Brewers bounce back late to take Game 1 vs. Cubs

CHICAGO -- The Brewers lost another pitcher to a leg injury but won Game 1 of their doubleheader against the Cubs on Tuesday.

Two innings after Yovani Gallardo left the game with a tight left hamstring, rookie Khris Davis powered a tying, three-run home run and All-Star shortstop Jean Segura hit a go-ahead double. It added up to a four-run seventh inning and a 6-5 win at Wrigley Field.

"Offensively, we were really good today," Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said.

Relievers Rob Wooten, Brandon Kintzler, Michael Gonzalez and Jim Henderson finished the game by pitching a scoreless inning apiece, with Wooten earning his first Major League win and Henderson working around a pair of two-out walks for his 13th save.

The Brewers' second straight victory lessened the sting of losing Gallardo, whose hamstring tightened with the bases loaded, two outs and a 2-0 Brewers lead in the fifth inning. Reliever John Axford took over and surrendered four consecutive run-scoring singles, including one to Cubs starting pitcher Carlos Villanueva.

When Axford struck out Junior Lake to finally escape the inning, the Cubs had a 5-2 lead.

"It's never an easy situation for anybody to come in out of the bullpen like that," Gallardo said. "I don't want to say you're not ready, but you're sitting there watching the game, and next thing you know, you have to get up and get loose right away. It's a lot different. ... But those guys out there, they've been doing a good job."

Axford apparently absorbed his tough inning with good humor.

"I already got a text from Axford -- he yelled at me and called me a jerk," Villanueva said, smiling. "I deserve it. I'd probably do the same thing if it was the other way around. It was a fun inning. I wish we could've made it stand."

But two innings later, the Brewers staged their own rally. Villanueva surrendered a one-out walk and a single in the seventh before Cubs manager Dale Sveum called for the left-hander Russell to face budding Brewers slugger Davis, a right-handed hitter with relatively even left-right splits this season in the Minor Leagues.

Both Roenicke and Davis were surprised to see a left-hander.

"But you're in a situation in a doubleheader that you do things you're not usually accustomed to doing," said Roenicke, citing his own decision to use Axford in the fifth inning and remove All-Star center fielder Carlos Gomez in a sixth-inning double switch. "So Dale, when he brings in his left-hander, there's a good reason for doing what he did. I don't know what it is, but [Russell] is a guy he obviously trusts and likes."

Davis jumped the first pitch and powered an opposite-field homer to tie the game at 5. Two batters later, Norichika Aoki singled with two outs, stole second and third base and scored on Segura's double.

Segura entered the day with only three hits in his last 26 at-bats but went 2-for-4 -- including a fourth-inning home run that gave the Brewers a 1-0 lead. Yuniesky Betancourt made it 2-0 with another solo home run in the fifth.

For both Segura and Betancourt, the home run was No. 12 this season. For Davis, it was No. 2 of his Major League career, though he cemented his place on the organizational map by hitting seven in Spring Training -- six in Cactus League games plus an especially impressive blast in an exhibition against Canada's World Baseball Classic team.

All of his spring homers were pulled to left field, but both in the regular season have gone out to right.

"I can go that way," Davis said.

After Henderson recorded the final out, the teams retreated to their clubhouses for about two hours, awaiting Game 2. The Brewers sent a couple of rookies across the street for coffee -- in uniform -- while the Cubs stewed over a tough loss.

"It's heartbreaking; it's a heartbreaking loss today," Villanueva said. "To say it's frustrating -- it's baseball. We all go out there and try to do our jobs, and sometimes it doesn't happen the way we want it to. When it happens more than once, more than twice -- obviously, it's difficult the day of. That's the way it goes. Maybe in five days we'll have a little better luck."