Harrison's utter dominance puts bow on Brewers' sweep at Wrigley
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CHICAGO -- Kyle Harrison allowed a leadoff double to Nico Hoerner in the Cubs’ first at-bat Wednesday night at Wrigley Field. From there, Chicago barely touched him.
Harrison delivered his best outing since joining Milwaukee, carving through Chicago’s lineup across seven scoreless innings in the Brewers’ 5-0 win over the Cubs to complete a sweep at Wrigley Field. The left-hander allowed just two hits and one walk while striking out 11, lowering his ERA to 1.77.
After Hoerner’s double, Harrison completely settled in. The Cubs unsuccessfully tried to push for another run moments later when Hoerner was thrown out attempting to advance to third on a tag-up, and Milwaukee never looked back. Harrison retired 15 consecutive hitters after issuing a leadoff walk in the second inning.
The Brewers handed Harrison an early cushion in the second inning thanks to one of the strangest plays of the season. David Hamilton lined a single to center field, but Pete Crow-Armstrong misplayed the ball as it rolled all the way to the wall. Hamilton never slowed down, racing around the bases for a Little League home run as three runs scored on the play to give Milwaukee a 3-0 lead.
Hamilton’s speed continued to pressure Chicago throughout the afternoon. In the seventh inning, he turned a deep fly ball into a triple after Seiya Suzuki couldn’t make the play at the wall, then scored moments later on a wild pitch to extend Milwaukee’s lead to 5-0.
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Meanwhile, Jake Bauers continued his torrid stretch at the plate, extending his on-base streak to 21 games and his career-high hitting streak to 11 games as the Brewers added another run in the third inning.
Harrison leaned heavily on a two-pitch mix all night, throwing four-seam fastballs and slurves for nearly the entirety of the outing. He averaged 95.5 mph on his four-seamer, topped out at 97.6 mph and generated eight strikeouts with the pitch alone while needing just 94 pitches (65 strikes) to complete seven dominant innings.
The sweep continued Milwaukee’s recent surge and capped a miserable series for Chicago, which scored just five total runs across the three games at Wrigley.