CHICAGO — As Pete Crow-Armstrong glided across the Wrigley Field grass Tuesday night, the Chicago Cubs’ Gold Glove center fielder reached up to catch what looked like a routine fly ball. Suddenly, the ball popped out of Crow-Armstrong’s glove and fell to the ground, allowing Sal Frelick, the No. 8 hitter in the Milwaukee Brewers’ lineup, to run to second base and keep up the pressure.The Cubs were already down by three runs in the fourth inning, and the Brewers ultimately did not score during that sequence. With the way Jacob Misiorowski was pitching, and how the Brewers could line up their bullpen, one play might not have mattered all that much in the end. But the moment was emblematic of a Cubs team that is currently in a rut.Crow-Armstrong’s error happened the day after he apologized for a vulgar exchange with a Chicago White Sox fan during Sunday’s game on the South Side, an incident that reportedly got him fined by Major League Baseball.With Tuesday’s 5-2 defeat, the Cubs fell out of first place for the first time since the beginning of May. It’s happening again, the Brewers refusing to concede the National League Central and defying the external expectations after a splashy offseason produced by their big-city rivals.Chicago’s historically great start — two separate 10-game winning streaks and 15 consecutive victories at the Friendly Confines — hasn’t created any meaningful separation from the small-market franchise that spent roughly $100 million less on its Opening Day payroll.“We know how these series go,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy told reporters after Monday night’s 9-3 victory over the Cubs. “They don’t even know most of our guys’ names, you know what I mean? So they’re never going to be intimidated by us, but we’re not looking for that. We’re looking to turn around and play good again.”Murphy’s schtick aside — it’s a long season, we’re just trying to get better every day, yada yada — the Brewers have a winning formula that will push the Cubs all summer long.Subtracting yet another All-Star pitcher (Freddy Peralta) has not disrupted Milwaukee’s plans, which now revolve more around “The Miz,” who completely shut down the Cubs for six innings (zero runs, three singles, one walk, eight strikeouts) that required only 74 pitches.Going against the grain, the Brewers have built a high-scoring offense with speed and contact skills while hitting the fewest home runs in the majors. The organization targets certain types of hitters in the draft and on the trade market and further develops those traits.Milwaukee scored all three of its runs against Cubs starter Ben Brown with two outs in two different innings (via two singles and a wild pitch). Even when Brice Turang’s two-run homer off Cubs reliever Trent Thornton landed in the left-field bleachers in the eighth inning, the crowd of 38,190 mostly stayed rather than head toward the exits.“They’re a hot team right now,” Brown said. “All the games we play seem like they’re really close. In the postseason, obviously, but even in regular-season battles everyone’s a little bit more on edge. This is getting us better as a team. The more and more you can play in these environments, the better we’re going to be.”Losing four consecutive series is a sign the Cubs are feeling the effects while so many of their top pitchers are sidelined. Refilling the rotation thins out the bullpen, which usually has to cover more innings after lesser starters, and all of those daily workload decisions compound.But the Brewers have an injured list, too, and the names on it include starting pitchers Brandon Woodruff (right shoulder inflammation) and Quinn Priester (thoracic outlet syndrome). In a rematch of last year’s playoff series — the Brewers won the decisive Game 5 at home and then posed with a Chicago “L” flag — the Cubs have not led at any point during their first 18 innings against Milwaukee this season.“Every year has periods like that,” Cubs outfielder Ian Happ said. “If we had the same record today, but we just won every single series, it would feel a little bit different, a little bit more consistent.“When you reflect on the whole thing, we’re (nine) games over .500 and sitting in a good spot. If you would have told us this was going to be our record at this point in the season, I think everybody would have signed up for it.”A collective slump, however, has bunched the Cubs (29-20) with the Brewers (28-18) and St. Louis Cardinals (28-19) in a surprisingly competitive division that also features the Cincinnati Reds (25-24) and Pittsburgh Pirates (24-24). The Brewers won the NL Central in each of the last three years, which followed four straight playoff appearances (and two division titles) between 2018 and 2021.The Cubs are still waiting for a bigger impact from Alex Bregman (.685 OPS), the All-Star third baseman signed to a five-year, $175 million contract last offseason. The league has adjusted to rookie Moisés Ballesteros, who’s 3-for-40 with a .286 OPS in May. Dansby Swanson’s streakiness has yielded seven home runs and a .195 batting average.Nico Hoerner has leveled off after an MVP-caliber start to the season, while Crow-Armstrong hasn’t reached the same heights that carried him to last year’s All-Star Game and a six-year, $115 million contract extension.In light of recent events, Cubs manager Craig Counsell didn’t read too much into Crow-Armstrong’s error, saying, “The ball was probably hit a little harder than he thought, and the wind was helping a little bit in that direction, and it just got farther above him” than anticipated.Counsell, who became the sport’s highest-paid manager when he separated from the Brewers after the 2023 season, also isn’t making any sweeping conclusions before Memorial Day weekend.“We got (113 games) to go,” Counsell said. “They beat us the first two games (here). They beat us, for sure, flat out. We got to come out (Wednesday night) and try to salvage a game.”