On May 2nd, the Cubs dismantled the Brewers. Quinn Priester pitched in that game and got beat up; he allowed seven runs in 4 1⁄3 innings, the Brewers lost 10-0, and the Cubs looked light years ahead of the Brewers. Tonight, with Priester back on the mound (against the Brewers’ old friend Colin Rea), it was a different story. Priester didn’t have his best stuff but he held the Cubs to two runs, and Andrew Vaughn continued the storybook start to his Brewers career. But while the good vibes
ran rampant, a potentially significant moment occurred when Jackson Chourio had to leave the game early after grabbing his hamstring. But an initial report about that injury was encouraging, and the Brewers finished the day with a convincing win over their rival and held on to the best record in baseball.
Priester got off to a clean start against the business end of the Cubs’ dangerous lineup. Michael Busch flew out to left and Kyle Tucker and Seiya Suzuki both hit harmless grounders, and Priester had a six-pitch 1-2-3 inning.
In the bottom of the inning, after a Sal Frelick ground out, Chourio started a new hitting streak by hitting a weak grounder in front of third baseman Matt Shaw on which he had no chance of throwing out the speedy young Milwaukee outfielder. But Rea executed a perfect spinning pickoff move and nabbed Chourio leaning off of first base, and he became the second out. Contreras reached on an error with two outs when Shaw couldn’t handle a chopper to third, but another chopper, this one by Christian Yelich, ended the inning.
Priester started the second inning by walking Pete Crow-Armstrong—not an especially easy thing to do—and Nico Hoerner followed with a hard line drive right at Brice Turang that the Brewer second baseman couldn’t handle. (It was ruled a hit, but Turang would certainly say he should have made the play, and likely would have gotten a double play out of it.) Ian Happ made hard contact and hit a fly ball to center field, but Chourio was able to make the catch, with Crow-Armstrong tagging and advancing to third with one out. Dansby Swanson did what he needed to do when he hit a ground ball to third; Anthony Seigler probably made the right decision by not throwing home to try to get PCA, who got a great jump. Seigler instead went to second and got Hoerner, while Crow-Armstrong scored and Swanson was safe at first. Reese McGuire followed with a base hit that advanced Swanson to third, which prompted a visit from pitching coach Chris Hook. Priester blew up Matt Shaw’s bat and got him to ground out to second, but the Cubs took an early 1-0 lead.
Andrew Vaughn reached to start the bottom of the second when he hit a ground ball down the third base line. Shaw dove and made a nice stop but his throw went over Busch’s head at first base, but it was officially scored as an infield single. Isaac Collins followed with a single into right on a 2-2 pitch, and the Brewers were cooking up a response with runners on first and second and nobody out. Turang laid down a perfect sac bunt to advance those runers to second and third, and Seigler did his job by hitting a fly ball into the right field gap plenty deep to score Vaughn from third. Joey Ortiz had a chance with Collins on third base, but he struck out and the inning ended. But the Brewers had drawn even and we went to the third with a new ballgame.
Priester again shut down the top of the Cubs’ order with a Busch flyout, a Tucker groundout, and a three-pitch Suzuki strikeout. Frelick started the bottom of the inning with a solid single on an 0-2 pitch, but was erased when Chourio grounded into a fielder’s choice. Contreras snuck a grounder up the middle for a one-out single that put runners on first and second for Yelich, who drew a seven-pitch walk to load the bases.
Vaughn put a charge into the first pitch that he saw and just missed a grand slam, but a 390-foot fly ball to center (with an exit velocity of 101—he was very unlucky not to have a homer) was plenty to score Chourio from third. Collins still had an opportunity with runners on the corners and two outs, but he popped out in foul territory and the Brewers would have to settle for a 2-1 lead.
