Cubs edge Crewin 10th again
Move another step closer to wrapping up division title
MILWAUKEE — If the Cubs and Brewers keep this up all weekend, neither one might be left standing to throw a punch by the time the playoffs start.
Back- to- back extra- inning games at Miller Park that taxed the bullpens and exhausted the emotions of every player involved also produced victories for the Cubs that have put them on the brink of another division title.
“It’s awesome. It’s definitely a playoff atmosphere,” said Tommy La Stella, whose basesloaded walk as a pinch hitter in the 10th pushed across the game- winning run in the 5- 4 victory over the Brewers on Friday night.
“These are incredibly important games from both sides,” he said, “so obviously emotions are high and the stakes are high and everybody’s locked in, so it’s a good time.”
The Brewers’ third lateinning loss in a row dropped them to third place, behind the Cardinals, who beat the Pirates.
With nine games left, the Cubs’ magic number for clinching a second consecutive division title over the Cardinals is five. The Cubs open a four- game series starting Monday at Busch Stadium and are in position to clinch a championship in St. Louis for the first time since 1938.
“These are post-season-type games even though it’s not the end of the season for one of the teams at the end of the series,” said cleanup hitter Ben Zobrist, who hit a two- run single in the fifth. “They’re still very, extremely meaningful games that will matter. Everybody knows that.”
The Brewers — now 5 ½ games behind the Cubs — remain close in the race for the National League’s second wild- card spot. The loss put them two games behind the Rockies.
It was just two weeks ago that the Brewers swept the Cubs at Wrigley to launch the closest division race the Cubs have had in a decade.
The Cubs have gone 9- 1 since, with two left to play in Milwaukee.
“Yeah, that definitely killed us, that sweep at Wrigley,” starter John Lackey said sarcastically after getting pulled from the game in the fifth.
The Cubs have come from behind in the first two games of the series.
“They get hit a little bit, maybe a little something in the solar plexus, but we still keep going,” manager Joe Maddon said.
These games have become so big that big- game starter Lackey was gone as soon as he gave up a leadoff single to Eric Sogard in the fifth with the Cubs clinging to a 4- 3 lead.
“He obviously wasn’t trending well,” Maddon said. “Johnny just didn’t have his best stuff tonight.”
Lackey, who gave up a run quickly in the first and backtoback homers in the second, disagreed and said he believed he was trending better into the fifth, at one point cutting off a question about the early hook when told of his desire to pitch more than four innings.
“Ya think?” said Lackey, who then passed on the larger question. “The biggest thing is we won the game.”
Lackey took over the majorleague lead in homers allowed at 36.
Brian Duensing took over for Lackey and got a quick double play, but then gave up back- to- back doubles to Ryan Braun and Travis Shaw to tie the game at 4- 4 and force extra innings.
The intensity of the series might have been summed up in a single at- bat by Jon Jay leading off the Cubs’ fifth.
Jay fouled off 10 consecutive pitches during a 15- pitch at- bat before hitting a single. Kris Bryant was then hit by a pitch, and after the runners moved up on Anthony Rizzo’s grounder, both scored on Zobrist’s hit.