3 takeaways from the Chicago Cubs’ 9-1 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, including a lot of swings-and-misses

MILWAUKEE — The Chicago Cubs lost for the ninth time in 11 games and have been outscored 20-2 by the Milwaukee Brewers in the first two games of the series.

Marcus Stroman takes the mound Sunday in search of his first Cubs win.

Here are three takeaways from Saturday’s game.

Starter Justin Steele shrugged off the first-inning lapses that put the Cubs in a 3-0 hole.

“It was kind of funny, wasn’t it?” he said after the game. “It’s just baseball. You’re going to have these kinds of days. Sometimes you’re lucky. Sometimes they’re hitting line drives right at people and you go 1-2-3 with not a lot of pitches. … You’ve just got to grind through it.”

It started with an error by third baseman Patrick Wisdom on an Andrew McCutchen grounder to lead off the inning and was exacerbated when center fielder Michael Hermosillo booted an easy pick-up of Christian Yelich’s single up the middle. Steele fielded Hunter Renfroe’s dribbler down the first-base line but couldn’t make the play, allowing a run to score.

Steele thought he was out of the inning trailing 2-0, but a replay challenge reversed the call on an inning-ending double play.

After a long delay before and during the challenge, Steele returned from the dugout, took some warm-ups and served up an RBI single to Rowdy Tellez.

“Kind of a delay there once we were in the dugout,” he said. “But I felt like I refocused , went out there and started throwing pitches again.”

Manger David Ross spoke with crew chief Jerry Layne after the delay but declined to say what the discussion was about.

“We had a conversation about a lot of things,” he said. “We’ll keep that in house. Thanks for asking.”

Steele failed to get into the fourth inning for the third straight start, but said it was “one of the better times I’ve felt his year” as far as his stuff.

He’s 1-3 with a 5.50 ERA and allowed 23 hits over 18 innings in five starts.

“There are times when you see electric stuff,” Ross said. “One thing we’ve got to do, we’ve got to play some better defense behind him. … We can’t beat ourselves.”

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Ross said he didn’t think Steele was affected by the errors.

“I don’t think things went his way after,” he said. “It’s definitely frustrating when you’re out there and make pitches and plays aren’t made. But there are going to be times when he doesn’t make pitches and they make great plays behind him. … We’re all going to make mistakes. You’ve just got to execute pitches.”

Five Cubs hitter struck out at least twice, including Madrigal and Michael Hermosillo, who were fanned three times apiece. Brewers starter Eric Lauer struck out the first four hitters and 11 over seven innings. The Cubs struck out 15 times overall.

Madrigal, who is hitting .203, had never struck out three times before in a major-league game. Ross said it was a matter of timing.

“Very uncharacteristic of him,” Ross said. “Had a couple days off. Maybe just getting back into that timing for him. That’s what I see — just a little bit late.”

Madrigal had only seven strikeouts in 103 at-bats as a rookie with the White Sox in 2020. Last year he struck out 17 times in 200 at-bats before a season-ending hamstring injury, which preceded his trade to the Cubs.

Madrigal finished April with nine strikeouts in 59 at-bats.