Justin Smoak and Christian Yelich both hit home runs today as the Brewers beat the Cubs 8-3 at Wrigley Field. Brent Suter ends the contest as the winning pitcher, while Yu Darvish takes the loss.
Offense Leads The Way
After a three-hit performance in the opening game of the series, Milwaukee’s bats took charge in today’s game, tagging Cubs’ pitchers for 11 hits, including a two-RBI triple from Ben Gamel, and home runs from Justin Smoak and Christian Yelich. Center fielder Lorenzo Cain also had a good day at the plate, going 3 for 4 with an RBI single. This offensive surge comes without outfielder Ryan Braun, who was out of today’s lineup to rest.
Burnes, Bullpen Oust Chicago Sluggers
Corbin Burnes got the call to start today after Brett Anderson, who was slated to start today, was placed on the 10-day IL with a finger injury. Burnes, attempting to rebound after a down season last year, struggled with his control early on. As a result, he walked three batters and hit one. Despite this, Burnes regained his control, only allowing two hits, and striking out six. Burnes would only go 3 and 1/3 innings, though, because of a high pitch count (75 pitches).
The winning pitcher today, Brent Suter, relieved Burnes in the 4th inning, throwing 45 pitches (32 strikes) over 2 and 2/3 innings with three strikeouts. Suter did have a small hiccup in the 5th inning, though, as Kyle Schwarber took him deep to right field for a two-run homerun. Following Suter, Brewers manager Craig Counsell used Devin Williams, David Phelps, and Eric Yardley in the latter third of the game. They combined to allow one hit over three innings. In total, the Brewers pitching staff held Chicago to a .188 team batting average.
Rubber Match Tomorrow
Following today’s game, the Brewers and Cubs will play the final game of the series tomorrow at Wrigley Field. First pitch is at 1:20 PM CDT. Tomorrow’s game features a pitching match-up of Freddy Peralta and Tyler Chatwood. Peralta is fresh off of signing a five-year extension with Milwaukee this past offseason. Last year, Peralta went 7-3 with a 5.29 ERA over 39 games. Chatwood enters this season in the Cubs’ starting rotation after going 5-3 with a 3.76 ERA last year.
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