Crucial battle goes into extra innings
Crew can’t score with bases loaded after Chicago ties in ninth inning
In a game that lived up to the hype of a huge playoffpush series, the Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs were tied, 3-3, after nine innings before a bipartisan crowd of 35,114 at Miller Park on Thursday evening.
The Brewers loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the ninth, prompting Cubs manager Joe Maddon to go to a five-man infield. Facing closer Wade Davis, Domingo Santana -- who already had homered and doubled -- struck out. Orlando Arcia then grounded back to Davis and the game went into extra innings.
The Brewers were one strike away from closing out the Cubs in the ninth when Javier Baez singled in a run to tie the game. That inning began with emergency closer Jeremy Jeffress being a fraction late covering the bag on Ian Happ's grounder to first, a play the Brewers unsuccessfully challenged and led to the tying run.
Eric Thames snapped a 2-2 tie with a run-scoring single with one down in the eighth off reliever Justin Wilson. The single over a drawn-in infield came after Santana doubled with one down and surprised the Cubs by stealing third base.
The game started with an air of anticipation as the
surprising Brewers hoped to put more pressure on the Cubs, expected all along to be the class of the NL Central.
“I think when you get to games that everybody’s looking forward to playing in, which is how I would describe the rest of the season –- you want the game to start,” manager Craig Counsell said. “Let’s play.I think that’s the mode the guys are in and I’m good with that.
“These are the games you want to play in. You feel like you’re playing for something. You’ve worked really hard to get to this point. Everybody knows what’s at stake and what could happen.”
“There’s a lot of familiarity here between both teams. There won’t be a lot of surprises. For the most part, you know what to expect. I think in these games, they become execution-oriented game.”
The Cubs did the early executing, taking a 2-0 lead. Kyle Scwarber delivered the first run with a one-out home run in the second, sending a 0-1 curveball from Zach Davies out to left-center for his 29th of the season.
With one down in the third, singles by Jon Jay, Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo resulted in a run, though the Brewers averted a bigger inning by cutting down Bryant at third on Rizzo’s single (originally called safe but successfully challenged by the Brewers).
Domingo Santana trimmed a run off that lead in the fourth with one swing of the bat. With one down, he lined a 1-0 fastball from Jake Arrieta -- making his first start in three weeks after suffering a hamstring strain – out to center for his third homer in three nights and 28th of the season.
It stayed 2-1 until the seventh, when the Brewers tied the score but let a chance for a much bigger inning slip away. It started with Eric Thames collecting an infield hit off lefty Brian Duensing and pinch-hitter Manny Pina grounding into a double play.
Pinch-hitter Keon Broxton drew a walk and Jesús Aguilar batted for Davies, who had thrown only 77 pitches. Righthander Pedro Strop took over and walked Aguilar.
Leadoff hitter Eric Sogard made Strop pay with a RBI single to tie the score, 2-2. Neil Walker drew the third walk of the inning to load the bases but Ryan Braun grounded out sharply to second – a 105-mph bullet – and that was that.
BEHIND THE BOX SCORE
In beginning the crucial series against the Cubs, the Brewers’ bullpen was in far less than peak condition. Late-inning relievers Anthony Swarzak and Corey Knebel pitched in all three games in Pittsburgh and were presumed unavailable for duty. With rookie Aaron Wilkerson going only 2 1/3 innings Wednesday, Counsell used seven relievers to cover the rest of the game.
“We’ve used our guys; you can check the game logs,” Counsell said. “We’ve used our end-ofthe-game guys pretty heavily. We will have to be careful tonight, is what I’d say. That’s as much as I can give you.
“Because of the way we used guys in Pittsburgh, some guys might be in different spots today. They’ve expected that. They’re well prepared and up to the challenge of it.”
As it turned out, Barnes and Jeffress covered the last two innings in the tense victory. STAT SHEET
Santana’s home run was the 215th of the season for the Brewers, the third-highest total in club history. The 2007 Brewers slugged 231 out of the park and the 1982 pennant winners went deep 216 times. TAKEAWAY
The Brewers need to close ground on the Cubs to have any faint chance of catching them this late in the season for the division crown. You need to draw first blood to do so, and that's what they did. Now it's up to the Cubs to respond. RECORD
This year: 81-71 (43-34 home; 38-37 away)
Last year: 69-84 ATTENDANCE Thursday: 35,114 2017 total: 2,337,073 (31,161 avg.)
Last year: 2,145,150 (28,602 avg.) NEXT GAME
Friday: Brewers vs. Cubs, 6:35 p.m. Milwaukee RHP Brandon Woodruff (2-2, 3.28) vs. Chicago RHP John Lackey (11-11, 4.62). TV: FS Wisconsin/ESPN. Radio: AM-630.
BREWERS RESULTS, SCHEDULE
AUGUST 15: Milwaukee 3, Pittsburgh 1 16: Milwaukee 7, Pittsburgh 6 18: Colorado 8, Milwaukee 4 19: Milwaukee 6, Colorado 3 20: Milwaukee 8, Colorado 4 21: San Francisco 2, Milwaukee 0 22: Milwaukee 4, San Francisco 3 23: San Francisco 4, Milwaukee 2 25: L.A. Dodgers 3, Milwaukee 1 26: Milwaukee 3, L.A. Dodgers 0 27: Milwaukee 3, L.A. Dodgers 2 29: St. Louis 10, Milwaukee 2 30: Milwaukee 6, St. Louis 5 31: Milwaukee 6, Washington 3 SEPTEMBER 1: Milwaukee 1, Washington 0 2: Washington 3, Milwaukee 2 3: Milwaukee 7, Washington 2 4: Cincinnati 5, Milwaukee 4 5: Cincinnati 9, Milwaukee 3 6: Cincinnati 7, Milwaukee 1 8: Milwaukee 2, Chicago Cubs 0 9: Milwaukee 15, Chicago Cubs 2 10: Milwaukee 3, Chicago Cubs 1 11: Pittsburgh 7, Milwaukee 0 12: Milwaukee 5, Pittsburgh 2 13: Milwaukee 8, Pittsburgh 2 15: Milwaukee 10, Miami 2 16: Miami 7, Milwaukee 3 17: Milwaukee 10, Miami 3 18: Milwaukee 3, Pittsburgh 0 19: Milwaukee 1, Pittsburgh 0 20: Pittsburgh 6, Milwaukee 4 21: Chicago Cubs, late 22: Chicago Cubs, 7:10 23: Chicago Cubs, 6:10 24: Chicago Cubs, 1:10 26: Cincinnati, 6:40 27: Cincinnati, 7:10 28: Cincinnati, 7:10 29: at St. Louis, 7:15 30: at St. Louis, 3:15 OCTOBER
1: at St. Louis, 2:15