ST. LOUIS -- Last August when Major League Baseball released 2019 schedules en masse, a 13-game gauntlet entirely against the Dodgers and Cardinals stood out amid the Brewers’ challenging early-season slate.

With the benefit of hindsight Wednesday, after a 5-2 loss at Busch Stadium finished St. Louis’ three-game sweep and completed that stretch of the schedule with a 5-8 record, it turned out to be every bit as tough as it looked on paper.

The Brewers lost Wednesday for the fourth straight game and the seventh time in eight games, falling to .500 (13-13) for the first time since they split the first two games of the season. After beginning the year with eight victories in their first 10 games, the Brewers have lost 11 of 16.

“I mean, it could be worse,” said Christian Yelich on Wednesday morning, before he came off the bench and struck out with the bases loaded to end the game. “We definitely haven’t played as well as we’re capable of. We’re not in a terrible spot by any means. But I definitely think we’re capable of playing better on all sides of the ball. We all know that.

“But I think if you take anything from last year, you do kind of see the growth throughout the year. We weren’t the same team in August and September as we were in April and May. Last year in April we got swept in four games in Wrigley Field and the sky was falling. You kind of draw back on those experiences and stay level and realize you want to win as many as you can. You know they all count. Just keep grinding. That’s really the message.”

After four weeks of regular season baseball, here’s where the Brewers stand:

Pitching

Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns on Wednesday agreed to terms with left-hander Gio Gonzalez before Opening Day starter Jhoulys Chacin’s outing reinforced the need for help.

Chacin didn’t allow a hit for the first three innings against the Cardinals before allowing four runs on five hits in the fourth, including home runs to Marcell Ozuna and Yadier Molina on fastballs. The Brewers and Cardinals are tied for the most home runs allowed (46) among National League clubs. The Brewers have the National League’s worst overall ERA (5.35) and starters’ ERA (5.84). Chacin’s ERA after six starts is 6.35.

“Besides [Zach] Davies, nobody has pitched the way they wanted,” Chacin said. “But I feel we know we can do it. We showed it last year. But last year was last year; we have to show it this year, too. I think [Thursday] is going to be a good day off for everybody just to reset.”

Hitting

Eric Thames batted in Yelich’s usual two-hole on Wednesday and homered in his first at-bat. But that’s the only way the Brewers can score of late. When Andrew Miller walked Ben Gamel with the bases loaded in the ninth inning, it snapped the Brewers’ streak of 23 consecutive runs on homers.

The result is next to no pressure on the opposing pitcher; Elias has data back to 1974, and the Brewers’ six at-bats with runners in scoring position in the series -- including two in the final inning of Wednesday’s finale -- was a dubious franchise record. They had never logged fewer than seven at-bats with runners in scoring position in a series of at least three games.

"This is the least amount of film work I had to do preparing for a start, maybe in my whole career, because I knew by heart what they had done the whole season because basically we’ve played them the whole season,” said Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright, who earned his 150th career win with six stress-free innings. “Besides looking at hit charts and tendencies on counts, I pretty much had a good plan going in."

Fielding

The Brewers’ stellar errorless run retroactively ended when Ryan Braun was charged with an error in Monday’s game against the Cardinals. Instead of 15 consecutive errorless games heading into this weekend’s series vs. the Mets, the streak ends at a franchise-record 12 games. But the underlying metrics are not as friendly. The Brewers ranked second last season to the D-backs in Defensive Runs Saved, but entered Wednesday at zero DRS, tied with the Reds for 19th of 30 teams. Lorenzo Cain reminded everyone that he remains elite when he covered 79 feet in 4.3 seconds to reel in a Molina drive in the sixth inning that had a 25 percent catch probability, according to Statcast.

Back to the big picture, and the critical question: How much of the Brewers’ recent poor results have to do with playing the Dodgers and Cardinals, who own the NL’s top two records?

“Look, we’re always making evaluations because that’s the baseball season and that’s what we have to do,” said Counsell. “It’s more the length of time we want to [wait] to make decisions. David has always said 40-50 games is his barometer or what he would like to see. That, more than who we’re playing, getting deeper into the season before we make assessments, is what we’re trying to do.”

Just because the Brewers cleared this stretch does not mean the road ahead is easy. Six of the Brewers’ next 10 games are against the Mets, who entered Wednesday atop the NL East. Following a 10-game homestand against the Rockies, Mets and Nationals, the Brewers hit the road for a challenging trip to play the Cubs, Phillies and Braves.

“We’re playing good teams. The Cardinals are good. The Dodgers are good, and the last [13] games have been against them,” said third baseman Travis Shaw. “We weren’t going to just run through that. … We need to keep our head above water and get going on the right track and finish out this trip well.”

At least Friday brings a new opponent.

“We were saying it kind of felt like the playoffs, where we were playing these really long, extended series and you get to know the other team pretty well,” Yelich said. “I’m sure it’ll be nice to get back to a normal flow.”