David Peterson’s first pitch as a Cub was deposited into the seats at American Family Field for a home run.
You could have been forgiven if you thought, “Here we go again,” after seeing that.
But Peterson settled down and had a solid 5.2 inning, two-run outing and the Cubs rode home runs by Seiya Suzuki and Ian Happ to an 8-2 win over the Brewers, evening up this series with their first win over their diviion rivals this year.
About that home run, from BCB’s JohnW53:
David Peterson is the fourth Cubs
pitcher this season to surrender a home run in his first game with the team. His was to the first batter he faced. Tyler Ferguson served up a homer to his second batter; Jacob Webb, to his fourth; and Jayden Murray, to his fifth.
Last year, Michael Soroka was victimized by his seventh batter and Cade Horton by his 16th.
Peterson is the 296th pitcher to give up a homer during his first two games as a Cub. (Baseball-reference no longer permits a search for a one-game span!) Hoby Milner this season and Aaron Civale last year allowed homers in their second game.
The 1-0 Milwaukee lead held for the first three innings, as Kyle Harrison set down the first 10 Cubs in order. During those three innings, Peterson had some help from his defense.
Check out this nice snag of a Sal Frelick line drive by Alex Bregman in the second [VIDEO].
And then Dansby Swanson turned this strike-out-throw-out double play to end the third [VIDEO].
Chourio was faked out by Swanson there. Chourio thought the ball had gone through into center field, but Swanson caught it and easily threw Chourio out at third.
The Cubs infield turned another good play behind Peterson in the fourth – this nice snag of a line drive by Michael Busch [VIDEO].
In the fifth, Peterson got more Cubs defensive help. With one on and nobody out, Nico Hoerner and Swanson turned this slick double play [VIDEO].
This is exactly what many of us were talking about when we said Peterson would be helped out by the Cubs’ elite defense. Right there are good plays by every one of the Cubs infielders. Let’s just say that Peterson didn’t get that sort of defensive help in New York.
After that, the Cubs took the lead. Matt Shaw singled with one out in the fourth and Suzuki launched this home run [VIDEO].
The Brewers tied the game 2-2 in the fifth on an RBI single by Frelick, but then the Cubs blew things open in the sixth, all after the first two Cubs were routine outs. Bregman and Michael Busch walked, and this single by Nico scored Bregman to give the Cubs a 3-2 lead [VIDEO].
The very next pitch from Chad Patrick was smashed for a three-run homer by Happ [VIDEO].
More on Happ’s homer from John:
Ian Happ’s home run was his 190th as a Cub, tying him for 11th most in team history with Hack Wilson. Wilson’s came in 850 games. This was Happ’s 1,218th.
Hank Sauer is next, with 198 in 862 games.
Twenty-six Cubs have hit at least 100 homers.
Peterson was removed with two out in the sixth. He allowed just the two runs, didn’t walk anyone and threw an efficient 69 pitches. He probably could have gone longer, but I imagine Craig Counsell didn’t want to push him in his first Cub start.
Here’s more on Peterson’s outing [VIDEO].
Tyler Ferguson finished off the sixth without incident and then Jacob Webb, Trent Thornton and Vince Velasquez each threw a scoreless inning to wrap things up. For the first time in a while, I can say the Cubs pen really did its job – 3.1 innings, no hits, no runs, one walk, three strikeouts.
The Cubs put two more runs on the board to complete the scoring. With one out in the seventh, Shaw walked and Suzuki singled him to third. This sac fly by Bregman scored Shaw to make it 7-2 [VIDEO].
The Cubs’ eighth and final run came on a pinch homer by Michael Conforto in the eighth [VIDEO].
More on that homer from John:
Michael Conforto has hit three pinch-hit home runs since May 4. The last Cub with three pinch-hit homers in a season was Julio Zuleta, with three in 2001, between May 1 and June 5. Conforto’s third was the Cubs’ 127th pinch homer since then.
Here’s the final out of the game [VIDEO].
You can see Garrett Mitchell not running that ball out. Here’s why – he appeared to suffer a hamstring injury earlier in the at-bat [VIDEO].
This was a satisfying win in every way. The Cubs bats came alive against a pretty good pitcher. Their new pitching acquisition threw well. The team played solid defense. Here are Craig Counsell’s postgame comments [VIDEO].
The Cubs will go for a series win Sunday afternoon. They’ll have to do it with a bullpen game. Ryan Rolison will be the opener. Rolison last threw on Wednesday, when he threw 18 pitches in the first game of the doubleheader against the Mets. I suppose he might be able to go two innings and after that… who knows? Brandon Woodruff will start for the Brewers. Game time is 1:10 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.
