Brew Crew slams Cubs |
MILWAUKEE - Throughout the course of an MLB season, there are going to be certain events that either make or break a team's overall success. When it comes to the Chicago Cubs 39-46 they were hoping that the Justin Steele outburst against the Milwaukee Brewers 50-34 at American Family Field on Saturday would be the jolt this team needed to wake up and start playing up to their standards.
With a chance to win a rare series against the Brewers on Sunday, the Cubs turned to Kyle Hendricks on the mound, who was coming off his two best starts of the season. For the most part, Hendricks was looking to be off to another great start as he kept the Brewers off the board through three innings. “The sense of urgency’s been there. It's still there,” Hendricks said after the game. “We're focused on the day to day. We have the best in the business there surrounded around us for the front office. That's what they do. But we have to take care of our jobs.” Then came the fourth inning when Milwaukee benefitted from another poor defensive play capped off by the team's fifth grand slam in the last eight games as a seven-run fourth inning paved the way for the Brewers 7-1 win. Anytime you can give Freddie Peralta seven runs of support, you are asking for a tough task, especially when he is as locked in as he was on Sunday. The ace of the Brewers staff took a little while to settle in, but it was a long day for the Cubs offense once he did. Peralta gave the Brewers seven impressive innings on the mound, allowing one run on two hits while striking out eight. He gave way to Jakob Junis, who finished things off, and the Cubs were held without a hit after the first inning. It's hard to win any game when you only have two hits, but when both of those hits come in the first inning, you are putting way too much pressure on your pitching staff, which has been the case far too often this season. One of those two hits came two pitches into the game and brought home the Cubs' only run, as Nico Hoerner opened the game with a rare leadoff homer to put the Cubs in front 1-0. Homer for Hoerner. 😌 pic.twitter.com/eelro27YLt Cody Bellinger would add a one-out single later in the inning with an Ian Happ walk, but Peralta was able to escape without further damage. No one was expecting Hendricks to come in and do what he has done his past few times on the mound, but through three innings, Hendricks faced just one above the minimum and was well on his way to delivering another strong outing. Then came the fourth inning when the wheels fell off as the Brewers only needed two hitters to take the lead for good. William Contreras got things started with a leadoff single before trotting home on the Christian Yelich homer (8) as the Brewers took a 2-1 lead. That would be all the offense they would need, but their offense was just getting started as the Brewers scored seven times in that fourth inning to break the game wide open. A walk was mixed in during the inning with a pair of singles, including one from Rhys Hoskins that Happ lost in the sun, helping to set up another Sal Frelick single to make things 3-1. “Not my best moment out there.” “I got a little turned around,” Happ said. “Obviously not my best moment out there and it puts Kyle in a tough spot.” With the bases loaded and two outs, Hendricks was on the verge of escaping the inning without further damage, only to serve one up to Brice Turang, who took care of the rest as he belted his second grand slam of the week and the Brewer's fifth grand slam in their last eight games to cap off the seven-run frame with a 7-1 lead. BRICE TURANG GRAND SLAM! pic.twitter.com/b83GD8s4dK “The inning started innocently,” Counsell said. “The pitch to Yelich, he made a bad pitch, I thought. Just left a curveball up. That pitch has been really effective for him. And then they just strung together some hits. The misplay on that fly ball hurt us, for sure.” That was it for the Cubs starter as Jorge Lopez and the bullpen took over from there. As bad as things were for this team most of the weekend, the bullpen was a strength, which hasn't been the case all season. Lopez threw 1 1/3 scoreless innings on Sunday and another scoreless inning on Friday while Drew Smyly came in to give the Cubs two more scoreless innings as those two did their best to save some of the Cubs arms. It would've been nice if the offense could've returned the favor, but with little to no traffic, the rest of the way this game was over by the time that Yelich homer hit the seats. Still trailing by that 7-1 score in the eighth, it was time for Ethan Roberts to return to the mound as he made his first MLB appearance after undergoing Tommy John in 2022. Roberts was far from perfect in his inning, as he allowed an infield single mixed with two walks, but he also struck out a pair to escape the eighth without any damage. Ethan Roberts records his first Major League strikeout in 794 days 👏 pic.twitter.com/KS8MYyxY1T That has been a theme for him all season, as he didn't allow a single earned run during his time with Iowa this season. That streak continued with his outing in the eighth, which may go down as the only silver lining in the Cubs' 7-1 blowout loss. “Frustrating place to be for the group,” Happ said. “We're obviously not close to where we want to be just over the halfway point. There's a lot of baseball left. We have to find a way to string a couple series together here.” The Cubs will try to enjoy a day off on Monday before opening a six-game homestand with the NL-best Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday. The Phillies have been slumping a bit lately and will be without Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber in that series, so maybe the Cubs can steal a series win. Brice couldn't hide from Willy 😂@SophiaMinnaert caught up with Turang after his grand slam in the win over the Chicago Cubs 🔊#ThisIsMyCrew | #MLB pic.twitter.com/ziy1q6NOlU
Ian Happ on is misplay in the 4th inning. pic.twitter.com/uZjPwNo0BM
