The Milwaukee Brewers entered tonight’s game with a still sizable seven-game division lead over their rivals, the Chicago Cubs. But after the Cubs swept a doubleheader on Tuesday, Wednesday’s game carried a little more urgency for a fanbase that has gotten used to rolling over everyone in their path. But while Jacob Misiorowski saw improvement over his disastrous first start back from the injured list, he completely lost his control for a crucial stretch of four batters in the third inning.
That put the Brewers’ offense in a hole that, despite some good contact off of Cubs starter Colin Rea and considerably more baserunners than Chicago, they could not dig out of.
Rea is averaging just 6.7 strikeouts per nine innings this season, so naturally, he struck out Sal Frelick and Isaac Collins, two guys who don’t strike out much, to start the game. A groundout by William Contreras made for an easy first inning for the former Brewer starter. Misiorowski had an encouraging start, particularly after a long and stressful first inning in his last outing; he had a 1-2-3 bottom of the first, although Seiya Suzuki’s fly ball for the third out would likely have been a home run had it not been caught in the Wrigley Field wind.
Christian Yelich walked on four pitches to start the top of the second, and after an Andrew Vaughn flyout, Anthony Seigler walked, too. After a mound visit, Brice Turang was the batter, and he walked too, though Rea was closer to the zone against Turang. Still, the Brewers had the bases loaded with one out and a huge early opportunity. The batter was Blake Perkins, and he also worked to a full count. Rea managed not to walk Perkins, but he at least put a ball in play — a weak grounder to second base. Nico Hoerner threw Perkins out at first but Christian Yelich scored. The Brewers still had an opportunity with runners on second and third with two outs, but Joey Ortiz had a frustrating at-bat: he popped out to shallow left on the first pitch he saw, a fastball at the top of the zone. The Brewers led 1-0, but it felt like it should have been more.
A shutdown inning would go a long way toward Misiorowski’s confidence, you would imagine. He started the bottom of the second by getting Pete Crow-Armstrong to ground out, then struck out Carson Kelly on three pitches, then got Hoerner on a weak ground ball to first. Three batters, 10 pitches, three outs.
Rea had a much-needed quick inning of his own in the top of the third. Frelick flew out in a five-pitch at-bat, and then Rea needed just three more pitches to get Collins on a groundout and Contreras on a flyout.
Chicago got their first baserunner when Owen Caissie walked to lead off the bottom of the third. Miz then got wild facing Dansby Swanson, who took four straight balls in his at-bat, the third of which very nearly hit him in the face. Matt Shaw did Miz a favor by trying to bunt at the first pitch he saw, which was also way out of the zone and would’ve hit him if it didn’t hit the bat. Misiorowski threw two more balls after that and hadn’t thrown a strike since the pitch that made it 2-2 versus Caissie. But Shaw tried to bunt again and failed to make it 2-2, fouled a pitch off, took another ball, fouled off another, and another, and another, and another, and then took ball four, the 11th pitch of the at-bat.
It was a demoralizing walk, a huge at-bat from Shaw, and you got the feeling that Misiorowski was in serious danger with the bases loaded and nobody out. Chris Hook felt the same way and paid Misiorowski a visit with the top of the Cubs’ order due up. Michael Busch took a curveball just off the plate for ball one and another that was further away for ball two. A fastball missed low for ball three, and the Wrigley crowd crescendoed. Miz finally found the zone with a fastball down the middle, but Busch swung at the next pitch, a fastball on the outer half, and he hit a three-RBI double into the left field gap.
An Ian Happ grounder to second finally got Misiorowski his first out as Nick Mears warmed in the bullpen, but it advanced Busch to third with one out. Miz did manage to strand Busch there, though, with strikeouts of Suzuki and Crow-Armstrong to end the inning. But it was a tough inning to watch; three walks and a double for three runs on a massive pitch count, 40 pitches.
