CHICAGO – The Brewers’ prized 22-year-old left fielder, prized 22-year-old shortstop and resurgent third baseman all converged in shallow left while running at full speed.
It could have been a catastrophe.
Instead, it produced a sigh of relief on the way to a critical win.
Christian Yelich capped a four-run sixth-inning rally with a go-ahead, two-run home run, William Contreras delivered a pair of key doubles in the late innings and Joey Ortiz put the game away in the eighth with another two-run shot that sent the Brewers to a 9-4 win over the Cubs at Wrigley Field on Tuesday.
With top starters Jacob Misiorowski and Logan Henderson set to start the next two games, the victory boosted the Brewers’ lead over the Cubs in the NL Central standings to eight games with 23 to play, including five more head-to-head matchups over the next eight days.
And if you’re following the tiebreaker scenarios, the Brewers lead the season series against the Cubs, 5-3.
Milwaukee not only brushed off Monday’s series-opening, 17-3 loss, but brushed off quite a scare in the bottom of the sixth, when left fielder Jackson Chourio, shortstop Cooper Pratt and third baseman Ortiz all chased a Michael Busch pop-up that spelled trouble. It fell for a double while all three defenders tangled, with Pratt appearing to take the most serious blows.
Multiple athletic trainers were on the scene immediately, and the Brewers were feeling lucky when all three players stayed in the game. For a matchup of baseball’s top-ranked (Cubs) and No. 8-ranked (Brewers) defenses in baseball by outs above average, a run-prevention clinic this was not.
Instead, it was a see-saw game that saw the Cubs take a 3-0 lead in a shaky third inning for the Brewers' defense, and the Brewers storm back with four runs in an even shakier showing for the Cubs' defense in the decisive sixth, when reliever Daniel Palencia inherited a 3-1 lead from Chicago starter Matthew Boyd and promptly committed a balk that forced home a run. Then Andrew Vaughn hit a game-tying double into the right-field corner that looked catchable for Seiya Suzuki, who couldn’t come up with it.
That meant Yelich came to the plate with a chance to give the Brewers their first lead of the series, and he did by hitting a two-run shot into right-center-field bleachers for his first home run on the road since Aug. 10 at San Diego.