Chicago's Jake Arrieta (8-5) struck out four and allowed one run and five hits over six innings to earn the win. Jorge Soler failed to record an extra-base hit for the first time in his six games in the majors but did have an RBI single and scored a run in the four-run first.

Ryan Braun drove in a run and Aramis Ramirez had two hits for the plummeting Brewers, who fell two games behind St. Louis in the National League Central but maintained a 1 1/2-game lead over Atlanta for the second wild card. Milwaukee starter Yovani Gallardo (8-8) was tagged for seven runs (five earned) in five innings to suffer his first loss at Wrigley Field since 2009, a span of seven starts during which he was 5-0.

The Cubs sent eight men to the plate in the first and were aided by back-to-back errors by shortstop Elian Herrera. The Brewers strung together three straight one-out hits in the third with Braun's RBI single cutting it to 4-1.

Chicago teed off on Gallardo in the fifth, as Valbuena doubled and scored on Welington Castillo's RBI double to the ivy in left, and Alcantara followed with a two-run blast to right. The Brewers had two on with two out in the seventh before Soler made a diving grab in right to rob Jonathan Lucroy and end the threat, and they also put two men on in the ninth before Kyuji Fujikawa struck out Rickie Weeks to seal it.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Gallardo tallied four strikeouts to tie Ben Sheets (1,206) for the franchise record. … Cubs SS Starlin Castro left with a sprained left ankle after he singled and scored in the first. … Soler was trying to become the first player in the last 100 years with at least one extra-base hit in each of his first six games.