CHICAGO -- There are days when the Cubs' hitters exit the clubhouse feeling like a loss is squarely on their shoulders. There have been plenty of games that fit that mold this year -- a season in which the offense has danced between prolific and putrid.

On Saturday, there was a different feeling following a 2-0 loss to the Brewers at Wrigley Field. Cubs manager Joe Maddon actually lauded the collective approach by his lineup, which did not slip into the typical temptation of chasing offerings veering outside the zone. There was discipline -- it just was not paired with results.

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"That's a tough shutout," Maddon said. "I can't say we swung the bats poorly, because we didn't. There was a lot of bad luck involved today."

The defeat snapped a four-game winning streak that did wonders for the morale inside the Cubs' locker room. In the wake of a three-game sweep at the hands of the Nationals, Chicago went to New York and swept a series featuring Marcus Stroman, Noah Syndergaard and Jacob deGrom. Then, the Cubs returned home and kept rolling with a win over Milwaukee on Friday.

The series against Washington highlighted some of Chicago's offensive flaws. The Cubs want to get away from relying so much on the home run, instead looking to force pitchers to come into the strike zone and create rallies with more balls in play. The Nationals did all of that, and the Cubs have since responded with improvement in some of those areas.

The loss dropped Chicago 2 1/2 games back of the National League Central-leading Cardinals, who walked off in the ninth inning Saturday night to complete a sweep of a doubleheader against the Reds.

"It's been all year," Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo said. "It's been a dogfight for us all year, just as far as getting on a roll. So, there's highs and lows and hopefully we can go on a high for the next two months and not look back. If another punch comes, we'll be able to take it."

On the surface, Maddon's assessment sounded like venturing into excuse territory, but there was merit to his postgame evaluation.

Against Zach Davies and four Milwaukee relievers, the Cubs had seven balls in play Saturday with an exit velocity of at least 95 mph, and only one hit to show for it. There were 17 balls in play in the game with an expected batting average of at least .500, per Statcast. Eleven of those belonged to Chicago hitters, with seven lineouts in that sampling.

Kyle Schwarber lined out on a ball with an .800 expected batting average in the second inning. Cole Hamels had a liner to left field -- one with a .780 expected average -- robbed by a nice Ben Gamel catch in the third. Rizzo had a hit taken away in the eighth with a diving catch by shortstop Orlando Arcia. Twice, Jason Heyward lined into hard outs. Nicholas Castellanos launched a ball to right field in the fifth that turned into a flyout.

"It was just one of those games," Schwarber said. "I think we're doing a good job of being able to get guys in the zone. And when they're in the zone, we're hurting them. Today, we were lining out a bunch. Those are pitches all in the zone. You saw what happened with [Chase] Anderson yesterday. He was in the zone and we put some runs on him.

"Even the series before that with the Mets. Really good pitching. They were in the zone and we were able to keep manufacturing runs off those guys."

The Cubs also encountered a tough strike-three call in the sixth inning, when Schwarber was rung up with two outs and two runners on base on an outside pitch from lefty Drew Pomeranz.

“Obviously, I showed some frustration with Rob,” Schwarber said. “He said it was right there and I said, 'Well, I've got it off the plate. I'm going to go check. This is a big game. This is a big situation.'”

To Schwarber's earlier point, the Cubs headed into Saturday's game having seen 40.4 percent of pitches in the strike zone, ranking last in the Majors. Davies tried to stay on the edges and get Chicago's lineup to chase, but the Cubs mostly went on the attack when he came back into the zone. The team's zone rate dropped to a season-low 39.5 percent in July, but it has ticked up to 41.3 percent since Aug. 15.

"We've got to force them over the plate," Maddon said. “I'm looking back at the at-bats mentally -- like even Castellanos second at-bat, he took four pitches in a row for a walk -- I thought our guys did a pretty good job organizing their zones today. Again, I can't bang on the hitters. I thought we actually had a good offensive day.

"It doesn't show up. People think you're nuts when you score zero runs, but overall, I thought we actually played well today, pitched well today and they beat us today."