When it’s 90 degrees at Wrigley Field, games tend to be exciting—even when an ace is on the mound. On paper, this was a lopsided pitching matchup, with Milwaukee’s Jacob Misiorowski facing off against the Cubs’ David Peterson. But both offenses had no trouble scoring early in this one, a back-and-forth affair that didn’t settle down until the fifth inning. By that point, the Brewers had gained, lost, gained again, lost again, fallen behind, and regained the lead, but once this game got to the bullpens, the Brewers had a clear advantage. By the end, the Brewers had tacked on a few insurance runs, and they won pretty easily on a night when their ace didn’t have it.
The first two Brewer batters of the night went down quickly, but the visiting team mounted a lengthy two-out rally. Andrew Vaughn and William Contreras hit back-to-back singles (the second of which of the infield variety) and Jake Bauers drew a seven-pitch walk on a ball that nearly hit him. That gave Luis Lara a chance with the bases loaded, and the 21-year-old came through by punching a single into right field—after that clutch at-bat, Lara improved to 4-for-9 with the bases loaded in his young career. Four pitches later, Gary Sánchez walked to score a second run. Joey Ortiz grounded out, but Misiorowski had a 2-0 lead before he threw a pitch.
The MVP favorite, Pete Crow-Armstrong, came into this game 0-for-12 with nine strikeouts against Misiorowski, as Brian Anderson kindly informed us on the broadcast. As we’ve seen frequently lately, Misiorowski didn’t seem entirely comfortable with the mound, and Crow-Armstrong drew a walk to start things for the Cubs. After Seiya Suzuki popped out, Miz continued to struggle with his command, and the white-hot Alex Bregman stayed that way. A 2-2 slider didn’t slide, and Bregman hit a low line drive homer that just cleared the wall in left.
Milwaukee quickly reclaimed the lead. With one out in the top of the third, Jackson Chourio hit his 21st home run of the season, matching his career high in just his 105th game of the season.
The lead did not last, though. Misiorowski remained uncharacteristically wild in the bottom of the second, and it hurt him badly. With one out, Matt Shaw jumped on a first-pitch fastball right down the middle and hit it off the wall in right. Had Lara been in right tonight instead of center, it probably would’ve been an out, but those are the sacrifices the Brewers make to get Jake Bauers into the lineup on a night like tonight. Shaw ended up with a stand-up triple, and he came around when Tyrone Taylor—who has killed the Brewers in this series—lined a single into right that scored him.
After Miguel Amaya struck out, Crow-Armstrong drew his second walk of the night, and Suzuki followed with a five-pitch walk that loaded the bases for the last hitter the Brewers wanted in that situation, Bregman. The Cub third baseman came through with a single up the middle that scored two runs and gave the Cubs a 5-3 lead. A strikeout of Michael Busch finally ended the inning, but the Cubs had already hung two more earned runs on Misiorowski through two innings than any other team had all season.
The Brewers tried another two-out rally in the third. Lara drew a walk, and Sánchez hit a ball hard to the right-center gap. But PCA showed the other reason why he’s the favorite for MVP, and covered a ton of ground to make what looked like a relatively routine play on a ball that was 101 mph into the gap. For the first time all game, a pitcher had a scoreless frame.
Misiorowski worked around a one-out single by Ian Happ in the bottom of the inning—though Taylor put a scare into fans with a warning-track shot for the third out. The Brewers made a move again in the top of the fourth. With one out, Cooper Pratt walked and Chourio crushed his second extra-base hit, a double, into the left-field gap at 110 mph. Turang, who has been struggling badly against lefties, was up next—and the Brewers pulled off a classic, the safety squeeze. Turang dropped down a bunt that just trickled far enough up the first-base line that by the time Amaya picked it up and flipped it to Peterson at the plate, Pratt had already dove in safely. It was 5-4, and everyone was safe.
With runners on the corners and one out, Peterson then had to deal with Vaughn as his pitch count neared 90, in just the fourth inning. Vaughn got ahead before knocking an RBI single up the middle, and Contreras followed by jumping on the first pitch by knocking another RBI single to center, restoring the Brewers’ lead. Peterson got one more out on a Bauers flyout before ceding to righty Trent Thornton, who struck out Lara to end the inning. After just three-and-a-half innings, the Brewers led this wild game 6-5.
A 1-2-3 inning remained elusive for Misiorowski in the fourth, but he did have an easier time than he had all game—a couple of strikeouts, a two-out walk to Suzuki, and a pop-out from Bregman made for a relatively quick and easy inning. Christian Yelich replaced Sánchez as the DH to lead off the top of the fifth against Thornton, but he struck out on a 3-2 fastball at the top of the zone. But the BABIP gods came to the Brewers’ favor after that. After Ortiz drew a walk, Pratt and Chourio hit back-to-back bloop singles to load the bases.
At that point, Chicago removed Thornton—who was a bit perturbed upon his return to the dugout—and sent out lefty Ryan Rolison to face Turang. Rolison just needed one pitch to get a weak ground ball from Turang which turned into a fielder’s choice at home. Sal Frelick, making his first plate appearance of the game after coming in defensively in the bottom of the fourth, was nearly hit by the first pitch (he appeared angry with himself for moving out of the way). That was unfortunate, as a couple of pitches later Frelick nearly added another bloop single, but a fully laid-out Nico Hoerner made a pretty spectacular diving catch running back toward the left-field corner to end the inning with no Brewers runs across.
