BOX SCORE

The Cubs’ chances at winning another series looked very promising on Monday.

Two days later, the momentum faded as they fell 3-1 to the San Francisco Giants.

Tough Giants pitching meant the Cubs couldn’t play to their usual strengths, and in the end, San Francisco took the hard-fought series after back-to-back wins Tuesday and Wednesday.

It is the second straight home series the Cubs have dropped, after losing two of three to the Phillies last month.

Here are three takeaways as the Cubs (22-16) lost to the Giants (24-14) on Wednesday afternoon in Chicago.

Who’s next?

Ben Brown took the mound for the Cubs, looking to shake the efficiency problem that’s hampered him thus far. In his eight starts this year, he has managed to reach the sixth inning only twice, often running into high pitch counts early in the game. 

Brown threw a career-high 103 pitches through five innings Wednesday, allowing three runs on six hits. His nine strikeouts were his highest tally since May 2024, when he punched out 10 Brewers in an outing.

While the swings and misses are encouraging for Brown, the Cubs still would have liked him to go deeper on a day when the bullpen was spread very thin — they used seven of their nine relievers in Tuesday’s 11-inning loss to the Giants. 

The Cubs had to use five relievers after Brown in Wednesday’s loss.

Fine, I’ll do it myself 

On what was a very quiet afternoon for the Cubs, Pete Crow-Armstrong decided to take matters into his own hands. 

The center fielder first showed off his Gold Glove-caliber defense in the fourth inning when he launched a rocket to Carson Kelly to cut down LaMonte Wade Jr. at home. The play got the Cubs out of the inning and limited the Giants’ damage. 

Crow-Armstrong has been top tier at his position since his MLB debut in 2023. This year, he has recorded the most outs above average (8) in the league, at any position. 

He leads MLB in fielding run value, Statcast’s all-encompassing metric for a defender’s individual defensive performance, by a large margin. His arm strength is ranked 11th-best in MLB and sixth-best among center fielders. 

Crow-Armstrong also gave the Cubs their only run of the game, and in vintage PCA fashion — a sky-high pop-up on an 0-2 count with two outs in the inning dropped in shallow left field for a RBI double. 

Cy you later

The Cubs were bound to face a tough task in the second and third games of the Giants series as San Francisco sent two Cy Young Award winners to take on the Cubs in back-to-back days.

In Game 2, it was Justin Verlander, who has won the award three times in his future Hall of Fame career. At age 42, Verlander is past his prime but was still able to hold the Cubs’ dangerous offense to three runs on five hits in five innings on Tuesday. 

In the rubber match, the Cubs saw Robbie Ray, who is sporting some of his best stuff since he won the AL Cy Young Award in 2021 with the Toronto Blue Jays. 

Ray made a statement in Chicago, allowing just one earned run on three hits while striking out five Cubs over his six innings of work. 

The Cubs managed just six total runs over the final two games of the series — only half of what they have averaged per game this season as MLB’s highest-scoring offense.

The Cubs will now head to the Big Apple to take on the New York Mets in a three-game set beginning Friday at 6:10 p.m. CT. Chicago has not yet decided who will start Saturday in the wake of Shota Imanaga’s trip to the 15-day IL with a strained hamstring.