Ben Brown's meltdown costs the Cubs, raising questions about his role on the staff

After Dansby Swanson connected on his first home run of the year to give the Cubs a 3-0 lead heading into the late innings Sunday afternoon, it looked like Chicago was headed for a sweep of an Easter doubleheader against the Cleveland Guardians.

But after Shota Imanaga allowed a leadoff double to open the sixth, Craig Counsell turned to Ben Brown - and the rails completely fell off. Inheriting a runner at second, the right-hander walked Angel Martinez before notching the first out of the inning via a Jose Ramirez pop-out.

Pinch hitter CJ Kayfus then singled, scoring Steven Kwan from second to make it a 3-1 game and a Chase DeLauter sac fly cut it to 3-2. Two batters later, a run-scoring knock from Gabriel Arias tied things up - and just like that, Imanaga's shot at his first win of the season was gone. To his credit, Brown recorded a 1-2-3 seventh, but that rocky sixth has Cubs fans calling for his head.

Across three appearances here in the early-going, Brown has four walks in 8 2/3 innings - and in Sunday's appearance, just 22 of his 42 pitches were thrown for strikes. The fact this outing came on the heels of 3 1/3 scoreless innings in which he punched out 5 against the Angels last week really sums up the Ben Brown experience: it tends to fall on the extremes, either very good or very bad.

And, despite it being the first week of April, fans are already begging for changes in the bullpen.

Cubs are quickly digging themselves an early hole in the NL Central

It's understandable. Sunday's nightcap was a very winnable game and, instead, the Cubs fall back below .500 at 4-5, three games back of the NL Central-leading Brewers in last place in the division. After Brown blew the lead, Ian Happ snapped a brutal cold stretch with a go-ahead blast, only for Cleveland to score three times in the bottom of the eighth - with all three runs charged to Jacob Webb.

The inconsistency has been Brown's biggest hurdle in his MLB career and, at some point, he's either going to figure it out or the Cubs are going to cut bait. For those clamoring for Javier Assad to take his spot on the roster, you should know he is coming off a disastrous outing at Iowa and has allowed seven earned runs, 14 hits and six walks in seven innings of work this year.

Hardly someone you feel good about swapping into the mix.

It's too early in the year to hit the panic button on Brown, or the bullpen, as a whole - especially with the uncertainty surrounding Cade Horton and the Cubs needing to move Colin Rea into the rotation. They're going to have to depend on Brown to eat multiple innings for the time being, and hope there's more good than bad, as frustrating as that is.