Brewers manage tough win in 1-0 nailbiter

Colin Rea stars, Brice Turang breaks slump with game-winning hit

Box Score

Rain delayed tonight’s start by about an hour and a half, and for most of the night, it looked like both the Brewers’ and Cubs’ offenses just decided not to show up at all. But this ended up being a tense, thrilling pitcher’s duel, and Milwaukee was able to prevail in an ugly, sweaty 1-0 win.

It looked early like the wait may have thrown off Cubs starter Jameson Taillon tonight, as he walked two batters in the top of the first inning, despite a BB/9 number of just 1.7 on the season. But Willy Adames grounded into a double play with runners on first and second and one out, and the Brewers were unable to capitalize.

Colin Rea came out looking sharper. He retired Nico Hoerner on a fly ball and struck out Michael Busch before Seiya Suzuki hit an infield single, but Rea struck out Ian Happ and the inning was over.

Taillon’s trademark control was back in the second inning and he had an easy 1-2-3 inning. Rea quickly got the first two in the bottom of the inning but the Cubs threatened with two outs: Dansby Swanson and Miguel Amaya hit back-to-back singles and Pete Crow-Armstrong walked to load the bases, but Hoerner grounded out to second and Rea was out of the jam.

Jackson Chourio led off the top of the third with the Brewers’ first hit of the game, a solid single to right center, but Garrett Mitchell grounded into a (very close) double play three pitches later, and Brice Turang struck out to end the inning. Rea continued to pitch well in the third and generate swings and misses, striking out two more on the way to his first three-up, three-down inning.

Taillon walked Christian Yelich for the second time with one out in the top of the fourth, but the Brewers could not muster anything else. Rea struck out two more in a clean bottom of the inning, and both pitchers were cruising. Taillon had another 1-2-3 inning in the fifth, and Rea retired the first two of the bottom of the inning which made nine straight, but the Cubs tried again to mount a two-out rally when Hoerner hit a ground-rule double and Amaya walked. But Rea struck out Suzuki looking, and he was through five scoreless with eight strikeouts. He was up to 93 pitches, though, and that is where his night would end.

Trying to get something going in the top of the sixth, Mitchell laid down a leadoff bunt. He was called out but the Brewers successfully challenged and they had their leadoff man aboard for the top of the order. Determined to keep it going with small ball, Mitchell stole second base while Turang was showing bunt at the plate; Turang bunted on 3-0 and was also called out on a very close play at first. The Brewers didn’t challenge this one, but Mitchell was at third. With one out, Contreras hit the ball hard right at Christopher Morel at third and Mitchell was thrown out at home. Yelich followed with his own groundout and yet another scoring opportunity went by.

It felt like a shift in momentum, and Bryan Hudson came on in a spot where the Brewers needed him to put up a zero. Hudson quickly erased any concerns about his recent performances and shut down the Cubs in a quick, easy inning, and sent it to the seventh still scoreless.

After their attempt at small ball failed in the sixth, the Brewers offense started looking desperate in the seventh, and it led to three more consecutive weak ground outs on just nine pitches. Taillon was through seven innings, easily; he’d allowed just two hits and thrown only 88 pitches. It was a frustrating inning. Elvis Peguero replaced Hudson for the bottom of the eighth and got through a clean inning despite a bit of a scare on a two-out fly ball to center that Crow-Armstrong hit hard.

Jake Bauers, one of the only batters who seemed to see Taillon well today, led off the eighth with a single that nearly got past Mike Tauchmann in right. Chourio followed by smoking a single up the middle, but he made a mistake by trying to reach second base as Crow-Armstrong was able to cut the ball off in center and easily threw out Chourio at second base. Still, that was it for Taillon, and the Brewers once again had a runner at third with one out.