Misiorowski was done after four innings and 92 pitches—it was his worst outing of the year, with five runs (all earned) allowed on five hits and four walks. Still, his offense came to his aid today and he left guarnateed to get a no-decision. The first Brewer out of the bullpen was Jojo Romero, a day after making his debut for the team. He delivered the first three-up, three-down inning of the game for either team: he got Busch on a groundout, got Hoerner to chase strike three in a full count, and got a nice defensive play from Chourio on a ball that was hit hard into left field.
Rolison kept going in the sixth, and he also delivered a 1-2-3 inning, the first of the game for Chicago. Romero was done after an inning and gave way to Antonio Senzatela. Shaw nearly got him for a solo homer to start the inning but it held up on the warning track for Chourio. Taylor grounded out on the first pitch, but the Cubs got a two-out baserunner when Amaya walked (with the help of what seemed like a late ask for a challenge on a 3-1 pitch that was called a strike but was out of the zone). That was big, as it gave PCA a chance with two outs and a runner on in a one-run game, but Crow-Armstrong topped a sinker and hit a comebacker right to Senzatela for the third out.
Yelich led off the seventh and picked up another extra-base hit off of the new Cubs pitcher, Daniel Palencia, after homering off of him on Tuesday night. It was close—Taylor went into a slide—but it hit the grass and Yelich motored into second base with a hustle double. Ortiz couldn’t advance Yelich as he popped out to second base. Pratt had a long at-bat, one that was extended when Palencia needed a visit from the trainer after an awkward throw to second on a pickoff throw. After the delay, Pratt had a full count—and he came through with a solid single into center that scored Yelich from second. Chourio grounded into a double play to end the inning, but Pratt had come through with a huge insurance run to set the stage for Abner Uribe.
Uribe’s assignment was the 2-3-4 hitters in the Chicago lineup. Suzuki was first, and he just missed hitting one out to center—Lara caught it on the warning track with a little hop in front of the wall that may have been unnecessary (which Uribe jokingly let him know). Bregman was next—he hit a grounder up the middle that got Uribe—it looked like it deflected off of his lower leg and then off his glove hand—but Turang picked it up in time to throw Bregman out at first. The trainers checked on Uribe, who was fine, and he struck out Busch to end the inning.
Caleb Thielbar relieved Palencia in the eighth. Turang struck out, Frelick hit a ball well but too close to PCA, and Contreras struck out. It remained 7-5. Aaron Ashby entered in relief of Uribe, and he had a quick inning, though Happ hit one to the warning track in dead center.
Chicago’s closer, Jacob Webb, came into the game to get some work in the ninth despite the Brewers’ two-run lead. Hoerner flashed some more leather to start the inning when he robbed Bauers of a hit on a diving play to his right. Lara reached when he got clipped by a 3-1 pitch, and Yelich followed with a 103 mph drive back up the middle that nailed Webb on what looked like his glove arm. Webb, no doubt in serious pain which certainly affected his judgment, picked up the ball and made an ill-advised throw to first to try to get Yelich, who would’ve been way safe even with a perfect throw. The throw was not perfect, and went down the line, allowing Lara and Yelich to advance to second and third. Webb did not continue; he was replaced by Colin Rea, who was given an extended period of time to warm up.
With the game still certainly in reach for the high-powered Cubs offense, it was important for the Brewers to add at least one more insurance run with such a good opportunity. Ortiz was the first batter against Rea with runners on second and third and one out, and he delivered with a single through the left side that scored both runners, with Ortiz ending up at second after the throw home. After a Pratt fly out, Chourio came through with his fourth hit of the game, a single—but Ortiz was thrown out at home to end the inning. Still, Milwaukee’s lead was up to 9-5 heading into the bottom of the ninth.
Even though it was no longer a save situation, Milwaukee went to Trevor Megill in the ninth. He struck out a pair of pinch-hitters, Michael Conforto and BJ Murray, conceded an infield hit to Crow-Armstrong, and got Suzuki on a groundout to end the game.
In the end, the game was more lopsided than it felt. The Brewers finished with nine runs on 14 hits, while the Cubs petered out after their hot start—they had only six hits in the game, and didn’t score after the second inning. There were big numbers up and down the Brewer side of the box score: Chourio led the way with four hits including a double and a solo homer, but Vaughn had two hits and an RBI, Contreras had two hits and an RBI, Lara had a clutch RBI single, Yelich came off the bench and went 2-for-3 with a double and two runs scored, Ortiz knocked in a couple of runs, and Pratt had two hits, a run scored, and an RBI.
The bullpen was fantastic in relief of Misiorowski. After the second inning, Misiorowski settled down and he and five relievers covered seven shutout innings while allowing just two hits and two walks. When all was said and done, the Brewers held a season-high nine-game lead in the NL Central with just 22 games to go.
Also, 9 to 5, shout out Dolly.
