WP – Eric Yardley (1-0)
LP – Jason Adam (0-1)
SV – Josh Hader (5)
HR – MIL: Keston Hiura (5), Orlando Arcia (1)
Box Score
The Chicago Cubs came one of two teams in Major League Baseball over the weekend that had yet to lose a series.
The Brewers – more specifically, Luis Urias and Orlando Arcia – decided to change that.
Urias and Arcia combined to go 6-for-8 with 5 runs scored in the bottom two spots in the order as the Brewers returned from another first inning debut to beat the Cubs on Sunday, 6-5. defeated.
Things, once again, did not look great. Josh Lindblom struggled in the first inning, though much of it was not his own doing. Lindblom gave noticeable pressure, giving back-to-back walks to Anthony Rizzo and Willson Contreras before giving an RBI single to Kyle Schwarber. He came very close from the inning, with the only injury being a 0-2 fastball to Steven Souza, Jr. which was very clear in the area zone was called a ball, and two pitches later Souza rode a 2-RBI double the left field line, and the Brewers found themselves trailing 3-0 after the first inning.
Luckily, Lindblom settled down from there, and came very effectively from the 2nd inning through the 5th, putting up 8 strikeouts in the afternoon before his day would end, after putting in two men to start the 6th inning.
Due to that, the Brewers’ bat fought again early on against Jon Lester, who arrived in the afternoon, allowing just 2 deserved runs over 17 innings a year to start. Lester pulled back the first 7 fires in a row before Urias and Arcia came back with back-to-back singles in the 3rd inning.
Those first two hits were big because they set things up for Keston Hiura, who snapped a 0-for-14 stroke with a 3-run home run to ban the game.
The bottom of the order would get bigger again in their next time up in the top of the 5th, with Urias collecting his first extra-base hit of the year with a leadoff triple in the right field corner. Then came Arcia, the ultimate Cub Killer, followed by a 2-run homer to the left to give the Brewers a 5-3 lead.
Lindblom would respond by hitting the side in the bottom half of the inning, including Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo to swing. Things started to go wrong in the bottom of the 6th, though, when Lindblom hit Contreras and Schwarber ran, causing Craig Counsell to go to Eric Yardley to try to get out of the 2-on, no-out jam .
The sidearm seemed to have trouble controlling his breaking pitches, but was at least effectively wild to stick Souza out. However, he would hit Ian Happ with a pitch, loading the basses. Yardley were able to stretch out David Bote, but the first ball that was scored by the Cubs in the inning became costly as Jason Kipnis finished with 2 outs to ride in 2 runs and the game at 5 to ban.
That could very well have been a gut punch that let the game run out, but Arcia did not intend for that to happen.
He led the top of the 7th by scaling a ball to the center field that Happ misjudged, dived and missed, causing a leadoff triple.
Counsell’s decision to hit Ryan Braun’s leadoff today proved that it worked, as he then came up and left a go-ahead RBI single on the first pitch, he saw the Brewers return the lead.
That let Counsell go to his ‘A Bullpen’ for the final three innings. Devin Williams flew his bad exchange again, came back from a 2-0 count to knock Bryant out, and then teamed up with Manny Pina to end the inning on a strike-em-out, throw-em-out – Pina’s second caught theft of the game.
David Phelps knocked out the side in the 8th, and then it was up to Josh Hader to try for his second save in 3 days, with just one day away from working through 35 pitches on Friday night.
Hader appeared difficult to place hitters away in the 9th, but was able to find Bote on a 3-2 move that clearly looked inward, but the Brewers would probably take it after some of the talks earlier in the day. the match went against them. Javy Baez would then step out to Hader (who barely blew the scene, with Baez initially called safe before the verdict was reversed at trial), and Nico Hoerner would force Hader to go through a 13-pitch at-bat maljen before lying to Avisail Garcia in center to end the game.
It was another game this weekend that was not easy, but games against the Cubs are rare, and the Brewers will leave Chicago taking 3 of 4 to return to .500. It is also worth noting that the league accompanied the Cubs with 7 home games in their 10 against the Brewers during the short schedule. Those 7 games are now done, and the Brewers ended up taking 4 of those. The Brewers are also the only team to beat the Cubs at Wrigley Field this year.
The Local Nine gets Monday before he goes to Minnesota to play the Twins. Corbin Burnes will kick off Tuesday night at Target Field.
