The Milwaukee Brewers left Wrigley field with an impressive 3-1 series win against the Chicago Cubs.
The Brewers are now 10-10 and a third of the way through the 2020 season. They are technically in third place, but the St. Louis Cardinals basically haven’t played, so that doesn’t count.
Brewers Barely Break No-Hitter
Thursday’s game was the Yu Darvish show. He went almost seven innings of shutout baseball until he gave up a home run to Justin Smoak with one out in the inning.
Brett Anderson went four and a third innings and gave up two runs before being replaced by Corbin Burnes. Burnes gave up another two runs, but looked solid and earned him a start for the Brewers on Tuesday.
The Brewers did make it interesting in the ninth. Smoak hit a ground-rule double and brought in a run. But it wasn’t enough, and some poor hitting cut the comeback short.
The Brewers fall in the series opener 4-2.
Yelich Takes Over Friday
The Brewers appeared to be in trouble again during Friday night’s game. Cubs pitcher Alec Mills had retired the first 12 Brewers’ hitters. They were down 3-1 going into the sixth inning.
That’s when Christian Yelich got up to bat. Mills hung a changeup over the plate, and Yelich hit a three-run home run. That was enough to give the Brewers the win.
The Cubs struck out 15 times during the game, including five against Freddy Peralta over two innings of solid work. Josh Hader recorded the save. It was a bounce-back win the Crew desperately needed.
The Brewers took the second game 4-3.
Milwaukee Prevails in Extra Innings
Adrian Houser gave up three runs his first two innings. Giving up early runs is starting to happen way too often.
Houser came back and took care of his next eight batters and ended up pitching five innings.
Colin Rea started for the Cubs, and it was a bullpen game after Chatwood was scratched from Friday’s game with an injury. Rea started great but got into trouble in the third inning. After the Cubs bullpen came in, the Brewers took over.
Justin Smoak doubled in the fourth, bringing home Avisail Garcia and Christian Yelich. Luis Urias brought Smoak home with a single to tie the game at three. The inning continued when Braun scored on an error.
The Brewers were hoping to close the door, but Steven Souza Jr. hit a home run to tie the game 4-4.
In extra innings, Yelich started on second base and Garcia hit a double off former Brewer Jeremy Jeffress into deep right field, scoring Yelich. Urias brought Garcia home with an infield single to make it 6-4.
Alex Claudio came in for the save in the tenth inning. He did give up a run but did pick up his first save since April of 2018.
The Brewers win 6-5 in extra innings and take a 2-1 series lead.
That Urias Can Hit
Sunday’s game started like the others, the Brewers playing from behind.
Josh Lindblom gave up three runs in the first inning thanks to some very questionable calls from the umpire. It remained an issue for the entire game.
The Brewers came alive again in the third. After a hit by Luis Urias and Orlando Arcia, Keston Hiura hit a three-run bomb to tie up the game.
After Urias got another hit in the fifth, Orlando Arcia absolutely crushed a ball to put the Brewers ahead 5-3.
Lindblom did recover and left the game after five innings of work. His day ended with eight strikeouts, four walks, and five earned runs. Two of the runs did come after Eric Yardley gave up a hit in the sixth when taking over for Lindblom. The damage could have been much worse, and the game was tied at five apiece going into the seventh inning.
Arcia came through again, hitting a triple to kick off the seventh. He was a double away from the cycle. But, he did hit into a double play, so he technically got a cycle.
Ryan Braun made his only hit of the day, bringing Arcia home from third base. The Brewers kept the lead until the end.
Josh Hader closed out the game with his fifth save of the season. He has yet to give up a hit. There was a weird play at first where it looked like Hader missed a tag to Javier Baez. But, the Brewers challenged it and actually got one in their favor. Baez was out, and Hader won a 13-pitch battle with Nico Hoerner to end the game.
The Brewers win 6-5.
Milwaukee wins the series 3-1 and leaves Wrigley Field for the season with a 4-3 winning road record against the Cubs.
Series Takeaways
Braun Still Owns Wrigley
After sitting out Thursday and Friday’s games, Braun made his presence known. He went 2-3 on Saturday, with one walk and scoring one run for the Crew.
On Sunday, he went 1-5. But, his hit was a clutch RBI to give the Brewers their sixth and final run to help win the game.
Luis Urias is Good
Urias didn’t have a great game on Friday, but he absolutely crushed the Cubs on Saturday and Sunday. Urias went 3-4 on Saturday with two RBIs and a walk.
On Sunday, he went 3-4 and contributed two of Milwaukee’s six runs during the afternoon. He now has a .474 average. He has silenced a lot of people who currently think the Brewers were foolish to trade for him.
Urias should now start almost every game and should be Milwaukee’s new leadoff hitter.
Manny Pina Should Play More
That’s the whole takeaway.
The Offense is Rising
Braun is back and hitting. Smoak is starting to hit the ball and drive in runs. Urias is beginning to emerge. Arcia is batting over .300 with one home run and eight RBIs.
Arcia is at his best when he has competition. Also, with Urias here and playing, having Arcia and Urias in the lineup together is nothing but good news for the Brewers right now.
The Brewers have a day off on Monday and will play the Twins once again on Tuesday.
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