A pair of sac flies for the lead ❕ pic.twitter.com/Yc5C7L19d8
— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) July 30, 2025
Crow-Armstrong singled to start the fourth and was clearly on Priester’s mind as he worked to Hoerner. Hoerner hit a comebacker to Priester, who instinctively stuck his glove up and deflected it, but the ball bounced off his glove and Hoerner was given an infield hit (which could easily have been a double play had Priester not deflected it). Happ hit another ground ball that Turang misplayed; he still got the out at first, but it was another ball that could’ve been a double play, and the Cubs now had runners at second and third with only one out. Priester got ahead of Swanson 0-2 in a situation where a strikeout would be huge. Swanson battled hard, got the count to 3-2, and saw ten pitches, but he chased a cutter off the outer edge and struck out for the second out. McGuire then hit one off the plate that Contreras nabbed and tagged him; Craig Counsell and Crow-Armstrong both adamantly felt that it was a foul ball, but even if they were right, it was a fruitless argument and an unchallengable play. Priester had wriggled out of a tricky situation.
After a Turang groundout, Seigler lined a single to center field. Ortiz followed with a grounder that bounced off Rea’s back but deflected to Swanson, who was still able to get the out at first base. Seigler, who was running on the play, was in at second base for Frelick, but Rea struck him out to end the inning with the score still 2-1.
Shaw led off the fifth with a double to the right field gap, and the Cubs had a runner in scoring position for the top of their order. Shaw advanced to third when Busch hit a tapper in front of the plate that was functionally a sac bunt, and Priester walked Tucker in what was probably at least a semi-strategic move to set up a possible double play. It worked! Suzuki went after the first pitch he saw and hit into a 5-4-3 double play to end the inning without a Cubs runner crossing the plate.
Jackson Chourio blasted a ball just out of the reach of Crow-Armstrong in right-center that bounced off the wall and ended up as a triple, but Chourio pulled up a bit after rounding second and was taken out of the game after grabbing the back of his right hamstring—a very troubling sign. He was removed from the game, with Blake Perkins entering as a pinch runner. On the plus side, after the injury delay, Contreras blasted Rea’s first pitch off the wall in left, mere inches from a home run. Instead it was an RBI double, and Rea’s night was over.
Drew Pomeranz entered, the Brewers opened up some breathing room. Yelich hit a fly ball to deep center that Crow-Armstrong had in his glove... but he dropped it when he reached out for the wall behind him, and the Brewers had runners on second and third. Vaughn followed with a base hit up the middle that scored Contreras, and Collins walked to load the bases, and there were still no outs. Pomeranz fell behind Turang 3-0 but threw three consecutive strikes and got the first out after that, and then Pat Murphy and Counsell played a bit of chess as Murphy opted to bat Caleb Durbin for Seigler and Counsell countered by bringing in righty Ryan Brasier.
A 106-mph double for Wild Bill to extend the lead ‼️ pic.twitter.com/t2HS7bhnwG
— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) July 30, 2025
All AV does is drive in runs pic.twitter.com/ECCJjVaMcm
— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) July 30, 2025
Durbin hit another sac fly, the Brewers’ third of the game, and the lead increased to 5-1. With Ortiz at the plate, Collins stole second, but with two runners in scoring position Ortiz popped out and the inning was over.
Priester was back in—with only 66 pitches—after the long layoff in the bottom of the fifth. Crow-Armstrong grounded out to start the inning, but Hoerner connected for a solo homer down the left field line, his third hit of the game, with one out. The next batter, Happ, was hit by a pitch that was in the strike zone. But Murphy called for a review that made it clear that the ball hit the knob, not Happ (who was choking up in an 0-2 count). The umpires agreed, and it Happ came back to the plate. But the result ended up being better for the Cubs, as two pitches later he lined a double into the right field corner. Swanson followed with a base hit to left, and while Happ had to hold at third, the tying run came to the plate.
Hook paid Priester a visit, and McGuire nearly came through for the Cubs with a huge hit when he jumped on the first pitch and smashed it to right... but it went foul for strike one. A few pitches later, Priester got McGuire looking with a perfect backup sinker, and Murphy made a move to bring in Aaron Ashby to, somewhat curiously, face the right-handed Shaw. Ashby troublingly started Shaw with three straight balls, but got him to pop out to second base on a 3-1 pitch and both of Priester’s runners were stranded.
