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Chicago – The Milwaukee Brewers’ starting rotation took another hit Wednesday night that it couldn’t afford to take.



Kyle Lohse, making his third consecutive start on a sore left ankle, aggravated the injury during an at-bat in the third inning.



He wound up finishing the frame, but not before surrendering home runs to Javier Baez and Anthony Rizzo in the bottom half, staking the Chicago Cubs to an early lead they wouldn’t relinquish in beating the Brewers, 4-2, at Wrigley Field.



While neither Lohse nor manager Ron Roenicke seemed to think the injury was overly serious, there seemed to be some doubt as to whether the right-hander will be able to make his next start, scheduled for Aug. 19 against the Toronto Blue Jays at Miller Park.



The Brewers, who maintained their 1 1/2-game lead in the NL Central Division with the Pittsburgh Pirates also losing, have an off day on the 18th following their series against the Dodgers in Los Angeles.



With Matt Garza already on the 15-day disabled list with a strained left oblique, they can ill afford for another of their starters to miss any significant time.



“We’ll stay on the treatment that we’ve been doing, and figure out if we can do something to enable me to do the things I need to do to make pitches,” said Lohse, who initially injured the ankle in his Aug. 2 start in St. Louis.



“I have an extra day, so that gives them the opportunity to do all kinds of things. We’ll just see how it goes.”



Lohse struck out swinging for the second out in the top of the third, tweaking his ankle in the process.



Things went from bad to worse in the bottom of the third for him when, three pitches in, Baez crushed a homer over the bleachers in left and onto Waveland Ave., and then one pitch later Rizzo golfed a homer just over the wall in right to double the Cubs’ lead to 4-0.



It was at that point, with Arismendy Alcantara up, that Lohse was visited on the mound by manager Ron Roenicke and trainer Dan Wright briefly. He stayed in the game and wound up retiring the Cubs on three strikeouts, but he was lifted in favor of Marco Estrada heading into the fourth.



“He wanted to keep going,” Roenicke said. “It affected him. It affected his landing.”



Lohse limited the Dodgers to six hits and one run over six innings in his previous start on Aug. 8, but couldn’t get comfortable in this one.



“I was able to make the adjustment, make the pitches to get through L.A. and today,” he said. “It didn’t feel right from the start, then I kind of tweaked it trying to check that swing and from there I just couldn't push off the way I want to.”



In three innings (55 pitches), Lohse allowed seven hits, four runs (earned) and a walk to go along with three strikeouts. He took the loss to fall to 11-7.



“I just need to be careful,” Lohse said. “I was really sore after the last start because I was making adjustments. Last time I pitched I was throwing probably all upper body and today was probably the same.



“I probably could have kept going, but it's one of those things where you just have to be smart about that and not hurt something else.”