The Milwaukee Brewers finished off their series against the Chicago Cubs with a 4-1 win despite minimal offensive opportunities. Two hits alone provided the entirety of their run production, but between Quinn Priester’s and the bullpen’s ability to escape tricky situations, they secured another win to help pad their lead in the division.
Milwaukee’s offense was distinguished by a lack of production for almost the entirety of the game, but with two crucial moments, they built a lead good enough
for the win. The first came courtesy of Brice Turang in the second inning. After Christian Yelich led off with a walk, Turang eventually came up to the plate with two outs. Facing off against Chicago starter Shota Imanaga, Turang got his bat out early on a pitch that hung inside the inside-bottom corner of the zone. Turang’s 381-foot homer gave the Brewers an early 2-0 lead that they would never relinquish. Turang is slashing an astonishing .365/.421/.788 over his last 15 games.
Priester’s outing fluctuated between efficiency and unpredictability, but ultimately squeezed through 4 1/3 innings with just one run allowed. He walked five batters, which should usually be a disaster, but with three hits allowed, he limited the Cubs offense.
The first inning was a prime example of what would follow. After starting Kyle Tucker with an 0-2 count, he ended up walking him, but forced a double play to counteract the free pass. Priester loaded the bases in the second inning before narrowly getting out of danger, only to follow with a three up, three down sequence in the following inning.
Priester came back out to the mound for the fifth inning, but once again loaded the bases. His pitch count was already approaching 100, so manager Pat Murphy made the call to bullpen. Nick Mears entered to face Pete-Crow Armstrong, who swung at the first pitch he saw. It resulted in a sacrifice fly, with the run marked against Priester’s record. Mears finished off the inning with another fly out.
Imanaga would lock down the Brewers offense for the rest of his outing. He would pitch through the seventh inning without allowing another Milwaukee baserunner to reach scoring position. Milwaukee only struck out five times against Imanaga, but never managed to create more opportunities. Only once Chicago resorted to their bullpen did Milwaukee find another offensive jolt.
Ryan Brasier was Chicago’s reliever of choice. After one out was recorded, Andruw Monasterio came up to bat for the first time of the day. He had entered earlier as a replacement for Joey Ortiz after he had a hamstring injury. He hit a blooper single to left field, followed by Sal Frelick’s double to get two runners into scoring position.
With the clear-cut opportunity in place, Isaac Collins came through with a blazing line drive to right field to score both runs. The pitch was a slider that caught too much of the plate and Collins didn’t hesitate to get his bat around early. It was his first hit after returning from paternity leave and the two RBIs served as important insurance runs.
The Brewers still had to close out the game and, for a moment, it looked like Chicago was going to crawl back into it. Abner Uribe entered in relief for Milwaukee in the eighth inning and immediately walked the first two batters he faced. Uribe struck out the following batter to relieve some pressure and retired another with a hard-hit line drive. On that ball, the lead runner was able to advance, but Uribe secured a groundout to finish the inning.
In the ninth inning, the responsibility fell to Trevor Megill, who recorded his 30th save on the season. After he surrendered a leadoff single, the following three batters succumbed to a strikeout, fly out, and ground out to finish the game. On that final groundout, Caleb Durbin made an impressive throw on the run to beat the runner.
This marked the final game in the team’s road trip and now they head home to face the San Francisco Giants. Tomorrow’s game is set for a 7:10 p.m. first pitch time with Jose Quintana starting against Carson Whisenhunt.