You could feel the tension emanating from the Brewers’ fanbase, given how many scoring opportunities like this one had gone by in the last two games. The new pitcher was Julian Merryweather, and the batter tasked with getting the run home was Mitchell. He tried twice to bunt, but struck out on a 2-2 pitch that was called a strike (and probably shouldn’t have been). But Brice Turang—the coldest batter on the team at the moment—knocked a 1-2 pitch up the middle for an RBI single and broke the deadlock.

Contreras was able to reach on an error, which extended the inning, but to everyone’s surprise, it wasn’t Yelich who batted versus the right-handed Merryweather; he was removed for Rhys Hoskins. A report from Sophia Minnaert confirmed that it was back tightness for Yelich, and you have to think he might need to go back to the IL at this point. (During his third-inning walk, I thought he pulled up weird and looked at the dugout after a foul ball, but he had one more at-bat after that.) Hoskins struck out swinging, and the Brewers took a 1-0 lead to the bottom of the eighth.

The new Brewers pitcher was Jared Koenig, making his second appearance since being activated off the IL on Sunday. Hoerner led off by lining a ground ball of Koenig’s foot and making it to first base, and the second batter, pinch hitter Patrick Wisdom, gave Brewer fans a heart attack when he got one that sounded like a certain homer off the bat. But the humidity perhaps aided Milwaukee and the ball died on the warning track in center field for the first out.

Koenig appeared to have a strikeout of Suzuki on a 1-2 pitch in the zone, but he didn’t get the call, and Suzuki battled hard, fouled off several pitches, and worked the count back full, eventually popping out to shallow left. Happ lined the first pitch he saw into right for a base hit, which prompted a mound visit, and after a long battle, Koenig walked Morel to load the bases. The Cubs moved to pinch hitter David Bote, and Pat Murphy stuck with Koenig—a bold move—and after a long at-bat, Koenig got Bote to fly out to Mitchell in deep center. Exhale.

In a mirror image of the bottom of the eighth, Adames led off the top of the ninth with an infield hit that deflected off of new Cubs pitcher Jorge López. Frelick followed with a seven-pitch walk, and Milwaukee was in a good position to add some breathing room for closer Trevor Megill. But Joey Ortiz botched a bunt, Bauers struck out, and Chourio gave one a ride but it was caught on the warning track and the inning ended. Megill would need to hold a one-run lead.

He would attempt to do so against the bottom of the Cubs’ order. It didn’t start well: he fell behind Swanson 3-0, Swanson thought he walked on a close pitch that was called strike one, he hit a hard, deep foul ball on 3-1, fouled off a couple more pitches, and then lined a single (that would have been a double if not for a good play by Mitchell to cut it off) into center. Amaya was pinch hit for by Miles Mastrobuoni, who flew out to center on the first pitch—a gift for Megill, who had to throw eight pitches to Swanson. Megill fell behind Crow-Armstrong as well, and Swanson stole second, but Megill came back to get the strikeout. Hoerner was up next, and he grounded out to second base on 0-1 to end the game. A nail-biter, but a win.

Concerns about the Brewers’ offense and their troubling inability to capitalize on good opportunities were not assuaged tonight, as they struggled badly for the second straight game in that area. But the Milwaukee pitching staff got it done tonight, despite serious tension in the eighth and ninth innings.

Chourio continued to lead the offense, as he was the only Brewer hitter to have more than one hit and he made hard contact on his ninth-inning flyout. Turang was 1-for-2 with a walk, an RBI, a stolen base, and a sacrifice bunt, and Yelich walked twice, though his availability is sure to be a question after he had to leave the game as his back flared up again. The Brewers got a five-man shutout tonight thanks to Rea (five innings, four hits, two walks, eight strikeouts), Hudson (a strikeout in a perfect inning), Peguero (same), Koenig (who labored through 30 pitches but got the job done), and Megill.

Milwaukee and Chicago will settle this series, their last of the season, tomorrow afternoon at 1:20 p.m., when the Cubs’ Justin Steele will take on a mystery starter for Milwaukee.