Big hit eludes Brewers as Cubs win 5-3

Suzuki’s three-run homer is the difference in first game of series

Box Score

The Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs played a tight game at Wrigley Field this evening, a game in which the Brewers got ahead early and had plenty of opportunities to score. But the Cubs got the big hits that eluded Milwaukee, as a three-run homer from Seiya Suzuki off of Brewers starter Chad Patrick flipped the scoreboard and ultimately decided the game.

The Brewers got a two-out runner in scoring position in the top of the first when William Contreras doubled into the left field corner, but Cubs starter Ben Brown was able to strike out Christian Yelich to end the inning.

The Cubs also got a double in their half of the inning, when Kyle Tucker put a ball up into the wind that kept carrying. Jackson Chourio looked like he had a play on it, leaping underneath the basket, but the ball bounced off his glove and into the wall. Chourio actually held onto it before it hit the ground, but since it hit the wall, it was a live ball, and Tucker ended up at second. Patrick struck out the next batter, Suzuki, and then hit Pete Crow-Armstrong on the elbow pad to put a second runner on, but Dansby Swanson hit one back to Patrick, and the first inning ended with no score.

Rhys Hoskins walked to start the second inning, and the next batter, Isaac Collins, got a hold of a curveball that didn’t curve enough and pulled it over the wall in right field for his third home run of the season to give the Brewers an early 2-0 lead. Turang followed with a single up the middle, and the first three Brewers had reached against Brown in the second. But he settled down, and Caleb Durbin struck out, Joey Ortiz popped one up, and Sal Frelick grounded out, and the top of the second ended with the Brewers up two.

Michael Busch battled for a long at-bat to start the bottom of the second and hit a line drive to left, but Collins came flying in out of nowhere and snagged it on a full dive for the first out. Patrick then struck out Carson Kelly, but gave up a two-out single to Nico Hoerner (a liner just over Ortiz’s glove). Rookie Matt Shaw followed with a line drive into the right field gap that went all the way to the wall, and Hoerner was able to score from first. Ian Happ was next, and he hit a line drive too, but right at Hoskins, and the inning ended. The Cubs had halved Milwaukee’s lead, and it was 2-1 heading to the third.

Chourio flew out to right to start the second inning, and Contreras followed with a ground out to second base. Yelich, like Tucker in the first, put what seemed like a fairly routine fly ball into the jet stream that traveled until it hit the ivy, just short of a homer, resulting in a two-out double. Hoskins battled a bit but struck out, and like the first inning, the Brewers’ two-out double was followed by an inning-ending strikeout.

Tucker started the bottom of the third with his second hit. Patrick struck out Suzuki again, but walked Crow-Armstrong, and there were two on for Swanson, but he grounded into a 5-4-3 double play, and Patrick was out of the inning.

Collins kept “The Isaac Collins Game” going when he led off the fourth with a double into the right field gap. Turang, the next batter, checked his swing on back-to-back tough curveballs with two strikes and drew a walk to put two on, but Durbin popped up a bunt attempt, and Shaw made a good stumbling catch in foul territory. Ortiz followed with a hard, 108-mph line drive to left, but the Gold Glover Happ robbed him of a hit (Ortiz’s batted ball luck lately has been absurd), and there were two outs for Frelick, who grounded out to first, and the Brewers squandered a real opportunity.

In a game where 1-2-3 innings were difficult to come by, Patrick had the first of the game when he retired Busch, Kelly, and Happ in a row in the bottom of the fourth. Chourio hit a ball hard to start the fifth inning, but was robbed of a hit by another former Gold Glover, Hoerner, at second base. Contreras followed with a little squibber in front of the plate, which Brown fielded — he had plenty of time but didn’t realize it, and he whipped the throw wide of first base, and Contreras reached on what was ruled, generously, an infield single.

Yelich was next, and he worked the count full but struck out for the second time on a curveball below the zone. Hoskins, next, was hit on his right hand by a fastball up and in, and he was on base for the second time the hard way. That brought up Collins, who already had two extra-base hits, with two on and two out, but he grounded out on a comebacker to Brown, and the Brewers again failed to cash in on a runner in scoring position. (That was becoming a storyline: through four-and-a-half innings, the Brewers were 0-for-6 with RISP, while the Cubs were 0-for-4.)

Shaw started the fifth with a flyout to Collins in left. Patrick walked Happ with one out — playing with fire, with Tucker, Suzuki, and PCA due up — and Chicago made him pay for it, as for the second time in the game Tucker hit one into the ivy (the Brewers were lucky it wasn’t out). Happ had to hold at third as Frelick got it into the infield quickly, but Suzuki, who’d struck out twice, did not strike out a third time. He got a sinker low and in and did not miss it, putting it into the seats in left field for a three-run shot, his 18th. Patrick retired Crow-Armstrong and Swanson on groundouts, but the Cubs were up 4-2, and the Brewers were no doubt rueing some missed offensive opportunities.

