One thing you cannot deny about the Cubs’ 4-3 win over the Brewers Wednesday evening at Wrigley Field — it was certainly worth the entertainment dollar.
Both teams scored early after loading the bases with walks. Then some strong defense helped the Cubs hold the lead, and a very important insurance run in the eighth helped preserve the victory.
Let’s begin at the beginning.
Both teams went out 1-2-3 in the first inning. In the top of the second, Colin Rea loaded the bases with one out on three walks,
and a ground out by Blake Perkins gave Milwaukee a 1-0 lead.
It took the Cubs one more inning to get on the board after going out 1-2-3 again in the second. Owen Caissie, Dansby Swanson and Matt Shaw all walked, loading the bases with nobody out. Shaw’s walk was notable — here’s the entire six-and-a-half-minute, 11-pitch at-bat [VIDEO].
So it took a little bit of time for the Cubs to load the bases. It didn’t take long for Michael Busch to clear them [VIDEO].
More on Busch’s double from BCB’s JohnW53:
Michael Busch’s third-inning double was the Cubs’ sixth this season with the bases loaded. The first two were by Miguel Amaya and Dansby Swanson, March 27 and 31; the next two, by Amaya and Seiya Suzuki, May 19 and 20. The only one since then, before this game, was by Moises Ballesteros, on July 30. The first by Amaya and the last two produced three runs.
The Cubs had three bases-loaded doubles last season, including one by Busch that scored three runs. So did one each by Ian Happ and Swanson.
So the Cubs had a 3-1 lead with only one hit off Jacob Misiorowski, who departed the game after four innings, having thrown 78 pitches.
Colin Rea had more traffic on the bases in the fourth and fifth, but wriggled out of both jams. In the fifth, Rea induced this inning-ending double play [VIDEO].
Rea issued a leadoff walk in the sixth. That’s never good. Rea retired Andrew Vaughn, but Anthony Seigler laid down a bunt on which Shaw made this excellent play [VIDEO].
Props also to Busch for the excellent pick of that throw. Seigler, oddly, wasn’t given a sacrifice for that, but advancing the runner to second got the Brewers a run. Caleb Thielbar was summoned to pitch to Brice Turang, and Turang bounced a ball just past a diving Nico Hoerner to make the score 3-2.
Thielbar got through the seventh scoreless, and Brad Keller threw a 1-2-3 eighth, helped by this nice sliding catch by Caissie [VIDEO].
But the Cubs could not score in the sixth or seventh, so the game went to the bottom of the eighth with the Cubs hanging on to that one-run lead.
That ball was hit hard right into a wind blowing in at 14 miles per hour [VIDEO].
Daniel Palencia entered to throw the ninth. He struck out Seigler, then Turang — who I think annoys me more than any other Brewer — singled. Palencia struck out pinch-hitter Caleb Durbin, but inexplicably, the Cubs were not holding Turang at first and he took second on defensive indifference. That proved to be important, as pinch-hitter Danny Jansen then singled in Turang to make it 4-3.
Palencia then issued a pair of walks to load the bases. Except that the first of those walks should have been a game-ending strikeout. Sorry, plate umpire Dan Bellino — pitch 1 was a strike!
There’s one that would have been immediately challenged and overturned with the ABS system. I cannot wait for that to be instituted in MLB.
Anyway, it was a struggle of an inning for Palencia, then having to face William Contreras with the bases loaded and two out. Contreras hit the ball hard — and Nico Hoerner made a nice grab to end the game [VIDEO].
Well. Like I said, certainly worth the entertainment dollar. The Cubs have now won four straight and the Brewers have lost four of their last five. The win gave the Cubs the season series over the Brewers with their seventh win in the series with one game to go. Who knows? Maybe that will matter, later on. The Cubs can cut the division deficit to five games with a win Thursday, and a five-game deficit with 34 remaining, while not easy to overcome, is certainly possible. Also, there’s this:
Here are Craig Counsell’s postgame comments [VIDEO].
Before I wrap this and give you some details about the series finale, Counsell also addressed what’s going on with Kyle Tucker and acknowledged that the finger injury Tucker suffered in June very likely has affected his performance since [VIDEO].
So here’s what I think. If Tucker was injured he should have gone on the injured list instead of trying to play through it. Counsell said Tucker wanted to play. Of course guys want to play, they want to help the team, being injured sucks for any professional athlete. In any case, now we know, and hopefully Tucker can help the team for the rest of the season. In the meantime, Caissie is proving to be a good MLB player both at bat and in the field and Counsell will have to find playing time for him.
The Cubs will go for their fifth straight win Thursday afternoon at Wrigley Field. Shōta Imanaga will start for the Cubs and Quinn Priester will go for Milwaukee. Game time is 1:20 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network (and MLB Network outside the Cubs and Brewers market territories).