Priester wasn’t as dominant as we’ve seen him recently in this start. He gave up a lot of hard contact, allowed ten baserunners (eight hits and two walks), and only struck out three. But he limited the damage and gave up just two runs in 5 2⁄3 innings and left with the Brewers in a good position to win the game.
Ryan Pressly entered for the Cubs in the bottom of the sixth and got Frelick to pop out on his first pitch. Perkins, in his first at-bat of the night after replacing Chourio, walked with one out. Contreras hit a hard line drive at Hoerner which should have been the second out (and maybe the third, as Perkins was a few steps off of first), but the typically sure-handed Hoerner was apparently plagued by the same illness that Turang was in this game (an environmental illness, it would appear) and blew the catch. Perkins hustled to second before getting thrown out in a force out, and the Brewers had runners on first and second with one out.
Pressly then walked Yelich to load the bases, and Vaughn, again, had a big RBI opportunity. This time, Vaughn made sure that no one was going to catch his potential grand slam and blasted it to the back of the Brewer bullpen. Give Hack Vaughn six RBIs on the night, and Milwaukee’s lead was up to 9-2.
AV is quite literally HIM https://t.co/BxAtBbVsEP pic.twitter.com/zIg8h19VSI
— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) July 30, 2025
After Collins and Turang struck out to end the sixth, and Ashby returned to the mound with a seven-run lead. Ashby got pinch-hitter Justin Turner to start the inning, but walked Tucker and gave up a double to Suzuki to put runners on second and third with one out for PCA. Crow-Armstrong hit a fly ball to right that Frelick made a nice running and sliding catch on—it scored a run, but the Brewers were likely happy to trade an out for a run at this point. Hoerner also hit one to right but Frelick made that play too, and the Cubs had scored one but still trailed 9-3.
Brooks Kriske was the new Chicago pitcher, making his fourth appearance of the season. He issued a walk to Durbin but got Ortiz and Frelick on flyouts to center and Perkins on a flyout to right. The most notable moment of this inning came not from a player on the field but from Sophia Minnaert, who reported that Chourio had been removed with a “right hamstring spasm,” not a strain. We’ll wait for more details, but it seems that the Brewers and Choruio may have lucked out on this one. (Note: after the game, Murphy was a little more cautious when asked about Chourio, stressing that they wouldn’t know until he was fully examined.)
Jackson Chourio left tonight's game with a right hamstring spasm
— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) July 30, 2025
The Brewers rolled with Ashby in the eighth. He struck out Vidal Bruján, who entered in place of Happ, got Swanson on a groundout, and struck out McGuire looking. The new Cubs pitcher Gavin Hollowell walked Contreras to start the bottom of the eighth but struck out Yelich, Vaughn, and Collins in order to strand Contreras at first.
Ashby went back out for the ninth, got three quick groundouts, and the game ended. It was almost anticlimactic.
This was a fantastic, complete victory for the Brewers, the yin to the yang of the 10-0 Cubs win that Priester started on May 2nd. And we’ll wait for news on Chourio, but the dark cloud that hovered ominously over this game lightened considerably with the initial report that his hamstring injury was a mere “spasm.”
The star was undoubtedly Vaughn, who went 3-for-4 with a sac fly, two runs scored, and six RBI, including that grand slam in the sixth. But the Brewers got big offensive contributions elsewhere—Chourio, before he was forced to leave, was 2-for-3 with a triple and a run scored; Contreras had two more hits, including an RBI double; and Seigler had one of his best pro games with a hit and an RBI sac fly.
Priester, as mentioned, didn’t have his best stuff, but he battled and limited the Cubs to two runs. Ashby settled in and gave the Brewers some valuable length out of the bullpen and finished the game, allowing one run on one hit and a walk in 3 1⁄3 innings.
With the win, the Brewers clinched this series and ensured that the Cubs would leave town in second place in the National League Central. They’ll try to finish the series with aplomb tomorrow, as they go for the sweep in another marquee pitching matchup in which Freddy Peralta will face off against Shota Imanaga at 1:10 p.m.
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