Fly the W: Cubs stun Brewers for comeback win |
Milwaukee - It's rare when you can say you faced the Milwaukee Brewers (46-41) in a four-game set and didn't see either Corbin Burnes or Brandon Woodruff. Well, that is the case for the Chicago Cubs (40-45) this week, as they have a chance to take three of four from the Brewers at American Family Insurance Field this week. You could even make the case that they could be going for a sweep on Thursday when you look at what happened on Monday.
Not only did the Cubs avoid both Burnes and Woodruff this week, but they have their two best pitches going, with Justin Steele toeing the rubber on Wednesday against Adrian Houser. Steele has been quite a story this season as he led the NL in ERA heading into this start and was looking for his 10th win before heading to the all-star game on Tuesday. Steele was good, but not great, as he allowed three runs in six innings with five strikeouts. Sure, that will go down as a quality start, but it is near impossible to win when your offense only gives you one run of support. Trailing 3-1 and with one of the game's best closers in, Devin Williams, set to take the ninth, all signs pointed to another loss for the Cubs. After all, they entered the game 0-39 when trailing in the ninth, and Williams has been near-perfect all season. Well, that is why they play the game, and some might say this is the biggest win of the year for the Cubs as they managed to score three runs off of Williams to take the lead before Adbert Alzolay went good morning, good afternoon, and good night in the ninth to earn the save and give the Cubs a massive win. Houser did a great job of limiting the damage, but he was far from crisp and needed more than 100 pitches to get through five innings. He walked three and struck out four but had to work in and out of a lot of trouble all game. That included a first inning that saw the Cubs put a pair of runners on base as the two-out single from Seiya Suzuki, followed by an Ian Happ walk, had the Cubs in business before coming away with nothing. Cubs score first! pic.twitter.com/wp8OPNhOMN On the other hand, Steele was much better as he worked around a single in the first before settling in for most of his start. One thing the Cubs have done exceptionally well all series has been scoring first, which was the case again on Wednesday. With Mike Tauchman opening the third by getting hit by a pitch, he advanced to second on an error before reaching third on another Suzuki single. That single was followed up by a single from Happ to put the Cubs in front 1-0 before the Dansby Swanson double play ended what could have been a better inning. That was it for the Cubs offensively until late, as they had their chances to get things done. Immediately following the Cubs run, the Brewers offense came to life in their half of the third, with Andrew Monasterio leading things off with a single. He would advance to second on the Christian Yelich grounder before the two-out single from William Contreras brought things back to even 1-1. Contreras has had a great series thus far and has had at least one RBI in every game. The following two innings saw neither team come away with anything, but the Cubs had a golden opportunity in the fifth, only to come away empty. Tauchman led the inning off with a walk before a one-out single from Suzuki put a pair of runners on base. That was followed by another Happ walk to load the bases, but once again, Swanson ended the inning with a costly double play. Swanson was later removed from the game with what the team is calling a heel contusion. After flirting with danger in the fifth to work around a pair of singles, Steele wasn't as lucky in the seventh, with Willy Adames unloading for a solo shot to start the inning off and put the Brewers in front 2-1. That homer was followed by a Jahmai Jones single two batters later as he would end up stealing second base to put himself in scoring position. That proved critical for the Brewers, with Brian Anderson picking up a massive RBI single to stretch the Brewers lead to 3-1 and put the game in the hands of their pen. Not only were the Cubs held in check in both the seventh and eighth innings, but Michael Rucker took over for Steele in the seventh and had to pitch around baserunners in each inning by getting two inning-ending double plays to keep things close. That brought things to the ninth with the Cubs trailing and looking to win their first game of the season when trailing in the ninth. For that to happen, it would have to come against one of the game's best closers in Williams, who was 18-19 in saves. Just when you thought losing Josh Hader would be a sense of relief for the teams facing the Brewers, Williams may be just as good, if not better. Cody Bellinger and Jared Young didn't let that bother them as they picked up a pair of singles to put the Cubs in business. A groundout from Yan Gomes followed the Young single, but Brice Turang had to make a jump throw which allowed both runners to move up, and the top of the order coming up. Already with several clutch hits this season, none was as big as this one for Tauchman, who saw eight pitches from Williams only to line the eight one into left for the game-tying RBI double and bringing the team's RBI leader Nico Hoerner to bat. That's what we're tauchin' about! 😤 Despite not picking up an RBI, Hoerner did what he needed as he managed to not only beat out what looked to be an infield single, but forced a throwing error from Anderson at third to allow Tauchman to come home and put the Cubs back in front 4-3. Lead TAKEN! ✅ pic.twitter.com/dPWCjKpmZC Hoerner was tagged out on the play to end the inning, but the damage was done as it was time for the Cubs to go with their closer, Alzolay. Although the Cubs haven't formally announced a closer this season, Alzolay has held that role for the better part of a month and has done a great job with it. He did struggle on Tuesday, allowing two runs in two innings, but he managed to bounce back in a big way Wednesday. Not only did Alzolay pick up a pair of strikeouts, but he hit 98 MPH on the gun to retire the Brewers in order and secured his fifth save of the season while also giving the Cubs, at worst, a series split. The Cubs had nine hits, with Suzuki leading the way with three. After snapping out of an 0-23 slump and 3-40 overall, Suzuki has five hits in his last two games. Bellinger added two hits to push his average to .284, with Tauchman adding two RBIs in the win. The Cubs will go for the series win tomorrow as Marcus Stroman will make his final start before the All-Star break against Freddie Peralta at 1:10.
Tie ballgame! pic.twitter.com/czSTiUT3oA
