CHICAGO -- The results from Pablo López’s starts over the past month and a half or so have matched how the Twins right-hander has felt on the mound. It’s no surprise, then, that he’s put together a strong run over that stretch.

That was not as much the case on Tuesday in the Twins’ 7-3 loss to the Cubs at Wrigley Field. López was charged with four runs (including a home run) on seven hits and one walk in five innings with just two strikeouts.

“It did feel different,” López said. “Those seven or eight [starts], I felt that I had good rhythm -- the rhythm that allowed me to generate power at the end, which allowed me to feel my hand on top where I needed to feel it to make sure I was hitting the locations I wanted to.

“Today, if I'm fighting too much on the mound, instead of a pitch going to where I want it to go, it might be a little lazy and it could leak over the plate. It could just float. I threw a couple of pitches that were just floating up in the zone. I actually got lucky some of them were hit for outs.”

López entered Tuesday’s outing with a 4.65 ERA in 22 starts this season, including a 2.86 ERA over his previous seven starts, with 55 strikeouts and 10 walks in 44 innings. But he fell into an early hole against the Cubs.

After allowing back-to-back two-out singles in the first inning, López surrendered a three-run homer to Isaac Paredes on a 94.7 mph four-seam fastball that leaked out over the middle of the plate. The blast defied the 19 mph wind blowing in from center field to sneak over the ivy-covered wall and into the basket in left field.

“You can see how the pitch may have started away, but then it kind of leaked over the plate and ended up being middle-middle,” López said. “A lot of people know that [Paredes’] power is to the pull side, so you really have to make sure that you hit that line. It’s a 2-2 count. You don't want to go to 3-2. But I do have to be more specific against those kinds of guys.”

López allowed only four singles, one walk and one run over his final four innings, but there were some uncharacteristic aspects of his outing. The two strikeouts were his fewest in a start since April 4 against the Guardians (also two).

He generated just seven whiffs on 43 swings, tied for his third fewest in a start this season (five on April 23, six on June 18). He got just two whiffs on 18 swings against his four-seamer on Tuesday.

“I did not do a great job establishing my pitches, showing them that I can throw it for strikes to then make them respect it,” López said. “Overall on the mound, I felt a little out of whack, probably the most I felt in this stretch I've had for a while now. I was fighting myself on the mound too much, which led to a lot of pitches up in the zone.”

The Twins fell to four games back of the AL Central-leading Guardians on Tuesday, after Cleveland’s matchup with Arizona was rained out and rescheduled as part of a doubleheader on Wednesday. But Minnesota entered the day as close as it has been to first in the division since the morning of May 18 (3 1/2 games back).

López will be key to the Twins’ push the rest of the season, certainly in a rotation featuring young arms Simeon Woods Richardson and David Festa. And on Tuesday, the Twins’ problems extended beyond him.

Cubs starter Shota Imanaga held Minnesota to two runs on two hits and one walk in seven innings. Royce Lewis hit a two-run homer in the fourth. The Twins made several mistakes in the field. Second baseman Brooks Lee made a stop on a Cody Bellinger grounder that went for a single in the first, but he recorded an error on his throw to first base. Paredes’ homer followed.

Dansby Swanson hit an RBI triple in the sixth, on a ball that had a 60 percent catch probability for center fielder Austin Martin, according to Statcast. Martin appeared to have a play on it but came up short on a diving attempt. Swanson then scored on a wild pitch thrown by reliever Randy Dobnak.

“We didn’t play good enough fundamentally to really say anything else except we should’ve done more, we should’ve done better,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “That’s not to say some of the plays that we saw tonight … wasn’t under somewhat challenging circumstances. But we have to find a way to navigate that and get through.”