MILWAUKEE — Like all major leaguers, Justin Steele craves to win baseball games.

So, the last two months or so of baseball have been challenging for the Cubs’ ace. Mix in a wild bottom of the 3rd inning that sees the Cubs lose a lead they had gained just minutes prior, and the tempers can boil over.

That’s what happened between innings Saturday when Steele screamed on the top steps of the dugout.

“Yeah, he said something coming into the dugout, like ‘Let’s go,’ essentially,” manager Craig Counsell said after the Cubs’ 5-3 win over Milwaukee. “And it was an emotional inning. We played poorly that inning.

“We made some mistakes and he’s just voicing his emotion, [from a] place of love. Anytime you say something from a good place, it’s welcome.”

[WATCH: Cubs respond in right way after Justin Steele’s emotional response]

A not-so-crisp defensive inning allowed the Brewers to pry away the Cubs’ 2-0 lead that came on the first two pitches of the game. And that inning felt eerily like what has been going wrong for the Cubs during their two-month stretch of struggles.

The offense staked the team to an early lead, then missed opportunities to tack on — The Cubs were 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position in the 3 innings after Michael Busch’s 2-run, 1st-inning home run staked the Cubs to a lead.

In the bottom half of the frame, Sal Frelick led off with a single that clipped off Christopher Morel’s glove at third and then stole second. After a popout, Andruw Monasterio hit a comebacker to Steele, who fielded the ball, ran down Frelick at second and tossed it to Nico Hoerner, initiating a rundown. Hoerner chased Frelick and threw it to Morel at third, but Morel failed to cleanly catch the ball and tag him out, allowing a pair of runners to reach scoring position.

Brice Turang laid a perfect bunt to the mound and reached base, scoring Frelick and moving the tying run to third. William Contreras followed with a blooper that dropped between a sliding Pete Crow-Armstrong, Hoerner and Dansby Swanson to tie the game.

It was the perfect storm for Steele as walked back into the Cubs dugout after striking out Willy Adames in the 3rd.

“Yeah, I mean, for the most part, I’d just like to keep that between me and the team,” Steele said. “Personally, should probably do a little bit better job of controlling my emotions on the field in front of people and stuff, just for kids and families and I got a nephew that watches me pitch, so as far as that stuff goes.

“But as far as the rest of it goes, we won the game and that, to me, that’s what matters the most.”

As Counsell said, Steele wasn’t trying to show up his team or gain some brownie points among fans who have been clamoring for that type of display of emotion from the team.

He just wants to stack up more victories and play to the potential that the team is capable of.

“Yeah, I mean, I love every single person in that locker room,” Steele said. “I know how good we can be. I know what it takes and stuff. It definitely comes from a good place. It comes from a place of love and passion, want, too. I want to win baseball games. That’s what I show up every day to do.”

His teammates understood it, too.

“Yeah, I mean, I think anything that is from the heart and somebody in the heat of competition. I think everybody sees how much he cares, how much he wants to win baseball games,” Ian Happ, whose 2-run home run in the 8th proved to be the difference, said. “Then he goes out there and competes, it was nice to see.”

While people might want — and hope — this to be a turning point for the Cubs, it’s not a guarantee that’s what happens. There was no magical Zen moment last year that turned around the season when they were 10 games under .500. The team started playing better, the offensive was scoring more regularly and it allowed them to claw back into playoff contention.

“I think you always hope for [that specific turning point], I don’t if that’s reality,” president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said on Friday. “I was looking back at last year, we struggled for quite a while and then — I don’t think it was one moment — we just all of a sudden started scoring 8, 9 or 10 runs a night for a while. I don’t think there was some catalytic moment that it did.”

That’s why the Cubs are showing up with the same mindset every day. Counsell would still have his calm demeanor if the Cubs were 10 games over and amid a winning streak. Steele would still display some fire after outings as he did in 2023 when he struck out 12 Giants in an outing.

The everyday nature of baseball means players can’t ride the waves of a season and have the same approach day in and day out.

“You see guys get pissed, slam stuff, like that happens,” Happ said. “It’s an intense game, but I think every single guy in this clubhouse is competing and wants to win baseball games every day. When you’re going through a stretch like we are that frustration is real. And it’s about maintaining a level of focus.

“How do we go out there and amidst any frustration and continue to do things we have to do to be competitive on an individual basis and a team basis?”