Wheels come off for Cubs in first Wrigley sweep by MIL in nearly 5 years

CHICAGO -- It is a play that Pete Crow-Armstrong has made countless times throughout his life as a center fielder. He charged in, lowered his glove and prepared to retrieve the ball that Brewers third baseman David Hamilton sent bouncing through the grass in center on Wednesday night.

The loud gasp from the Wrigley Field crowd told the rest of the story.

Crow-Armstrong -- arguably the best defensive player in the game -- simply missed the ball. Hamilton was off to the races, pulling off a Little League-style home run that put three runs on the board in the second inning and had the Cubs on their way to a gut-punch of a 5-0 loss to Milwaukee.

This was one of those nights for the North Siders.

Crow-Armstrong made that game-changing error, Cubs starter Edward Cabrera exited early due to injury (the only good news being that it was a blister on his right middle finger) and Chicago’s struggling offense could not get anything going against lefty Kyle Harrison. It all added up to a fifth straight loss, including three straight to the team Chicago is now chasing in the division.

The Cubs came into this series -- the first meeting with the Brewers since losing in five games in the National League Division Series -- with a 1 1/2-game lead atop the NL Central. The three-game brooming at the hands of the Brewers now has the Cubs facing the same deficit, following losses in nine of their past 11 games.

Crow-Armstrong entered the evening leading the Majors in Statcast’s Fielding Run Value (11), but his second-inning blunder continued a rough few days. Prior to Monday’s opener, he held court with reporters to apologize for his “choice of words” in a verbal spat with a White Sox fan caught on camera one night earlier. In Tuesday’s loss, he missed an easy fly ball off the bat of Sal Frelick.

In the second on Wednesday, Cabrera saw Frelick reach with one out via a catcher’s interference call against Chicago’s Carson Kelly. Cabrera then walked Joey Ortiz to set things up for Hamilton, who lined a pitch up the middle for a single. Crow-Armstrong went to glove it on the second hop and was soon chasing the ball down, but there was no halting Hamilton’s sprint.

With Ortiz up to lead off the fourth inning, Cabrera opened with a fastball that sailed high and only clocked in at 92.5 mph on the radar gun. That was alarming and Kelly immediately looked to the Cubs’ dugout, where manager Craig Counsell emerged with an athletic trainer. Cabrera’s day was done with four runs (one earned) on his line.

Meanwhile, Harrison seemingly breezed through the Cubs’ order.