Tuesday at Wrigley Field was a long doubleheader day, the Cubs’ first twin bill since April 2024.
Tuesday at Wrigley Field was also a very good day, as the Cubs swept the doubleheader over the Brewers, 6-4 in the day game and 4-1 in the night contest.
BCB’s JohnW53 pointed out to me that it was the first Cubs DH sweep at Wrigley Field since May 4, 2021, when they took two from the Dodgers. But that one was a pair of seven-inning games, back in the brief time MLB was doing that. (One of the games did
go nine, though.)
The last Cubs doubleheader sweep at home of two scheduled nine-inning games was almost exactly nine years ago, Aug. 16, 2016, coincidentally also against the Brewers. They won those two games 4-0 and 4-1. That year ended up pretty well for the Cubs, I’d say. Who knows? Maybe this year will too.
Let’s start with the night game.
After the first two innings, I would never have guessed the game would end up as it did. Jameson Taillon and Brandon Woodruff both struggled. More than 100 total pitches were thrown in the first two innings and nearly an hour passed by the time those innings ended.
The Cubs did have a 2-1 lead after that. Taillon allowed a run on a pair of singles sandwiched around a walk in the first, and also allowed two hits in the second.
But the Cubs came back to take the lead in the bottom of the second. Nico Hoerner led off with a walk and stole second. Owen Caissie singled him in [VIDEO].
Two outs later, Michael Busch sent a triple down the right-field line, scoring Caissie [VIDEO].
Taillon had allowed a two-out single to Sal Frelick in the second. After that he was nothing short of brilliant. He retired the next 11 Brewers in a row before Christian Yelich singled with one out in the sixth. Overall Taillon allowed five hits and a walk over six innings, with just that first inning run, and four strikeouts. Here’s more on Taillon’s outing [VIDEO].
The Cubs increased their lead to 3-1 in the fifth. Ian Happ led off with a single, but Seiya Suzuki and Pete Crow-Armstrong struck out. A single by Carson Kelly moved Happ to third, and Nico’s single scored Happ [VIDEO].
The Cubs added a fourth run in the sixth. Matt Shaw tripled with one out. Michael Busch’s fielder’s choice scored Shaw [VIDEO].
A note about Shaw’s triple from BCB’s JohnW53:
According to the data at baseball-reference, Matt Shaw’s sixth-inning triple was just the 59th by the Cubs to left field in their 110 seasons at Wrigley Field, during which they have played 8,621 games and hit 2,351 triples. The previous one to left was by Seiya Suzuki, on Aug. 2 of last year. The Cubs also had one each in 2020-23. They had three in 2019.
Taylor Rogers relieved Taillon in the seventh. He allowed a leadoff single to Brice Turang, and another hit after Danny Jansen struck out moved Turang to third.
Then Willi Castro flashed some glove when Sal Frelick flied to right [VIDEO].
Castro had gone in to play right field after Craig Counsell had pinch-hit Justin Turner for Caissie in the sixth. I still don’t like that sort of reflexive more. Plus, if Castro’s going into right field — why not bat with him? He’s a switch-hitter! Anyway, that was a tremendous throw and good tag by Carson Kelly.
Ryan Brasier came in to throw the eighth. This move probably did not fill you with confidence, but Brasier had 1-2-3 inning, helped out by a slick catch of a William Contreras line drive by Michael Busch.
Counsell clearly did not want Daniel Palencia throwing in both ends of a doubleheader, so Andrew Kittredge was given the save opportunity. He recorded it on a 1-2-3 inning on only 10 pitches. Here’s the final out [VIDEO].
Here are Counsell’s postgame comments [VIDEO].
I’ll wrap this all up and preview tonight’s game in a moment, but first here are a few highlights from the first game of the doubleheader.
The Cubs scored a pair in the first on Caissie’s two-run single, his first two MLB RBI [VIDEO].
Matthew Boyd threw three scoreless innings despite walking the bases loaded in the second. He got some defensive help from Caissie [VIDEO].
The Cubs put together a three-run third to go up 5-0. Suzuki walked and PCA doubled him to third.
Castro was the next hitter [VIDEO].
But Boyd struggled over the next two-plus innings, allowing a run in each (though the last Brewers run scored after he left the game). Milwaukee was within one at 5-4 when Caissie came to bat in the sixth [VIDEO].
Caleb Thielbar and Drew Pomeranz, two guys who have been extremely effective out of the pen all year, held Milwaukee scoreless in the seventh and eighth.
Palencia entered to throw the ninth an allowed a one-out walk and single, putting the tying run on base.
Then he calmly induced this game-ending double play for his 17th save [VIDEO].
Here’s Caissie on his home run [VIDEO].
So… the Cubs inched a bit closer to the NL Central lead. Yes, it’s still a seven-game deficit, but seven is better than nine, right? If the Cubs can take the next two games, that would reduce the gap to five. A difficult task? Yes. Impossible? Nope. Even if the Cubs win only one of the next two, that would give them the season series win over the Brewers, and who knows? Maybe that still winds up meaning something.
I was a bit surprised by the announced attendance for Tuesday’s games. 33,103 paid for the day game, which was a quick makeup of Monday’s night game rainout. Maybe half that many showed up on short notice. For the night game, 34,540 paid. With this series having loomed a lot larger a few weeks ago, I figured they’d both be sellouts. Instead they wind up several thousand short of that.
The third game of this series will happen Wednesday evening at Wrigley Field. Colin Rea will start for the Cubs and Jacob Misiorowski will go for Milwaukee. Game time is 7:05 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network.