Yelich, who walked and scored in the second, led off the fourth with a groundout to Swanson, who had him positioned up the middle. Vaughn knocked a one-out single up the middle for the Brewers’ first hit. Seigler hit a line drive to center field, but it was a catchable ball, and Crow-Armstrong doesn’t miss catchable balls. With two outs, Turang crushed a line drive to deep right at 109 mph — it was into the wind and a little flat and didn’t quite get over the wall, but it went just over the glove of Caissie in right and hit the wall. Turang ended up with a double, and Vaughn advanced to third, but the struggling Blake Perkins was unable to come through and struck out to strand both runners in scoring position.
Improbably, Misiorowski was back out for the fourth even after throwing those 40 pitches in the third. He needed only one pitch to get the first out, a high fly ball to shallow right center that the wind pushed all over the place from Kelly. Hoerner grounded out to Turang for the second out, but Misiorowski got wild again to start Caissie, who’d walked to start the disastrous third. Miz fell behind 3-0, but worked it back full and struck him out with a nasty changeup. It was a good bounce-back inning.
Ortiz grounded out to start the fifth, but Frelick followed with a one-out single between Swanson and Shaw on the left side of the infield, and Collins drew a walk to put two on with one out for Contreras. But Contreras, as he did in a crucial spot yesterday, grounded into a double play, and the Brewers let another scoring opportunity fall by the wayside. Through five innings, the Brewers were 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position and had stranded five RISP.
Misiorowski did come out of the game after four — he finished with five strikeouts in four innings and allowed only one hit, but it was a big one, the three-run double after three consecutive walks in the third. Misiorowski was actually perfect in his other three innings, but that was a rough third.
Mears was his replacement, and he got Swanson to pop out on his first pitch. Shaw flew out to pretty deep center a few pitches later, and Mears struck out Busch looking four pitches after that, and it was a nice, clean fifth inning.
Now, the Brewers needed to turn Mears’ nice outing into some offensive momentum against Rea, who was approaching 90 pitches as he started the top of the sixth. Rea walked Yelich on five pitches to start the inning as the Chicago bullpen got moving, but Rea got the first out when Vaughn hit a little flare behind second base that Hoerner was able to run down. Seigler snuck a bunt down the third base line that looked destined for a hit, but Shaw made an absurdly good play and threw Seigler out at first. It wasn’t even all that close of a play.
Rea was removed in favor of the lefty Caleb Thielbar after those two nice defensive plays, but the move didn’t go as planned: Turang jumped on Thielbar’s first pitch and singled into left for a single that scored Yelich from second. That reversed some of the Brewers’ bad runners-in-scoring-position numbers, and cut the lead to 3-2. Perkins had a chance, but he struck out despite getting two pitches right down the middle, both of which he swung and missed at.
Shelby Miller replaced Mears in the bottom of the sixth. He got Happ to pop up to start the inning, but Suzuki lined a hot shot down the left field line with one out. It looked like it’d be a double, but the Brewers got a favorable bounce off the wall and Collins played it well to hold Suzuki to a single. It didn’t matter much, though — Miller struck out Crow-Armstrong (while Suzuki successfully stole second) and Kelly, and it remained 3-2 Cubs after six full innings.
Ortiz popped out on the first pitch of the seventh, the second time he’d popped out on the first pitch in the game. Frelick got ahead 3-0, but Thielbar came back and got him looking on a fastball at the bottom of the zone. Collins hit a weak grounder to third for the third out, and the Brewers went down meekly in the seventh.
Abner Uribe was the pitcher in the bottom of the seventh, and he got the first two outs on just three pitches, a Hoerner flyout and a Caissie groundout. He then struck out Swanson on three pitches, and he had an ultra-efficient scoreless inning.
Despite the one blowup inning from Misiorowski, the Brewers’ pitching staff had more or less done its job in this one. Now the Brewers needed someone other than Brice Turang to step up offensively. Brad Keller was the new Cub pitcher, and Contreras greeted him by hitting a hard line drive into right … which Caissie caught on a slide. It was tough luck on a line drive that Statcast gave an expected batting average of .790. Yelich then hit a ball at 102 mph to center field that also had an xBA over .400, but Crow-Armstrong caught it rather casually. Vaughn struck out, and despite some hard contact, the Cubs had a very quick 1-2-3 inning.
