Box Score
After scoring nine runs in back-to-back games, the Brewers were only able to muster a single run as they dropped tonight’s series finale against the Cubs by a score of 2-1. Logan Henderson put together another great start, but Pete Crow-Armstrong’s two-run homer in the third proved to be all the offense Chicago would need.
With the loss, the Brewers split this week’s four-game series at Wrigley Field. They are now eight games up in the division with 21 games to go.
Both starters — Henderson
for Milwaukee and Kevin Gausman for Chicago — kept either offense from doing much through the early innings. Milwaukee had a brief chance in the top of the second after Christian Yelich and Garrett Mitchell both singled with two outs, but Joey Ortiz flew out to center, stranding them both.
In the bottom of the frame, Alex Bregman led off with a double, but Henderson bore down to retire the next three Cubs — Ian Happ, Nico Hoerner, and Pedro Ramírez — without so much as allowing Bregman to advance to third.
Henderson was again terrific tonight for the Brewers, going seven innings for the third time in four starts while striking out seven and holding the Cubs to just three hits. The lone blemish on an otherwise nearly spotless outing came in the third after Carson Kelly singled into left field with one out. That brought up Crow-Armstrong, the favorite to win this year’s NL MVP award, who has struggled against the Brewers — entering today’s game just 3-for-33 against Milwaukee this season. Henderson threw a 2-1 changeup well below the zone that PCA golfed over the center-field fence for a two-run homer.
However, Gausman — who’s had some uncharacteristic struggles this season — matched Henderson every step of the way. Milwaukee immediately got a run back in the fourth on a (monster) two-out solo homer off the bat of Andrew Vaughn, but the Brewers couldn’t muster the tying run despite threatening twice more.
In the fifth, Ortiz and David Hamilton — the Brewers’ eight and nine hitters — both reached and ended up on second and third with two outs, but Gausman got Brice Turang to stare at strike three for the third out. In the sixth, Jake Bauers worked a one-out walk and made it around to third on a wild pitch and a groundout, but Yelich grounded out to strand him. Gausman came back out for the seventh and retired the side in order, as did relievers Ryan Zeferjahn and Ryan Rolison in the eighth and ninth.
Milwaukee won’t have much time away from the Cubs, as the two teams are scheduled to begin a second series — this time in Milwaukee — on Monday. In the meantime, the Brewers will head to Cincinnati to take on another divisional opponent, the Reds, for a three-game set. First pitch for tomorrow’s series opener is set for 5:10 p.m., with Shane Drohan starting for the Brewers opposite Rhett Lowder.
