How adjustments in Triple-A paved way for Ben Brown's bounce-back vs. White Sox

After the Cubs’ 5-4 victory Sunday against the White Sox, right-hander Ben Brown acknowledged he has struggled with execution, especially in situations such as the one he found himself in during the third inning.

The Sox had runners on first and second with no outs after a pair of singles to begin the inning, and Mike Tauchman stepped up to the plate.

In a two-strike count, Brown threw a curveball below the zone to get Tauchman to swing and miss for the first out.

‘‘I haven’t done a good job minimizing damage or stopping the rally,’’ Brown said. ‘‘And being able to get the strikeout is something that I need, part of my game.’’

He got out of the inning on the next batter with an infield fly that second baseman Nico Hoerner turned into a double play. Rally stopped.

Brown took a step forward Sunday after a rocky first start back from Triple-A Iowa last week. He limited the Sox to one run and three hits in five innings.

‘‘He gave us exactly what we needed, and he came up big-time,’’ manager Craig Counsell said. ‘‘I was hoping for, frankly, 12 outs, and he got us 15 outs. So he did a heck of a job. Threw a lot of strikes, and we played well behind him.’’

In the short term, the Cubs have needed Brown to fill a starting role because of a rash of injuries to their rotation. But he could pitch meaningful innings down the stretch, regardless of what his role becomes after the Cubs likely add pitching at the trade deadline Thursday and get right-handers Jameson Taillon and Javier Assad back from the injured list in August.

In the long term, honing his execution will be an important part of Brown’s development, especially as a starter.

‘‘The more Ben just keeps things simple, the better he is,’’ pitching coach Tommy Hottovy told the Sun-Times on Sunday. ‘‘When he does try to do too much, that’s when you see the bigger misses come into play. . . . Why don’t we just be the guy that executes a ton of fastballs at the top of the zone and a ton of curveballs down? If we start there, a lot of good things are going to happen.’’

While Brown was at Iowa, the Cubs also had him make a tweak to his delivery. His front foot was landing more cross-body than usual, especially on his curveball, adding horizontal movement and hurting the depth of the pitch.

‘‘The curveball has just really been taking a step up [since] my time in Triple-A, for sure,’’ Brown said. ‘‘And it’s encouraging to see swings and misses.’’

Brown had a couple of chances to crumble, but he didn’t.

With two outs in the first, he threw a first-pitch fastball over the heart of the plate to Andrew Benintendi. who sent it into the Cubs’ bullpen for the first of two home runs he hit. (He also had a three-run blast against reliever Ryan Brasier in the eighth.)

But Brown bounced back and threw three consecutive curveballs to Miguel Vargas, who grounded out to end the first.

The only other hits Brown yielded were singles to Lenyn Sosa and Brooks Baldwin in the third.

‘‘Fastball execution opened up a lot of room for my curveball today, and I’m really happy with how that was playing for me,’’ Brown said.

Brown already had shown he could have outings of this caliber, even against more experienced lineups than the youth-driven Sox. But by the time the Cubs optioned him to Iowa in late June, the blow-up outings had started to outnumber the dominant ones.

‘‘If I’ve found out anything from the last month of being in Triple-A or struggling, it’s that I can’t really pull my identity from the game,’’ Brown said. ‘‘It’s been hard. It’s been a challenge, been a grind. And to have a good one, I’m just excited to celebrate with my wife tonight and sleep easy.

‘‘It doesn’t stop, though. I’ll get right back on the horse. But I’m really grateful for how [Sunday] went.’’