Narváez homer isn't enough to rescue Crew

Omar Narváez broke-up an opponent’s bid for a no-hitter for the second time in three nights and smashed the three-run home run that kept the Brewers in the game.

But the man didn’t get much help.

Narváez’s effort went for naught in a 5-3 loss to the Cubs at Wrigley Field on Monday night, where Brett Anderson saw a perfect start come apart in a three-homer fourth inning, and Keston Hiura swung through down-the-middle fastballs on another hitless night, and Devin Williams didn’t complete his first inning of 2021, but he did do something that happened only once in all of ‘20 on the way to the National League Rookie of the Year Award. Williams allowed an earned run.

Those unfortunate events added up to the Brewers’ third loss in four games to start the season, and continuing worry about an offense that hasn’t produced many highlights aside from a late-inning rally against the Twins on Opening Day that was aided by a pair of Minnesota misplays and a free runner on second base in extra innings.

“I mean, guys are working hard. It’s not like we haven’t stopped working,” Narváez said. It’s just not happening now. I’m really confident in our team. I think everybody is going to come together.”

Here are the three things to know about another fruitless night:

1. They aren’t hitting

The Brewers had four hits on Monday and have 10 total hits in their three losses. Through 143 plate appearances -- small sample alert -- Milwaukee’s 31 weighted runs created plus ranks 29th of 30 teams. The club’s .163 batting average is third-lowest, but it’s ahead of the Cubs’ .153.

Within those numbers, the Brewers are not just struggling to score, they are struggling to merely get a hit off a starting pitcher. On Saturday, the Twins’ José Berríos took a perfect game into the fifth in Milwaukee and had a no-hitter into the eighth before Narváez smacked a single. On Monday in Chicago it was another right-hander, Trevor Williams, who was perfect into the sixth before Narváez hit a 67.1-mph ground ball to the left side, away from the Cubs’ infield shift, for a single that started Milwaukee’s first threat.

An inning later against Cubs reliever Jason Adam, Narváez put his team on the board with his first home run of the season. Like Opening Day, the Brewers scored with some help; Narváez’s home run came with two outs, two batters after Cubs second baseman David Bote missed a chance to turn a double play.

“We obviously need more runs,” manager Craig Counsell said. “We just haven't gotten them so far.”

2. That escalated quickly for Anderson

After nine up, nine down on 32 pitches to start the game, Anderson surrendered four runs on a walk and three homers in a 33-pitch fourth, including a two-run home run for Willson Contreras and solo homers for Javier Báez and Bote.

“I just didn’t have the same action I had in the first three innings,” Anderson said. “Those cost us the game. If I give up the two-run [homer], I can live with it, but those next two shouldn’t happen.”

Asked for his take on the Brewers’ lack of run support so far, Anderson said, “Obviously, it’s early. Nobody’s going to cancel and punt the season after four games or whatever. Yeah, I think guys are pressing and might be trying to hit the three-run homer with nobody on base, but we have a talented group out there and we’re going to score some runs. I like our club. Unfortunately, I put us in a big hole there and we weren’t able to crawl back out of it.”

3. Williams ‘knocks off rust’

Devin Williams was going to pitch on Monday regardless of the score. After an abbreviated Spring Training coming off a shoulder injury, he had not worked in a full week since an appearance in an exhibition game at Globe Life Field on March 29.

When he did take the mound in a 4-3 game in the seventh, Williams threw 22 pitches to five batters. He walked the first (Jake Marisnick), surrendered an RBI triple to the third (Eric Sogard) on a good changeup way below the zone, and hit the fifth (Contreras) in the head with a 93-mph fastball. Thankfully, Contreras was OK.

The earned run matched opponents’ output against Williams in all of 2020, when he logged 27 innings in 22 appearances and became the third player in Brewers history to win his league’s Rookie of the Year Award.

“We haven't put together a really full ballgame yet, but we're four games into it,” Williams said. "No one's hitting the panic button yet, that's for sure, which was probably a different scenario last year with it being only 60 games. I mean, we're still getting used to each other, still learning to play together, still trying to put together a complete game from the first inning to the ninth. So, we're still working.”