CHICAGO -- The Brewers hit and hit and hit some more during their nine-game winning streak, scoring better than seven runs a game and never fewer than five. But Tuesday was probably not going to be another of those nights. Not with a premier pitching matchup of All-Stars Corbin Burnes and Justin Steele, and not with the flags fluttering above Wrigley Field from a stiff wind blowing in off Lake Michigan. 

“We understand that every time we come here there’s going to be one or two games like that,” Brewers shortstop Willy Adames said. “It’s just part of Wrigley.”  

Tyrone Taylor, William Contreras and Adames all saw booming fly balls knocked down by the wind on a night Burnes was undone by the smallest mistake in Milwaukee’s 1-0 loss to the Cubs, who snapped their rival’s winning streak and climbed back within four games of the first-place Brewers in the NL Central standings.

Milwaukee won’t have long to feel frustrated because another prime pitching matchup awaits Wednesday afternoon, when Brandon Woodruff works opposite Chicago’s Kyle Hendricks in the last matchup of these teams before the final series of the regular season.

On days like Tuesday at Wrigley Field, Brewers manager Craig Counsell said, “When you hit the ball in the air, you’re not going to be rewarded in this park.”

The Cubs were rewarded against Burnes for managing the game’s only extra-base hit: Ian Happ’s line-drive double that split the left-center-field gap in the first inning after Burnes had struck Nico Hoerner with one of the four sinkers he threw all night among his 108 pitches.

Hoerner made it to third base on the double, scored on Cody Bellinger’s groundout to second base, and that was that as far as run-scoring for either team.

“There were a bunch of [mistakes],” said Burnes, who scattered eight hits over seven innings but walked only two batters and, just like Steele, managed to work out of trouble most times he faced it. “Most of the hits were probably on mistakes over the plate. Maybe only one or two on good pitches. I’d like to have all of those back, but obviously the one that hurts the most is the hit-by-pitch. 

“One run was the game.” 

It wasn’t for a lack of opportunities for the Brewers. In the first inning, a walk, an infield hit and a wild pitch put runners at second and third with one out, but they were stranded. In the second and third, they put two aboard with one out and came up empty both times -- all after Victor Caratini’s infield hit struck Steele above the left knee in the second inning.

Steele managed to stay in the game to work through the sixth, throwing a career-high 111 pitches. He became the Majors’ second 15-game winner while lowering his ERA to 2.69. Among qualifying pitchers, only San Diego’s Blake Snell (2.60 ERA) has been better. 

“He’s a fighter every time he pitches against us,” Adames said.

The Brewers’ best shot to score against Steele after those early opportunities fizzled came in the fifth, when Taylor skied a fly ball down the left-field line. According to Statcast, it left his bat at 104.6 mph with a 42 degree launch angle, and would have been a home run in 28 of 30 parks.

But not at Wrigley Field on Tuesday.

Happ caught it inches shy of finding the basket atop the wall.

“I thought it had a chance but I knew the wind was blowing in, so I didn’t have my hopes too high,” Taylor said. “I was just happy to find a barrel. It’s been a cool minute.” 

Three innings later in the eighth, Christian Yelich tried a different approach and bunted for a hit ahead of red-hot catcher Contreras, who suffered the same fate as Taylor on a 102.9 mph, 31-degree barreled ball. Similar batted balls have an expected batting average of .730, says Statcast. 

On Tuesday at Wrigley, it was a routine flyout to right-center field. 

And one more time in the ninth, Adames hit a fly ball 105.9 mph off the bat with a 41-degree launch angle. Those conditions typically produce a .430 expected batting average. It was a routine flyout to left-center field.

“Everybody that has played here knows when the wind is blowing in, it’s almost impossible to hit a homer,” Adames said. “But [the Cubs] had the same situation. They only scored one. … You still try to put the barrel on the ball. If it’s a hit, obviously you’re going to be grateful. When it isn’t, obviously it’s not fun.” 

What’s a hitter to do in those conditions? 

“There’s not much you can change as a hitter, maybe in your approach try to get more on top of the ball,” Taylor said. “But as a hitter, we’re just trying to get hard contact. We don’t have that much control.”