Chicago Cubs lay an egg in second-straight loss to Milwaukee

Tuesday night’s loss against the Milwaukee Brewers just seemed to get worse and worse for the Chicago Cubs, culminating in an 11-1 final score.

The MLB regular season is six months long, so one bad game should not cause too much hysteria by the masses. But man, the Chicago Cubs’ performance Tuesday night was absolutely brutal.

The Cubs took a 1-0 lead in the second inning Tuesday, scoring first for the second consecutive game. David Bote doubled and scored on a soft-hit ground ball by Willson Contreras, which was bobbled and thrown away by Brewers shortstop Orlando Arcia.

All downhill from here

The Brewers’ sloppy start was quickly reversed in the bottom of the second by Mike Montgomery, though. The left-hander gave up a single to Ryan Braun, walked Travis Shaw and hit Erik Kratz on a 1-2 count with one out to load the bases.

Montgomery went down in the count 3-1 to Arcia before fighting back for the strikeout. It seemed like he was going to get out of the jam unscathed, as Brewers pitcher Wade Miley followed Arcia.

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Instead, Montgomery spiked a first-pitch cutter into the ground, which got past Contreras, allowing Braun to score. Montgomery did retire Miley, but the damage was done.

Unfortunately for Montgomery, the Cubs’ defense could not bail him out in the fourth inning. Following a leadoff single by Perez, Travis Shaw hit a hard one-hop to second baseman Javier Báez.

Defensive miscues

Rather than turn an easy 4-6-3 double play, the ball ricocheted off Báez’s glove into shallow right field. Báez earned an error on the play, which is somewhat unfair considering how hard the ball was hit.

Perez stole third base one batter later, almost before Montgomery’s pitch reached Contreras’ glove, scoring on a sac fly in the same plate appearance. The Brewers added a run in the fifth inning on another sac fly.

Despite all of this, the Cubs only trailed 3-1 in the bottom of the sixth inning. But at this point, the wheels really fell off for the visitors. The Brewers scored three runs on a combination of an error by Addison Russell, two walks, a hit-by-pitch and just two hits.

You get the picture.

Chance for redemption Wednesday

Milwaukee added three more runs in the seventh inning and two in the eighth, eventually winning the game 11-1. The Cubs’ division lead over the Brewers fell from four to three games. Of course, a win would have increased the Cubs’ lead to five..

Essentially, both Monday and Tuesday’s losses offered the Cubs a chance to increase their division lead over the Brewers. The former failed in both instances, though Tuesday’s game was flat out brutal.

In defense of the Cubs, Tuesday’s loss could essentially be erased Wednesday. A win in the series finale would increase the division lead over the Brewers back to four games. That would be much more comfortable for the Cubs than two games.

Still, Tuesday’s game was important, and the Cubs came out extremely flat following a walk-off loss. It was just one game, but laying an egg in September against a division challenger is a tough pill to swallow.