing the top of the Brewers\u2019 order, Brown struck out Jackson Chourio and Brice Turang, then forced William Contreras to ground out to end the fourth and keep the Cubs\u2019 deficit at 3-0.<\/p>\n

Counsell was proud of Brown\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought Ben made some pretty good pitches, even on some hits, but he got in some trouble, and then he\u2019s got the strikeout in him, which is a big deal, and he showed himself that as he got out of a couple innings, that kept us in the game,\u201d Counsell said. \u201cSo Ben\u2019s making progress. I thought it was another good outing, and not every outing is going to be breezing through it, and I was very happy with the progress he\u2019s made and where he\u2019s sitting at right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown got through five innings with three runs allowed, putting his season ERA at 2.09 and giving the Cubs a chance to try to chip away at Milwaukee\u2019s lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I limited the damage well,\u201d Brown said. \u201cObviously, I think if there\u2019s one thing I could have done better is after the wild pitch in the third probably I could execute a little bit better after that, but other than that, I think I threw the ball pretty well tonight. There\u2019s definitely things to learn from and grow from but pretty happy with the execution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Misiorowski made that task almost impossible. His fastball, sitting at 99.6 mph and topping out at 101.5 mph, produced 14 called strikes, six whiffs and six of his eight strikeouts. The Cubs only put one runner in scoring position during Misiorowski\u2019s six frames.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the unique things about a guy that throws 100 plus is that you don\u2019t have to be too fine if it\u2019s in the zone, a guy can pitch with that pitch,\u201d Happ said. \u201cSo that\u2019s why he\u2019s been as effective as he has.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cubs will lament their chances to pull out a win despite Misiorowski\u2019s dominance. The first three batters reached to begin the eighth with Hoerner\u2019s single getting them on the board. Busch and Bregman followed with strikeouts looking against the lefty Aaron Ashby, but the Cubs again threatened with a big inning when Happ walked and Suzuki drove in a run.<\/p>\n

Right-hander Chad Patrick came in to face pinch hitter Michael Conforto with the bases loaded and quickly snuffed out the Cubs\u2019 rally. Conforto grounded into a force out to end the eighth, and the Cubs were retired in order in the ninth by Abner Uribe.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got 115 to go, and they beat us the first two games, they beat us for sure, flat out,\u201d Counsell said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to come out tomorrow and try to salvage a game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly two weeks ago, the Chicago Cubs were riding the high of their second 10-game winning streak of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2401],"tags":[5,734,136,24,576,36,11714,843,59,4280,4,256,1218,33,738],"class_list":["post-703678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-milwaukee-brewers","tag-baseball","tag-ben-brown","tag-brewers","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-craig-counsell","tag-ian-happ","tag-jacob-misiorowski","tag-milwaukee","tag-milwaukee-brewers","tag-milwaukeebrewers","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-baseball","tag-national-league-central","tag-nico-hoerner","tag-wrigley-field"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116604957262648922","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}