A game and a series that started so promising, ended up in an emotional loss for the Milwaukee Brewers as they fall to their rivals, the Chicago Cubs, 4-3 in 10 innings on Sunday afternoon.
Brandon Woodruff was the big positive. In his second start since coming back from the IL, Woodruff shoved once again, allowing just one hit over 5.2 scoreless innings. He was efficient and filled up the strike zone as he usually does. Woodruff ended the day with six strikeouts on his line and protecting a one-run
lead.
That one run lead was provided by Gary Sanchez, who took a 1-1 fastball from lefty Ryan Rolison and tattooed it into the second deck in left field. It was Sanchez’s eighth home run of the season.
However, that was all the Brewers offense could really muster off Rolison and then old friend Bryse Wilson, who shut down the Crew’s offense over his 4.1 IP.
The Brewers did have a number of opportunities, though. Runners at the corners in the 3rd with one out, both Chourio and Turang strike out. In the 4th, Andrew Vaughn gets a leadoff triple, no one can even muster a sac fly to bring him home. Runners on first in the 6th, 7th, and 8th, no advancement. In the 9th, the Brewers had runners on 1st and 2nd with one out, a base hit can walk it off, and both Cooper Pratt and Joey Ortiz strike out.
“I think sometimes guy maybe try to do too much, and that’s where we try to preach ‘take what the game gives you and go back to taking pitches and handing it to the next guy'” offense and strategy coordinator Jason Lane said.
Meanwhile the Crew used up their top bullpen arms in those earlier leverage innings. Aaron Ashby spiked a curveball with a runner on 3rd to allow the Cubs to tie the game in the 7th. But then Abner Uribe and Trevor Megill got the jobs done in the 8th and 9th. But with few leverage arms left, the Brewers turned to Joel Kuhnel in the 10th.
Kuhnel was able to get the first two batters out at the bottom of the Cubs order. Then he just lost the strike zone. They intentionally walked Pete Crow-Armstrong, then Kuhnel hits Bregman, then walks Michael Busch to bring in a run. Then Seiya Suzuki rips a single to left to score two more and put the Cubs up 4-1.
The Brewers put together some big chances in the 10th. Christian Yelich singled home Ortiz, then Chourio walked and Turang singled, loading the bases for pinch-hitter Garrett Mitchell. Mitchell worked a walk and the Brewers were within a run, down 4-3, with the bases loaded and nobody out.
That’s exactly when it all went sideways. Jake Bauers, after seeing Mitchell get walked, swung at the first pitch and hit a shallow pop fly into left field that was nowhere near deep enough to score a run. Then Gary Sanchez, who homered in the 2nd, grounded into a tailor-made 5-4-3 double play to end the game.
Milwaukee was 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position and left 10 runners on base. Woodruff pitched well enough to win. The bullpen did well enough to win through nine innings. The offense just couldn’t give them enough.
The Brewers missed way too many opportunities to put this game away when they should have and that leaves them on the short end of this series where they had their top three arms in the rotation going. The lead over the Cubs sits at 5.5 games now and the Brewers will look to turn the page to the Reds series.
