CHICAGO -- After getting off to the best 50-game start in Brewers history, Game 51 was one to forget.

Looking alternately like a team with plenty of fight and a team nearing the end of a marathon, 11-game, 10-day, three-city road trip, the Brewers saw a pair of multi-run leads get away in an 8-7 loss to the Cubs at windy Wrigley Field on Tuesday.

Tyrone Taylor delivered a go-ahead, three-run double for the Brewers in the third inning and Victor Caratini hit a go-ahead, three-run home run in the sixth, but Cubs slugger Patrick Wisdom’s tiebreaking home run off Brad Boxberger in the bottom of the eighth inning won a game full of twists and turns.

Here are three factors that denied the Brewers a chance to finish the month of May on a high note:

1) A grinder for Eric Lauer meant the game was decided in the 'pen

Cubs hitters coaxed 89 pitches in four innings from Lauer, who limited the damage to three runs (two earned), but left four innings to the Brewers’ hard-worked bullpen. That altered the course of the game because after Hoby Milner worked a scoreless fifth inning and Caratini’s homer provided a lead in the sixth, the Cubs were able to put the ball in the air against recent call-up Trevor Kelley while snatching back the advantage in the bottom of the inning.

Lauer would have had at least one more inning in him had he not run into some bad luck in the fourth, when Andrelton Simmons’ two-out RBI single grounded through an opening caused by the Brewers’ infield shift. From there, Caratini’s attempt to back-pick a runner at first base got away and into right field for a run-scoring error that tied the game at 3.

After that long inning, Lauer didn’t get a chance to pitch the fifth.

“I wanted it,” he said. “I think [Brewers manager Craig Counsell] saw I had a lot of high-stress innings. I think that’s more what he was thinking. They were on my stuff. I was leaving things over the plate and then I was making non-competitive misses. I think that factored into it. I would have loved to go out there for the fifth and save the bullpen a little bit more, but I don’t think I really had a chance.”

2) The Cubs got too many chances in the sixth

In Chicago's four-run sixth, Brewers outfielders had three chances to catch fly balls that instead fell and contributed to a rally against Milwaukee relievers Kelley and Trevor Gott. P.J. Higgins’ second home run off Kelley in as many days was a two-run shot that cut the Brewers’ lead to 6-5, and Christopher Morel extended the inning with a triple off Taylor’s glove in right field.

Then Yelich missed a Willson Contreras fly ball down the left field line that bounced near the line and the wall that rises just beyond it for an RBI double and a 6-6 tie. Yelich held up short of that line and the ball nicked off his glove. Two batters after that, Frank Schwindel’s double fell between Yelich and center fielder Lorenzo Cain for a 7-6 Cubs lead.

“The wind had a big impact on the game, clearly,” Counsell said. “I mean, they’re tough plays. Tyrone’s ball is going against a brick wall and Yeli is a ball down the line that Contreras hit -- he’s running into a brick wall. So that’s what changes things there. That’s what makes this a tough place to play. The ball that Schwindel hit, he just put it in the right spot. Both guys [Yelich and Cain] went for it and nobody was going to get it.”

“That’s part of the game, right?” Caratini said.

3) A good night for the offense, just not enough

Seven runs will win most nights, and the Brewers have scored at least that many runs in three of their past four games. Taylor capped a sensational month of May in which he drove in 21 runs and hit six homers.

But still, the Brewers are turning the calendar to June with some hitters eager for the end of this road trip. They include Andrew McCutchen (hitless with no walks in his past 28 plate appearances), Luis Urías (7-for-40 on the trip), Yelich (2-for-5 with two runs scored Tuesday, but 7-for-35 on the trip), Kolten Wong (5-for-29 on the trip and dealing with a bruised right calf) and Lorenzo Cain (5-for-27 and batting .185). With All-Star starters Freddy Peralta and Brandon Woodruff both landing on the injured list since the Brewers left home, it would be an opportune time for the offense to carry the load for a stretch.

Getting a hit to fall for McCutchen would be a start. He was 0-for-5 on Tuesday and is in the longest drought of his career.

“Well, he’s lined out about five times this series, so you could be saying he’s hot, actually,” Counsell said. “I think when you’re not getting hits and then the balls you hit hard aren’t hits, either, I don’t think any hitter is going to tell you that’s fun.”