Génesis Cabrera replaced Brown in the top of the sixth. Turang reached to start the inning on a weird little play — a grounder in between first and second. Busch, the first baseman, wasn’t sure whether he should go for it or not. Hoerner ultimately fielded it, but there was a scramble as everyone tried to get back to the bag, and Busch was unable to handle Hoerner’s throw. Turang, like Contreras earlier in the game, was gifted an infield single by the official scorer.

With Durbin up, Turang stole second base without a throw, as Kelly mishandled the pitch. Durbin hit one hard, 105 mph, but right at Swanson for the first out. Ortiz, who has been dealing for several days with a bunch of hard contact that hasn’t gone for hits, of course blooped a 68-mph single into left, and the Brewers had their first hit of the game with a runner in scoring position. Turang scored easily, and the Brewers trimmed the lead to 4-3. Frelick fell behind 0-2 and battled in a pesky at-bat but struck out, and Ortiz — who was running on the pitch — was thrown out trying to steal second (he was initially called safe, but it was overruled on a challenge).

Patrick’s day was done after five innings in which he’d allowed six hits, walked two, struck out five, and given up four runs, all earned. He was replaced in the sixth by Nick Mears, who gave up a leadoff single to Busch in an 0-2 count. But Mears struck out Kelly, got Hoerner to fly out to the warning track, and got Shaw to strike out, and the inning ended with the score still at 4-3.

Chourio saw two pitches from the new pitcher Brad Keller and grounded the second one softly to first. Keller issued a one-out walk to Contreras, who was on for the third time, and he moved to second when Yelich hit a tapper in front of the mound that functioned essentially as a sacrifice bunt. Keller’s first pitch to Hoskins was in the dirt and got past the catcher Kelly, which moved Contreras to third. Hoskins got a 2-1 hanging sweeper but fouled it off, and he struck out on the next pitch, and the Brewers’ struggles with runners in scoring position continued.

Rob Zastryzny was the new Brewer pitcher in the bottom of the seventh against the top of the Cubs’ order. He got Happ to ground out to third for the first out, and Tucker — already 3-for-3 with two doubles off the wall — nearly hit another one out, but Frelick caught it on the warning track in the right corner. Zastryzny put the finishing touch on a 1-2-3 inning by catching Suzuki looking on a 3-2 backdoor cutter.

The new Cubs pitcher in the eighth was Caleb Thielbar, who came in without having allowed a run since May 5. He struck out Collins, and Turang nearly doubled for his third hit, but Crow-Armstrong came out of nowhere, made a diving catch, and showed everyone why he’s the best outfielder in baseball. Durbin struck out on three pitches, and Thielbar escaped the inning with no damage.

PCA, fresh off his outstanding catch, was due up to start the bottom of the eighth against Zastryzny (who stayed in to face the lefty), and, somehow predictably, he jumped on the first pitch he saw and blasted it out to right for his 19th home run of the season, a monstrous 452-foot shot. Grant Anderson replaced Zastryzny, and he got Swanson, Busch, and Kelly in order to get it to the ninth.

Now in need of two runs, the Brewers would have to make their comeback against Cubs closer Daniel Palencia, owner of a 1.73 ERA. Ortiz had nothing against Palencia and struck out looking on a 101-mph fastball. Frelick then popped out to third base, and the Brewers were down to their last out. Chourio, though, wasn’t going to let Palencia off easy: he got to a fastball up and in and almost hit it out, but Happ couldn’t quite make the catch, and it was off the top of the wall. Chourio, the tying run, stood on second base for Contreras, who got a first pitch to hit but got under it and flew out to center to end the game.

The story here was Milwaukee’s ineptitude with runners in scoring position; after Contreras’s flyout to end the game, they finished at 1-for-10, with Ortiz’s RBI single their only hit. Milwaukee outhit the Cubs nine to eight in this game, but Chicago showed the value in having players who can hit the ball out of the ballpark, as four of their five runs came on two swings, nullifying Milwaukee’s hit advantage. Between them, Suzuki and PCA have 37 home runs this season. The entire Brewer batting order tonight has only 57.

On offense, the Brewers got nice games from Contreras (2-for-4, a double, a walk), Collins (2-for-4, a homer, a double, two RBIs), and Turang (2-for-3, a walk, a run scored, a stolen base). Mears and Anderson had scoreless outings, while Patrick and Zastryzny were bitten by the big hits by Suzuki and PCA and the big night from Tucker.

The Brewers will look to even the series tomorrow behind their phenom, Jacob Misiorowski, who will face a tough test in his second career start. Chicago will counter with Jameson Taillon. That game is scheduled for 7:05 p.m., weather permitting.