The Milwaukee Brewers started their five-game, four-day series with the Cubs off on the right foot, dominating their rivals in a 7-0 victory to push the division lead to nine games heading into the second half of Monday’s doubleheader.
Things got off to a slow start, as both teams traded quiet first innings with the lone baserunner coming via a single by Seiya Suzuki with two outs against Freddy Peralta.
The Brewers threatened in the second inning against rookie Cade Horton, as Andrew Vaughn
and Sal Frelick both singled, but it was all for naught as Danny Jansen flew out to end the frame. Peralta then came back to record a 1-2-3 inning, including a strikeout of rookie Owen Caissie.
Brice Turang got the scoring started with an opposite-field solo homer with one out in the third, his seventh homer in the month. Just to put that into perspective: he had six homers all season entering August, and entering this year, he had just 13 career homers over two seasons.
The Crew mounted a further rally after the homer, as Caleb Durbin doubled, Christian Yelich walked, and Vaughn was hit by a pitch to load the bases with two outs. At this point, it was clear Horton was having issues on the mound, and he was pulled with a finger injury. Former Brewer Drew Pomeranz replaced him and induced a groundout from Blake Perkins to escape the inning.
After Peralta got another 1-2-3 inning in the third, including a pair of strikeouts, the Brewers went down in order against Pomeranz in the fourth.
Peralta looked great through three but ran into some trouble in the fourth as he walked the bases loaded with one out. Lucky for him, he was able to strike out Caissie for the second time on the day before he got Nico Hoerner to line out to end the inning.
Durbin hit his own one-out solo homer in the fifth against another former Brewer, Taylor Rogers, pushing the Brewers’ lead to 2-0 before Peralta bounced back for another 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the frame.
Luke Little came in to replace Rogers in the sixth, and he was able to record two quick outs, but he then lost his command, walking both Frelick and Jansen on four pitches to put runners at first and second. In a 2-2 count against Joey Ortiz, Little induced a softly hit grounder — Statcast recorded it as having one foot of distance — up the first base line
Given the hustle in this Brewers’ squad, it should come as no surprise what happened next.
Ortiz immediately ran full speed down the line, and Little had to come off the mound to field the ball. On his flip to first base, he threw it past the first baseman as the ball rolled down the line. When all was said and done, Frelick came around to score, Jansen was at third, and Ortiz was at second with a single and an error.
Some fans call it luck, but I call it hustle.
Peralta came back out and set the Cubs down in order once again to cap off another strong outing. He went six innings, allowing no runs on just one hit and three walks (all of which came in the fourth) with six strikeouts. He also earned his 15th win, which puts him two games ahead of Garrett Crochet and Max Fried (13 each) for the league lead.
After Little bounced back to record three strikeouts in the seventh, Abner Uribe entered to replace Peralta in the seventh. He gave up a one-out single to Caissie (his first career hit) but that was all.
In the eighth, the Brewers really broke things open. Gavin Hollowell — the Cubs’ 27th man for the doubleheader — entered the game to replace Little and proceeded to walk the bases loaded with one out, just as Peralta did in the fourth. Unlike Peralta, Hollowell could not get out of the jam.
Ortiz hit an infield single to Willi Castro at second to bring the fourth run in before Turang hit his own RBI single to make it 5-0 Milwaukee. Durbin grounded into a forceout to score another run, and a wild pitch by Hollowell allowed Ortiz to score to make it 7-0.
Jared Koenig pitched a perfect eighth, Frelick hit a two-out double in the ninth but wasn’t able to score, and Grant Anderson pitched a perfect ninth to end the game with as little drama as possible.
It was a great game all around for Milwaukee. A little bit of power, a little bit of small ball, and a lot of good pitching.
Turang, Durbin, Ortiz, and Frelick led the offense with two hits each, as Turang and Durbin both homered and drove in a pair of runs. Frelick scored twice, while Ortiz showed some hustle on the basepaths to beat out a pair of infield singles.
On the mound, Peralta, Uribe, Koenig, and Anderson combined to allow just two hits and three walks with eight strikeouts. Anderson, who struggled as he took the loss in Sunday’s loss to the Reds, bounced back with a quick six-pitch ninth inning in this one.
The Brewers are back at it tonight, though there is plenty of rain in the forecast for the second half of the doubleheader. Stay tuned to BCB for updates as that game gets closer. First pitch is slated for 7:05 p.m. CT, with Chad Patrick set to start for Milwaukee and no Cubs starter yet announced.
