After Miz's struggles, Crew's 'pen holds Cubs to just 1 hit in 5 frames

CHICAGO -- On a night Jacob Misiorowski had his worst start of the season, the Brewers needed five innings from their bullpen.

They got five zeros.

JoJo Romero, Antonio Senzatela, Abner Uribe, Aaron Ashby and Trevor Megill combined to allow just one hit and one walk over five scoreless innings Wednesday night, slamming the door on the Cubs after Milwaukee’s offense battled back to hand the bullpen a one-run lead.

By the time Megill recorded the final out of a 9-5 win at Wrigley Field, that lead had grown. So had Milwaukee’s advantage in the National League Central.

With 22 games remaining, the Brewers own a season-high nine-game cushion over the Cubs. And over the past two nights at Wrigley, the difference between the two bullpens has offered a pretty good illustration of how that gap has grown.

“It was a great job by our relief corps again to hold them at bay,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said.

“Again” is the operative word.

One night earlier, Milwaukee’s bullpen inherited a one-run advantage in the sixth inning and protected it. After Romero allowed an inherited runner to score that was charged to Senzatela, the lefty reliever recorded two massive outs in his Brewers debut before Uribe, Ashby and DL Hall combined for three hitless innings to finish a 9-4 victory.

Wednesday brought an even larger assignment.

Misiorowski, who entered the night having never allowed more than three earned runs in a start this season, surrendered five in the first two innings and needed 92 pitches to complete four. The Cubs entered the fifth trailing by only a run after turning the game into the kind of back-and-forth slugfest Wrigley Field can produce on a hot September night.

Then Milwaukee’s bullpen made the scoring stop.

“They’ve been consistent,” Murphy said. “There’s some bumps in the road. You’re not going to go six months and not have bumps in the road. … We just got to keep trying to go day by day and win as much as we can.”

Romero has needed only two days to become part of that equation.

Acquired from St. Louis at the Trade Deadline before working his way back from an appendectomy, the veteran left-hander made his Brewers debut Tuesday after roughly two months away from Major League competition. He responded with two outs in a one-run game.

Less than 24 hours later, Romero told the Brewers he was ready to go again.

“I was full throttle, ready to go, whatever they needed me for,” Romero said. “Today was coming in that spot, and glad I was able to execute the way I wanted to and get through that.”

The Brewers now have a bullpen capable of attacking opponents from a variety of angles. Romero pointed to himself, Ashby and Hall from the left side, complementing a collection of power right-handers that includes Uribe and Megill.

“You just have a lot of different ways to attack teams,” Romero said. “From the left side, me, DL and Ash, that’s as good a lefty combo as it gets. And then from the right side, you’ve got a bunch of power arms that can do a bunch of different things with their shapes.

“I think it’s something special.”

The contrast has been difficult to miss from the other dugout.

Chicago entered Wednesday with a 6.62 bullpen ERA over its previous 10 games, including six runs surrendered over 3 2/3 relief innings Tuesday. On Wednesday, the Cubs were still within one when their bullpen took over, but Milwaukee added a run against Daniel Palencia in the seventh and two more in the ninth after Jacob Webb exited after taking a Christian Yelich comebacker off his right forearm.

“We had very good at-bats,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “It was kind of a pass-the-line against Misiorowski and I thought we did a pretty darned good job. Their bullpen pitched very well and put the game in order. We swung the bats better than the results, but their bullpen did a really nice job.”

For Milwaukee, the formula remains simpler.

Uribe was asked afterward about returning Tuesday from the injured list after some time off.

“What time off?” Uribe joked. “We’re not on vacation here.”

Neither, apparently, is the rest of the Brewers’ bullpen.

Over the past two nights, Milwaukee’s relievers have been asked to protect leads of one run. Both times, they did considerably more than that.

And with each zero, the Brewers moved a little further away from the team chasing them.