CHICAGO — The Cubs are five games back of the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Central and hold a four-game lead on the San Diego Padres for the top spot in the NL Wild Card with 23 games to play entering Wednesday.

And yet, facing a right-handed starter against Atlanta in the series finale at Wrigley Field, the Cubs’ best defender and an NL All-Star starter, Pete Crow-Armstrong, is out for the second straight day – and he’s not hurt.

“Just the thought was we’re kind of given a chance with the off day here is to give him a real break and to just kind of give him a reset a little bit,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said before Wednesday’s contest.

Willi Castro is patrolling center for the Cubs on Wednesday and hitting seventh. Kevin Alcántara manned the spot on Tuesday, with Crow-Armstrong replacing him defensively in the bottom of the ninth of the 4-3 win over Atlanta.

Crow-Armstrong was not only the breakout player for the Cubs in the first half, but arguably the biggest surprise in baseball to start the year. For his efforts, he was named the starter in center field for the National League at the All-Star Game. Through July, Crow-Armstrong carried a .272/.309/.559 (.868 OPS) slash line with 27 home runs, 78 RBI, 29 stolen bases and a 137 weighted runs created plus (wRC+), which is 37 percentage points above league average.

But he hit a really tough patch at the plate in August, slashing .163/.217/.231 (.448 OPS) with one home run, five RBI, was 2-for-4 in stolen base attempts to go along with a 23 wRC+.

He’s spent the full year in the majors and played in 136 games – the most he’s ever played in a season, and has done so at a burdensome position. That’s why, during those struggles, Counsell tried to find some time off for his 23-year-old center fielder.

During the West Coast road trip last week, Counsell began to search for a pocket where he could get Crow-Armstrong off his feet and hopefully recharge his batteries a bit. He wanted him to play in San Francisco and Colorado, two parks with spacious outfields and where his defense would be invaluable, despite his offensive woes.

Against Atlanta, with a left-handed starter on Tuesday, Counsell saw his opportunity and took it, even if it means missing a key player for a crucial pair of games.

“I think you do what’s best for the player first, always,” Counsell said. “Always do what’s best for the player, and then, you have other considerations. But you learn lessons doing this – it’s one game. And the benefit outweighs it sometimes as much as you want guys, and you want your best players out there.

“There’s been examples that I’ve learned from in the past that you do what’s right for the player, and you’re not making a mistake.”

Counsell, Crow-Armstrong and the Cubs hope that resting him for two games could help the center fielder down the stretch for the final 22 games.

“He’ll do his kind of normal work today, and then obviously have tomorrow off as well and just to get him a physical and mental break,” Counsell said. “And then go into the last essentially three and a half weeks of the season, hopefully a little bit refreshed.”