Box Score
The Brewers, out for a big late-season sweep of the rival Cubs, got off to a great start today and, for eight innings, looked like they were cruising to victory. Milwaukee got homers from three of their biggest stars, jumped out to a big early lead, and got another good (if short) start from the guy we might have to start calling the co-ace, Logan Henderson. The Cubs (and the Brewers’ pitching staff) managed to make things uncomfortable late in this one with a big ninth inning, but in the end the Brewers hung
on to complete the sweep.
It was a hot start for the Brewers on both sides of the ball. Henderson got things started by striking out the side in order in the top of the first. In the bottom of the inning, the Brewers were all over Chicago’s Kevin Gausman. Jackson Chourio followed up his monster day on Tuesday by blooping a single into left to get things started. After a Brice Turang fielder’s choice, William Contreras drew a walk to put a second runner on. Andrew Vaughn struck out, but with two outs Christian Yelich snuck onto the top of the wall in the left field gap, just out of the reach of Pete Crow-Armstrong, and it bounced over for a three-run homer.
Milwaukee didn’t score any further runs, but Sal Frelick and Joey Ortiz both added solid line-drive singles (Ortiz’s at a healthy 109.4 mph) before a Garrett Mitchell strikeout ended the inning. Eight Brewers came to the plate in the inning and Milwaukee had an early 3-0 lead. Henderson’s nice start continued in the top of the second when he went groundout, strikeout, groundout against the middle of the Cubs’ order.
After Gausman started his second inning by striking out Cooper Pratt, Chourio continued the Brewers’ assault on the Chicago pitcher. He got a first-pitch splitter way too high in the zone and absolutely crushed it, a majestic shot at 109 mph and 436 feet over the Brewer bullpen in left.
That was hardly it, though. Turang drew a walk, and on the first pitch to Contreras, he also got a splitter too high and yanked it down the left field line. The only question was whether it would be fair or foul, and it stayed safely within the foul line, and Contreras had his 100th career home run. Gausman worked out of the inning after that (with some help from the home plate ump) but the Brewers were up 6-0 after two and well on their way to a rare blowout.
Henderson kept his bid for perfection going through a third inning with a pop out, a shallow fly out, and another strikeout. Nine up, nine down, five strikeouts for Henderson on his first trip through the order.
The Brewers got a one-out baserunner against Gausman in the third when Mitchell reached on a throwing error by shortstop Nico Hoerner. Mitchell stole second—a result which held up after an unsuccessful challenge—and advanced to third when Pratt grounded out. With two outs, the blazing hot Chourio had a chance to drive him in, and of course he did, by going up to get a high 95 mph fastball that was a couple inches inside and pulling it into left. That made it 7-0, and then Chourio stole second, but Turang grounded out to end the inning. Through three innings, Chourio was 3-3 with a homer, two singles, two RBI, and a stolen base.
Crow-Armstrong finally ended Henderson’s no-hit bid when, after an eight-pitch at-bat in which he fouled off several tough pitches, PCA blooped a single into center. He moved to second on a pitch that got by Contreras, and then went to third on a fly ball to right (one on which Mitchell and Frelick came dangerously close to colliding). A Michael Busch groundout scored Crow-Armstrong from third, and Alex Bregman drew a walk to extend the inning, but after another lengthy battle Ian Happ grounded out to end the inning.
Gausman finally put up a zero and a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the fourth, and the game settled down a bit at that point. Henderson was also back to his perfect ways in the top of the fifth, and Trent Thornton—who relieved Gausman in the bottom of the inning—retired Frelick, Ortiz, and Mitchell in order.
Henderson, who was effective but inefficient tonight, took the mound in the sixth with 94 pitches on the night. He threw one more, a changeup that Carson Kelly banged into left for a leadoff single, and Pat Murphy went to lefty JoJo Romero for the top of the Cubs’ order. Turang flashed some leather when he made a great play running to his left on a PCA grounder and spun around and threw to second to get the lead runner, Kelly, and three pitches later, Romero induced a tailor-made double play from Suzuki that ended the inning. That closed the book on Henderson, who finished with five innings, two hits and one walk allowed, six strikeouts, and one unearned run on his line. Henderson’s 2.34 ERA would be fourth in the league if he had enough innings to qualify.
After Pratt lined out against new pitcher Daniel Palencia to start the bottom of the sixth, Chourio was finally retired—just the second time in his last nine at-bats. A Turang ground ball should’ve ended the inning, but second baseman Pedro Ramírez made a bad throw to Busch at first, and Suzuki—who had run in the other direction on the ground ball—was way out of position to get the ball as it trickled down the right field line, which allowed Turang to get all the way to third. That gave Contreras a chance with two out and a runner in scoring position, and on this night, the Brewers weren’t letting chances go by. Contreras lined an RBI single to left, his second hit and third RBI of the game. Vaughn popped out to end the inning, but the Brewers had restored their seven-run lead.
Romero was back out for the top of the seventh and worked around a one-out Bregman double to hold the Cubs scoreless. Caleb Thielbar replaced Palencia in the bottom of the inning, and he had a quick 1-2-3 inning despite some good contact by Frelick and Ortiz.
In the top of the eighth, we saw the return of Brandon Sproat. Sproat, who was demoted on August 4th after a series of rough outings, appeared out of the bullpen for just the third time in 26 career appearances, and he didn’t have much trouble in the eighth: he hit Michael Conforto on the foot with one out, but erased him on a Kelly double play shortly after. Colin Rea shut down the Brewers in the bottom of the inning, but Sproat still had an 8-1 lead to work with as we headed to the top of the ninth.
Sproat’s control issues reared their head in a big way in the ninth—he walked Crow-Armstrong, threw away a ball when checking on PCA at first, threw a wild pitch, then walked Suzuki, putting runners on the corners with nobody out as Abner Uribe warmed up in the Brewer bullpen. Sproat walked Busch, too, though he got no favors during an at-bat in which two pitches were called balls that looked in the zone. (Use your challenges when you’ve got both in the ninth inning, William!) Murphy stuck with sproat despite the three consecutive walks, and he struck out Bregman for the first out. Happ, though, drew another walk, and that was all for Sproat, who didn’t allow a hit tonight but did walk four and hit a batter.
Uribe was on with the bases jacked but with a six-run lead still in place and just two outs to get. Hoerner, the first batter against Uribe, lined a single into left that scored a run and left the bases loaded. Ramírez knocked in Chicago’s fourth run but crucially made the second out when he grounded out to second. The Cubs were determined to make this stressful, though, and Conforto lined a double into the gap that made it 8-6. Pinch-hitter BJ Murray Jr. replaced Kelly and represented the tying run—with Crow-Armstrong standing as the go-ahead run on deck—and Uribe fell behind 2-0. But the big Brewer right-hander dropped a couple of sliders in the bottom of the zone to even up the count, and after a foul ball and a ball three, he struck him out with a slider down and in, and the game ended with the likely NL MVP standing on deck.
This was a game that was easy for eight innings and extremely difficult for half of one, but even if some of the good vibes vanished before the last out, the Brewers had swept the Cubs.
Offensively, the team was led by their two Venezuelan stars, Chourio and Contreras. Chourio had three hits including a solo home run and an RBI single, while Contreras hit a two-run homer and an RBI single and drew a walk in four plate appearances. Yelich also had the big early hit in this one, his first-inning three-run homer. Everything went smoothly on the mound until the ninth, with Henderson and Romero combining to allow just one unearned run through the first seven innings.
The Brewers get a deserved day off tomorrow—their first since August 24th!—before looking to get a bit of revenge against the Reds, who just won two of three over the Brewers in Cincinnati, over the weekend.
