Chicago Cubs' losing streak hits 4

Anthony Rizzo had a two-word answer to questions about the "slow start" the Chicago Cubs are off to in 2017.

"It's baseball," the first baseman said before Monday night's 6-3 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers at Wrigley Field.

Rizzo then expanded on those two words.

"It's baseball, and you go with that all the time," he said. "When things are going really good or things are going really bad, it's the game of baseball. We go out every day and play the best we can and the hardest we can."

The Cubs are up against their 25-6 start of last year, which was the beginning of the ride to a World Series championship. The loss to the Brewers was the Cubs' fourth in a row and dropped them to 6-7.

"People are going to come in here gunning for us, for sure," said starting pitcher John Lackey (1-2), who pitched 6 innings and gave up 7 hits and 4 runs. "We're world champs, and people want to come and play well. And we're going to have to match that intensity and have to play better."

Manager Joe Maddon said he agreed with Rizzo's assessment.

"It's pretty much like he said," Maddon answered. "I totally agree with that. When you go 6-6 in the middle of the year, nobody notices. It's a nice road trip at times. You go on a 10-day road trip and you go 5-5, nice road trip.

"I think you're going to see more consistent hitting as we move it along. I talked about it early on, it takes about a month to figure out your bullpen. We're still in the process of getting everybody comfortable out there. So I think as the hitting peaks a little bit more, which it will, and we really establish getting the bullpen guys comfortable, that's when we're really going to take off."

Brewers batters made baseballs take off early. Even with the temperature at 45 degrees with a chilly north wind blowing in from left field, Ryan Braun was able to launch a 2-run homer in the first after Eric Thames doubled with one out.

The Cubs got an unearned run against Chase Anderson in the bottom of the inning before Jeff Bandy led off the second with a homer for the Brewers. Albert Almora Jr.'s 2-run double tied it in the bottom half before Thames hit his seventh homer of the season to start the third. Thames has homered in five consecutive games, tying the Milwaukee franchise mark, which he shares with Jeromy Burnitz.

If there's anything that is bothering Maddon, it's the late innings of games. The Brewers scored 2 runs, 1 unearned, in the eighth to increase a 4-3 lead to 6-3.

"We have to do a better job in the latter part of the game, even if it's a deficit, to keep it a small deficit," he said.

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