Brewers look to cross plate more vs. Cubs

PHILADELPHIA – When the Milwaukee Brewers open a three-game series against the Chicago Cubs on Monday night at Miller Park, their task will be simple: score some runs.

Scoring runs became an onerus task for the Brewers in the first two meetings with their National League Central rivals this season. In those eight games in April, four at home and four at Wrigley Field, Chicago’s pitchers combined for an amazing five shutouts.

It must be noted that hitting conditions were horrid in Chicago in late April, when frigid, windy weather made it all but impossible to drive the baseball. But, in shutting out the Brewers in three of those four games, the Cubs did scratch across nine runs while Milwaukee managed only two.

"That was a tough series for us but look how we've played this whole season," said right-hander Chase Anderson, who gets the start Tuesday for the Brewers. "Other than that, we've been really consistent in how we've played.

"We know it's a big series. Both teams are at the top of the division. We'd like to come out and set the tone. We're looking forward to it. These games are always dog fights."

In going 1-7 against Chicago in those two series, the Brewers accumulated only 37 hits while scoring nine runs, five coming in their only victory April 6 at Miller Park. The Cubs put together 59 hits in those games and scored 29 runs, an average of only 3.6 per game in the pitching dominated competition.

In the four-game sweep at Wrigley, Chicago’s starting pitchers did not allow even one earned run, a historic accomplishment. In 27 innings, the Cubs’ rotation allowed a mere 11 hits and one unearned run, with six walks and 24 strikeouts. Overall, Chicago’s starters posted a 0.90 ERA in the eight games against Milwaukee.

“They’ve pitched very well against us this year,” manager Craig Counsell said. “The conditions in the series at Wrigley were not conducive to offense. That was an impossible series for offense. But they’ve pitched well against us.”

One of the starting pitchers who bedeviled the Brewers, off-season acquisition Yu Darvish (12 innings, five hits, one earned run), is on the disabled list and won’t appear in the upcoming series. But first up for the Cubs is left-hander José Quintana, who has dominated Milwaukee since being acquired from the White Sox in the middle of last season.

In two starts against the Brewers this season, Quintana is 2-0 and 0.00 with 13 scoreless innings and only five hits allowed. In six career outings against Milwaukee, he is 4-1 and 0.63, allowing only 22 hits in 43 innings.

“In the last two years, he has pitched very nice games against us,” Counsell said. “We’ve looked at it. We’ll examine some different ways. But, if you look at the games, he has made good pitches against us. Our roster hasn’t changed significantly, so it’s the same matchups.

“In these intradivisional games, it’s execution because there are no secrets. You know what to expect. So, it’s execution on both sides. They’re all important games to me. This is a team that has been at the top of the mountain for three years and we’re trying to knock them off.”

Here is how the first eight games between these clubs went:

Cubs 8, Brewers 0

April 5 at Miller Park: Ryan Braun walked in the first inning and took advantage of pitcher Jon Lester’s phobia of throwing to bases by stealing second while Lester held the ball. Braun tried it again, but Lester bounced a throw to third base to nab him, then settled in for six shutout innings. The Cubs scored three in the second inning and two in the third off left-hander Brent Suter and cruised from there. The game became a complete disaster for the Brewers when closer Corey Knebel, pitching merely to get work, suffered a significant hamstring injury and went on the disabled list.

Brewers 5, Cubs 4

April 6 at Miller Park: The Brewers’ lone victory thus far against Chicago came in dramatic fashion. Two-run homers by Eric Thames and Travis Shaw in the fifth inning against Kyle Hendricks gave the Brewers a 4-2 lead, but the Cubs came back with two in the sixth to tie it. In the bottom of the ninth, Orlando Arcía delivered an RBI single with one out off Mike Montgomery to win it. Of the nine runs the Brewers have scored in eight games against Chicago, five came in this game.

Cubs 5, Brewers 2

April 7 at Miller Park: The Brewers had a chance for two straight when they took a 2-1 lead to the ninth. Counsell gave Jacob Barnes the first closing opportunity in Knebel’s absence, but his infield defense sabotaged any chance of winning. Two errors, a walk and a couple of infield hits paved the way for a five-run outburst, with the Cubs rubbing it in by having Lester pinch-hit and sacrifice a run home.

Cubs 3, Brewers 0

April 8 at Miller Park: Chicago beat Milwaukee to the punch in acquiring Quintana at the 2017 trade deadline, and the Brewers have paid for it dearly. Quintana pitched a dominant six innings, allowing only three hits with six strikeouts. Anderson pitched six solid innings for the Brewers but allowed a homer to Ben Zobrist in the fourth and RBI double by Albert Almora Jr., in the fifth, and that was plenty. The Brewers went nine up and nine down against the Cubs’ bullpen.

Cubs 1, Brewers 0

April 26 at Wrigley Field: Anderson was even better this time against the Cubs, allowing five hits and one run over seven innings. But Hendricks tossed seven shutout innings with no walks and five strikeouts. On a frigid, blustery day with the wind blowing in, Chicago’s Kyle Schwarber sent a line drive through the gusts and just into the seats in right in the sixth inning for the game’s only run.

Cubs 3, Brewers 2

April 27 at Wrigley Field: The Brewers pushed across an unearned run in the first against Darvish, but the Cubs answered with two in the bottom of the inning against Suter. Then, the elements and the pitchers took over again. In the top of the seventh, with the bases loaded, Christian Yelich crushed a ball to right field that on most days would have been a grand slam. Instead, the wind kept it in the park and a disgusted Yelich settled for a game-tying home run. In the bottom of the inning, the Cubs scored an unearned run off reliever Dan Jennings on an error by Eric Sogard, who started at short in place of Arcía. That was enough to secure yet another victory, and the Brewers would not score again in the series.

Cubs 3, Brewers 0

April 28 at Wrigley Field: Stop us if you’ve heard this before but the Brewers couldn’t scratch across a run over seven innings against Quintana, who allowed only two hits while striking out seven. Again, the Brewers received a pitching performance that normally would have been good enough from Junior Guerra, who yielded one run in six innings. Chicago padded a 1-0 lead on Tommy La Stella’s two-run infield hit in the seventh, with Arcía holding the ball instead of throwing home as Jason Heyward kept running from second base.

Cubs 2, Brewers 0

April 29 at Wrigley Field: Tyler Chatwood picked up where Quintana left off, tossing seven innings of two-hit ball. But he did Quintana one better by also driving in the only run he’d need with a single in the fifth. Once again, the Brewers’ starter pitched well enough to win most games but got no support as Zach Davies allowed two runs in 5 2/3 innings. The conditions definitely favored the pitchers over the four games, but the Cubs scratched out enough runs to sweep.