Brewers earn decisive win in series opener vs. division-rival Cubs

CHICAGO -- Memories came flooding back for Milwaukee president of baseball operations Matt Arnold on Monday while he sat in Wrigley Field’s first-base dugout. The first pitch of the first meaningful Brewers-Cubs regular-season game since last year’s National League Division Series was fast approaching.

“Think of the magnitude of that series,” Arnold said. ‘Those are franchise-altering games.”

How then, he was asked, will the Brewers keep from making these three regular-season games in May seem bigger than they are?

Arnold gave a puzzled look.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I’m fired up.”

His team fired on all cylinders Monday in a way the Brewers haven’t very often this season, getting 400-plus-foot bank shots off the right-field scoreboard from Christian Yelich and Jake Bauers, and another Minor League-style pitching piggyback from rookies Brandon Sproat and Shane Drohan in Milwaukee’s decisive, 9-3 win over Chicago in the series opener.

There are still two games to go in the series and more than four months left in the regular season, but at this juncture, the teams are right where they expected to be coming into the season: neck and neck atop the National League Central.

The Cubs, seeking to avenge the Brewers’ win in last year’s NLDS, saw their lead in the division standings dwindle to a half a game after the Brewers won for the ninth time in their past 11 games. It was the Cubs’ first loss at home since April 11, ending a 15-0 run at the Friendly Confines.

"The Brewers are the team that’s won the division the last three years. That’s what we want to do,” said Cubs manager Craig Counsell. “Last year, they beat us and they had a fabulous season. So, we’ve got to improve to get there. They’re a good team again -- no question about it. That’s where it’s at."

This year’s Brewers have been different since Jackson Chourio and Andrew Vaughn returned from the injured list, and now they have Yelich, who homered for the second straight game Monday after missing the previous four games with a bout of back tightness that flared just as he escaped a five-week stint on the IL for a groin injury.

Yelich’s solo shot in the second sailed a Statcast-projected 409 feet and struck the video board in right field. The Cubs said it was the 41st home run to hit one of Wrigley Field’s modern boards since they were installed at the top row of the bleachers in 2015, and the first this season.

Then Bauers, starting for the Brewers despite lefty Shota Imanaga on the mound for the Cubs, capped a four-RBI night by hitting another – a three-run blast off the same scoreboard in the fifth that made it an 8-0 Brewers lead before the Cubs collected their first hit. Per the Cubs, Yelich and Bauers became the first visiting teammates to clank homers off the video boards in the same game.

“You kind of had a feeling it was going to be an offensive game, just based on what the wind was doing here,” Yelich said. “That’s always a huge factor when we play here. We knew we had to score, and it was nice to get out there first.”

In that way, it was not your typical first meeting for these teams. The Brewers and Cubs had not waited until this deep into a season to square off since 2004, and the conditions on Monday were downright summerlike. At first pitch, it was 77 degrees with a 15 mph wind blowing straight out to center field.

“‘Yeli’ hitting that first ball out of the park certainly makes everyone relax,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “When your leader is on it, then other guys fall in place.”

The Brewers hit six home runs in their first 19 road games with no multi-homer games. Now they have homered four times in the past two days.

Monday’s blasts backed Sproat, who was knocked out of the game during the Cubs’ three-run fifth, and fellow rookie Drohan, who earned the win after quieting Chicago’s threat in the fifth and then delivering four more scoreless innings. It was the second time in three days the Brewers navigated all nine innings with a young pitching tandem. On Saturday in Minnesota, it was Logan Henderson and Chad Patrick.

“It’s like back in A-ball, when you did the tandem,” Murphy said. “We let them both go. It doesn’t always work that way, but it’s kind of a neat concept, especially for young pitchers. That was the plan going in.”

The plan worked. And after winning the final game between these teams last season, the Brewers struck first this season.

“There’s a lot of time to play out,” Murphy said. “It sounds cliché, but I’m really just worried about today, and trying to play good baseball, and trying to find ourselves. I still don’t think we’ve hit our stride yet.”