Bullpen, error remove Cubs' grip on sweep of Padres

Beyond the chaos and weirdness of the first two innings, the Cubs had an opportunity to sweep one of the best teams in the National League and run their winning streak to six games.

Because of a struggling starter, bullpen issues, a stymied offense and a late error, the Cubs missed their chance to take three straight from the Padres, losing 8-7 on Sunday.

“Every time you have a chance to win a ballgame it’s big, but we’ll shake this one off and get prepared to play the Rangers [Monday],” Justin Turner said. “We still took two out of three from a pretty good ballclub over there and had an opportunity to sweep them and didn’t finish the job, but we’ll shake it off and show up [Monday] and try to win another series.”

Playing first, Turner dropped Nico Hoerner’s relay on a potential double-play grounder by Manny Machado that would have ended the top of the ninth. The miscue allowed Fernando Tatis Jr. to score from second and give the Padres an 8-7 lead.

Turner said the throw was a “tweener” and he wasn’t sure whether it would reach first base on the fly or need a bounce. The ball hit cleanly off Turner’s glove, and by the time he retrieved the ball from behind him, it was too late.

“Trying to get out there and get it before it bounces and just missed it,” Turner said. “No excuses. That ball’s got to be caught.”

In fairness to Turner, that was just one moment the Cubs would like back.

Ryan Pressly allowed a walk and a hit in the ninth that lowered the Cubs’ margin of error, Porter Hodge surrendered the lead in the eighth inning, and Caleb Thielbar also gave up a run. Starter Ben Brown put the Cubs into a 3-0 hole after a half-inning, and as a team the Cubs walked eight batters.

“Walks got us in trouble and they ended up hurting us,” manager Craig Counsell said.

For a couple innings, the Cubs' offense looked capable of getting Brown and the team out of trouble.

Following Brown’s first-inning issues that included three walks and one hit batter, the Cubs coaxed four walks from Padres starter Kyle Hart and forced him to throw 39 pitches to get two outs before he was lifted. By the time the inning had ended, the Cubs led 5-3, had gotten into the San Diego bullpen and benefited from two run-scoring balks by San Diego reliever Logan Gillaspie.

Kyle Tucker’s second-inning two-run homer increased the lead to 7-3, and the Cubs seemed to be on the verge of an early sweep of a good team. Yet the offense stopped producing, and Brown was unable to give the Cubs much length.

An out away from getting through four innings with a four-run lead, Brown served up Jackson Merrill’s two-run home run. The moment punctuated a rough outing for Brown and came after what he called a “nails” pregame bullpen and solid work leading up to the start.

“Saw it all kind of fall apart in the first inning,” said Brown, who walked four and gave up five runs and seven hits over four innings. “I wasn’t able to make the adjustment I needed to make early enough. It’s frustrating. It’s frustrating for sure.”

The Cubs' offense was frustrated after the second, and mustered only six hits in what turned out to be a rough ending to a good series.

“Obviously it wasn’t a clean game by any means on either side,” Turner said. “I think we let that one get away.”