CHICAGO -- When the baseball found its way into the basket atop Wrigley Field’s brick wall in right field, Cubs first baseman Michael Busch let out a celebratory shout. The chaos of the top of the first inning – one that could have spiraled further out of control than it did – was effectively erased by his homer that cut through a crosswind.
For the second time in three games in this National League Division Series against the Brewers, Busch led off with a home run. The opening frame has been where Chicago’s offense has done its heavy lifting, but this time it stuck. Busch’s shot ignited a four-run outburst that Jameson Taillon and five Cubs relievers rode to a 4-3 victory, keeping the North Siders’ season alive.
“I was happy to kind of get it going,” Busch said. “That first inning was fun.”
Busch not only became the first Cubs player in history to have two leadoff home runs in his postseason career, he made MLB history as well. The first baseman also opened with a homer in Game 1 in Milwaukee, making him the first player to have a pair of leadoff blasts in the same playoff series.
The Cubs trail the rival Brewers, 2-1, in this NLDS with Game 4 looming on Thursday at the Friendly Confines, where Chicago boasts a 53-30 record this year between the regular season and playoffs. In the previous 34 instances in which teams lost Games 1-2 in a Division Series with the current format (through '24) only 14 forced a fourth game. Five pushed things to a winner-take-all Game 5 and three pulled off the comeback.
That is the task ahead for these Cubs.
“They’re never going to make things easy,” Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson said of the Brewers. “That’s been kind of their MO all year. And we’ve been just as good at grinding it out all season.”
In each of the first two games in Milwaukee, the Cubs struck first in the opening frame. Overall, the North Siders have scored eight of their 10 runs through four games in the first, while managing only two runs combined from the second inning on. And the four runs in the first on Wednesday ended Chicago’s MLB-record streak of 13 consecutive playoff games with three runs or fewer scored (a run that dated back to 2017).
This NLDS is also now the first series in postseason history in which both teams scored in the first inning in each of the first three contests.
“I'm going to tell our guys it's the first inning every inning tomorrow,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell quipped. “I think that's our best formula right now offensively.”
The pattern persisted on Wednesday evening, when the Brewers grabbed a 1-0 advantage in the first against Taillon. Christian Yelich led off with a double and Milwaukee went on to load the bases with the help of a fluky infield popup that resulted in a single for William Contreras.
Contreras sent a Taillon pitch high over the infield and Busch lost sight of the ball. Second baseman Nico Hoerner and catcher Carson Kelly raced over in an effort to chase down the fly ball, but it dropped to the grass for a hit (one with an expected batting average of .001, per Statcast).
The umpiring crew did not utilize the infield-fly rule due to there not being “ordinary effort” required on this particular play.
“We never had a player really close to catching it,” Counsell said. “Right call. I was hoping they made the wrong call – they did not.”
Taillon then surrendered a sacrifice fly to Sal Frelick, but that was the extent of the damage done.
“I was happy to mitigate that and get back in the dugout and regroup,” Taillon said. “That’s where some experience comes in. … Just step off, regroup, grab my sights, figure out what pitch I want to throw next and just move on to the next. It was a weird way to start the game, but I’ve seen it all.”
That put Busch in a position to get some redemption right out of the chute.
“To let up a run there was kind of upsetting,” Busch said. “But at the same time, I had to flush it.”
Brewers starter Quinn Priester fired a full-count cutter to Busch that stayed in the heart of the zone, and the Cubs first baseman pummeled the pitch out to right. Busch’s blast got things rolling in a draining inning for Priester and the Brewers, who needed 53 pitches to get through nine Cubs batters in the frame.
Hoerner followed with a single, Kyle Tucker drew a walk and Ian Happ later earned a free pass with one out to load the bases. That set things up for Pete Crow-Armstrong, who ripped a Priester pitch into right for a two-run single that chased the pitcher from the ballgame. Reliever Nick Mears then gifted the Cubs a fourth run with a 1-0 fastball that bounced wildly away from Contreras, allowing Happ to score from third.
“I thought we played with that urgency, especially in the first,” Counsell said. “We just did a great job in the first inning. We had really good at-bats. I thought the Michael homer, yes, great. Nico getting on base right away again, it's not going to be a one-run inning. You're going to have a tough inning again. I thought we did that really, really well, and it makes a difference.”
The 4-1 cushion was just enough to withstand a couple of Brewers rallies.
Taillon gave the Cubs a dozen outs – his only other setback arriving via an RBI single from Jake Bauers in the fourth. In the seventh, Andrew Kittredge surrendered a leadoff homer to Bauers to trim Chicago’s lead to one run. Milwaukee loaded the bases with two outs in the eighth, but Brad Keller struck out Bauers to end the threat, picking up a four-out save.
That kept the Cubs’ hopes of an improbable comeback alive for at least one more day.
“We've got more ball to play, for sure,” Crow-Armstrong said.