Brewers 4, Cubs 3
Christian Yelich does it again in a wild start to the series.
If Monday’s game was any indication, the remaining five regular-season matchups between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Chicago Cubs are going to be awfully fun to watch.
In a game that featured plenty of twists, turns and big moments, the Brewers came out on top, with emerging National League most valuable player candidate Christian Yelich once again delivering in a key moment.
It was his sharply struck ground ball in the ninth inning with the bases loaded and the infield in that scored Keon Broxton, with Yelich just beating Kris Bryant’s throw to first to lift Milwaukee to a hard-fought, 4-3, Labor Day victory at Miller Park.
“For some reason, the games we’ve been playing against the Cubs, it doesn’t matter how it starts out it’s going to finish something like that,” said manager Craig Counsell, whose team shaved the Cubs’ lead in the Central Division to four games and increased its lead over the St. Louis Cardinals in the wild-card race to 11⁄2 games.
“It’s been pretty consistent. You better make sure you have a ticket because that’s how the games have finished pretty routinely. Not just the September games – a lot of the games here against this team.
“It was a fun baseball game. They might not be saying the same thing but it was a game with some great plays and a lot of individual efforts.”
Erik Kratz started the rally by draw-
ing a walk from Steve Cishek, and then Cishek hit Orlando Arcia after he squared around to bunt to put two on with nobody out for Curtis Granderson.
Granderson eventually struck out, but not before Broxton – in as a pinchrunner for Kratz – and Arcia moved into scoring position on a passed ball. Cain was then hit by a pitch to load the bases to bring up Yelich, who’d already given the Brewers the lead once earlier with a two-out, RBI single in the fifth.
Facing Jesse Chavez, he inside-outed a sharp grounder down the third-base line. Rather than throwing home for the easy force, Bryant gloved it and stepped on the bag and threw over to first in an attempt for the inning-ending double play.
But Yelich beat the throw by a step, giving the Brewers their fourth win in their last five games over the Cubs and their 10th walkoff victory of the season – tied for the most in the major leagues with the Cardinals.
“I saw him catch it and I saw him go to third, so I just started busting it, man,” said Yelich.
“You’ve got to find a way to get there. And I was able to beat it.”
Chicago took a 1-0 lead in the first on an Anthony Rizzo single, with Javier Báez scoring all the way from first after a misplay in center by Lorenzo Cain.
Cain drove in Orlando Arcia and Yelich drove in Cain in the fifth – both delivering two-out singles – to give Milwaukee its first lead of the day at 2-1.
With starters Zach Davies and Cole Hamels both out of the game after solid starts, the Cubs grabbed the lead back in the eighth in improbable fashion.
With two outs and a runner on first, Rizzo crushed a two-run home run to right-center off Josh Hader to make it 3-2. It was the first homer given up by Hader to a left-handed hitter in the major leagues in 157 career plate appearances against him.
The Brewers then tied it in the bottom of the frame, with Mike Moustakas coming off the bench and drawing a four-pitch, bases-loaded walk from Carl Edwards, Jr.
There were some other crazy moments for the Brewers earlier in the game.
Among them were a near-homer in the first inning by Jesús Aguilar that saw him nearly thrown out at second base after the ball hit off the top of the wall in center and bounced back, and a terrific diving catch in left-center by Ryan Braun that robbed Daniel Murphy of extra bases in the fifth.
All of it added up to one of the most entertaining games between the two teams– if not the most – in their 14 meetings to date.
FIVE TAKEAWAYS
MAKING MOVES: The Brewers traded right-hander Aaron Brooks to the Oakland A’s for cash and outrighted right-hander Jake Thompson to Class AAA Colorado Springs. Brooks had been promoted to the 25-man roster last Thursday in Cincinnati and then designated for assignment the following day along with Thompson when the rosters expanded and the Brewers needed to clear space on the 40-man for Xavier Cedeño, Gio Gonzalez and Curtis Granderson.
DIFFERENT, BUT SAME: Hamels didn’t pitch against the Brewers in the teams’ last series in Chicago in mid-August and Murphy is new to the Cubs, so there were some new key pieces Counsell & Co. were seeing for the first time.
“I think what you’re used to this time of year is the playoff contenders, they change,” Counsell said. “They’re good players. But it’s largely the same team from our perspective.”
POWERBALL: The Brewers had homered in 12 consecutive games coming into Monday, tying for their longest such streak of the season (June 24-July 6).
KEEP IT GOING: Yelich’s RBI single in the fifth extended his streak of reaching base safely to 20 games (since Aug. 11), the longest active streak in the NL.
QUITE A TURNAROUND: The Brewers have won six consecutive day games and seven of eight after losing nine straight from July 14-Aug. 12.
RECORD
This year: 78-61 Last year: 72-67
ATTENDANCE
Monday: 44,462 (fifth sellout) This year: 2,332,077 (34,808 avg.) Last year: 2,078,064 ( 31,016 avg.)
COMING UP
Tuesday: Brewers vs. Cubs, 7:10 p.m. Milwaukee LHP Wade Miley (2-2, 2.18) vs. Chicago LHP Mike Montgomery (4-4, 3.82). TV: FS Wisconsin. Radio: AM-620.