Harrison's utter dominance puts bow on Brewers' sweep at Wrigley

CHICAGO -- The Brewers walked into Wrigley Field this week chasing the Cubs in the National League Central standings. Three days later, they walked out alone in first place -- and looking every bit like one of baseball’s best teams.

Behind another dominant pitching performance -- this time from Kyle Harrison -- Milwaukee completed a statement sweep of Chicago with a 5-0 win on Wednesday night at Wrigley Field, marking the Brewers’ first sweep at Wrigley since Aug. 10-12, 2021.

The victory continued Milwaukee’s scorching stretch. The Brewers have now won 16 of their past 21 games, including 11 of their past 13, and they did it this week by completely overwhelming one of the best offenses in the NL. Chicago scored just five total runs across the three-game series.

“We have a very young club,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “But yeah, I think it gives you a little confidence. I trust these guys. They have high expectations of themselves, and we have high standards.”

Harrison set the tone immediately after a shaky opening sequence. Nico Hoerner barreled a leadoff double down the left-field line, briefly energizing a packed Wrigley Field crowd expecting a response from the Cubs after dropping the first two games of the series.

Instead, Harrison slammed the door.

After Hoerner’s double, Chicago tried to push aggressively for another 90 feet, but Hoerner was thrown out by Garrett Mitchell, attempting to advance to third on a tag-up. It became one of the defining moments of the night, because from there, Harrison completely settled in and dominated.

The left-hander delivered the best outing of his young Brewers tenure, allowing just two hits and one walk across seven scoreless innings while striking out 11. He retired 15 consecutive hitters after issuing a leadoff walk in the second inning.

The outing lowered Harrison’s ERA to 1.77 through nine starts this season. The only Brewers pitcher with a lower ERA through his first nine starts with the franchise is CC Sabathia, who posted a 1.60 ERA during his legendary 2008 run with Milwaukee.

“We knew this -- the fastball is different,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “It’s a really good fastball. It’s on you. It’s by you. It makes you cheat and once you cheat, then the breaking ball becomes a good pitch.”

Harrison relied heavily on a two-pitch mix throughout the night, leaning on his four-seam fastball and slurve for nearly the entire outing. He threw 64 fastballs, averaged 95.5 mph with the pitch and topped out at 97.6 mph. Eight of his 11 strikeouts came on the heater alone.

“Honestly, that first hit let me know it wasn’t really a good slider day,” Harrison said. “The wind was blowing in, so we just attacked. Ball in the air was probably going to be an out today.”

Murphy said Harrison’s ability to establish the fastball completely changed the game.

“He’s been this good,” Murphy said. “But he found his breaking ball in the second inning and started locating that below the zone, and the heater has that up-shoot to it that makes it so tough on hitters.”

The Brewers gave Harrison all the support he needed 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 immediately sensed an opportunity and never stopped running, circling the bases for a Little League home run as three runs scored on the play.

“I saw it get past him and I was thinking four,” Hamilton said. “I was just running as fast as I could.”

Hamilton continued wreaking havoc with his speed all night. In the seventh inning, he turned a deep fly ball into a triple after Seiya Suzuki couldn’t make the play at the wall in right field. Hamilton scored moments later on a wild pitch to extend Milwaukee’s lead to 5-0.

Murphy credited Hamilton not only for the speed, but for the quality of his at-bats throughout the game.

“Hamilton was the story of our offense today,” Murphy said. “Two line drives and a ball that almost went out. He had four quality at-bats.”

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 with an RBI single in the third inning.

The series also continued to highlight the Brewers’ rapidly emerging pitching staff. Harrison followed six scoreless innings from Jacob Misiorowski on Tuesday, and Milwaukee’s rotation once again overpowered Chicago from start to finish.

“It’s cool to see,” Harrison said. “You want to go out there and do your job because everybody else is doing theirs. Definitely an encouraging series.”