Jared Koenig, on to pitch the eighth despite Uribe’s six pitches, gave up a killer of a solo home run to Shaw leading off in the bottom of the eighth. It was a huge insurance run for the Cubs from a guy who absolutely broke the Brewers today; between his crucial 11-pitch walk in the third, his barehanded play on Seigler’s bunt, and his eighth-inning home run, Shaw was a one-man wrecking crew tonight. Busch then singled to right, but Koenig got Happ to hit into an easy 4-6-3 double play to erase the baserunner. Suzuki was the batter with two outs, and he got a fastball he liked to start his at-bat, but he didn’t quite get it all, and Frelick made the catch for the third out.
The Brewers now needed two runs to extend this game, with Seigler, Turang, and Perkins due up against Cubs closer Daniel Palencia. Seigler struck out on a perfectly placed 1-2 fastball, but Turang kept his excellent evening going by whistling a single up the middle on an 0-2 100-mph fastball. Milwaukee then turned to Caleb Durbin as a pinch-hitter for Perkins, but he struck out. Another pinch-hitter, Danny Jansen, represented the Brewers’ last chance; Jansen hit a hard grounder to third that could have been the last out, but it deflected off Shaw and into left field. Turang, who’d taken second on defensive indifference, scored on the single, and Brandon Lockridge replaced Jansen as a pinch-runner. On a 3-1 pitch to Frelick, Lockridge stole second — he was safe, but with two outs in the ninth, the Cubs challenged in a “might as well” situation. It was close, but Lockridge was in there.
Frelick, now, had a runner in scoring position and a full count. Palencia’s next pitch was way inside, and there were runners on first and second for Collins, still looking for his first hit since becoming a father over the weekend. Collins didn’t get a hit, but he didn’t get an out either, as he worked to a full count and drew a walk. Palencia, now, was up to 25 pitches, and the bases were loaded for Contreras. Contreras fell behind 0-2 but hit a solid line drive that found the glove of Hoerner. He snowconed it a bit, but the game was over.
It’s a bit of cruel irony that the Brewers’ luck was so rotten in a game against the team whose fanbase has frequently complained about their rivals’ good fortune. The Brewers looked better than the Cubs did in this game. They hit the ball harder and had more quality at-bats. The Brewers outhit the Cubs six to four and had seven walks, compared to just three for the Cubs. But Chicago got their big hit in the form of Busch’s third-inning double, and the Brewers couldn’t quite find theirs.
One could also question whether Uribe could have come back to start the bottom of the eighth against the right-handed Shaw, who doesn’t have extreme splits this season but who is definitely better against left-handed pitching. Hindsight is 20/20, as they say, but Shaw’s homer off of Koenig ended up being the difference in the game. Other than Koenig’s one mistake, the Brewer bullpen was outstanding: four innings, three hits, one run, no walks, and four strikeouts between Mears, Miller, Uribe, and Koenig.
The Brewers did not color themselves with glory on offense in this game, but a special shout-out must be reserved for Brice Turang. He was fantastic tonight, finishing 3-for-3 with a double, a walk, a run scored, and an RBI. He just missed tying the game on his fourth-inning double, and on a night when no one else could really get anything going, Turang came up big every time.
Ah, well. The Cubs have taken three of the first four in this five-game series and have cut the Brewers’ division lead to six games. Tomorrow’s series closer now feels like a momentous game. That game is at 1:20 p.m., and will see Quinn Priester take on Chicago’s number one, Shota Imanaga. The Brewers hadn’t lost three in a row since early May, and tomorrow they’ll try to avoid losing four in a row for the first time since April. A win tomorrow goes a long way toward erasing some of the negative feelings that are creeping back into the psyche of the Brewers’ fanbase.
