Higgins leads Cubs’ rally against All-Star Hader

MILWAUKEE — P.J. Higgins has learned how to stay ready when he isn’t getting consistent playing time.

The Cubs’ backup catcher and first baseman delivered a tiebreaking two-out double off three-time All-Star Josh Hader in Chicago’s 2-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday.

“I’ve just got to mentally prepare myself, do what I need to do in the cage and just kind of prepare myself that way versus playing every day,” Higgins said. “That’s my role. I’ve accepted it. I’m all about it.”

Chicago took two of three at Milwaukee as the Cubs continue recovering from their June swoon.

The Cubs lost 10 straight games last month to fall to 23-40, but they’ve gone 11-8 since and have won each of their last four series.

“Just good quality baseball,” Manager David Ross said. “Good pitching in close games and guys executing when they need to.”

After Brewers starter Corbin Burnes threw seven shutout innings, the Cubs broke through against Milwaukee’s bullpen by scoring in each of the last two frames.

Patrick Wisdom led off the ninth by walking on four straight pitches and stole second one out later. Higgins brought home Wisdom by sending Hader’s 1-1 slider just inside the right-field line.

Hader (0-2) has a 1.63 ERA but gave up a run in each of his two appearances in this series.

David Robertson retired the side in order to earn his 12th save.

Keston Hiura homered for the Brewers.

BRAVES 3, CARDINALS 0 Marcell Ozuna and Eddie Rosario hit back-to-back homers, Max Fried threw six strong innings and Atlanta beat slumping St. Louis. Fried (9-2) and Miles Mikolas (5-7) each threw four scoreless innings before Ozuna led off the fifth with his 17th homer deep into the left-field seats. Rosario followed with his first homer.

NATIONALS 3, PHILLIES 2 Josiah Gray struck out a career-high 11 and shook off Kyle Schwarber’s second consecutive two-homer game, helping Washington beat Philadelphia.

METS 8, REDS 3 (10) Brandon Nimmo’s three-run homer capped a five-run 10th inning and the New York Mets came from behind late to beat the Cincinnati Reds.

WHITE SOX 9, TWINS 8 (10) Andrew Vaughn tied the game with a two-run homer in the eighth inning, and Leury Garcia hit a game-ending single in the 10th to give Chicago the win over Minnesota. ORIOLES 2, RANGERS 1 Spenser Watkins pitched more than six innings for the first time in his career, and Baltimore beat Texas for its first three-game sweep of the season.

BLUE JAYS 2, ATHLETICS 1 Bo Bichette hit a tiebreaking homer in the eighth inning off Domingo Acevedo (1-2) and Toronto rallied past Oakland to snap a five-game skid.

TIGERS 8, GUARDIANS 2 Miguel Cabrera hit a two-out, two-run single in the fifth inning as part of his three-RBI day and Detroit completed its first four-game sweep of Cleveland since 2013.

RAYS 7, RED SOX 1 Corey Kluber worked six scoreless innings and Tampa Bay spoiled the major league debut of Brayan Bello, the top pitching prospect in Boston’s system.

ROYALS 7, ASTROS 4 Whit Merrifield, Hunter Dozier and Emmanuel Rivera homered as Kansas City roughed up Cristian Javier early and snapped Houston’s major-league best eight-game winning streak. Aledmys Díaz homered for a second consecutive game for the Astros.

INTERLEAGUE

YANKEES 16, PIRATES 0 Aaron Judge hit a grand slam for his major league-leading 30th home run and the New York Yankees routed Pittsburgh to split their two-game interleague series. Luis Severino pitched six dominant innings and Aaron Hicks also had a grand slam as New York scored 11 runs in the eighth and ninth and halted a two-game skid. Giancarlo Stanton, Josh Donaldson, Joey Gallo and Kyle Higashioka also homered for New York to boost the Yankees’ season total to 139 homers, easily tops in the majors.

ANGELS 5, MARLINS 2 Shohei Ohtani allowed one unearned run in seven dominant innings and had the go-ahead hit as Los Angeles snapped Miami’s six-game winning streak.