MILWAUKEE -- The National League Central isn’t settled just yet, but the Brewers took two big steps in that direction with baseball’s version of a two-for-one Labor Day sale.
Jackson Chourio punched a go-ahead, two-run single through a drawn-in infield in the eighth inning and made a sliding catch in the ninth to finish a wild, 4-3 win over the Cubs on Monday at sold-out American Family Field, where a holiday crowd of 42,368 was treated to a thriller.
Not only did the Brewers win the game to climb eight games ahead of the Cubs in the division standings with 17 to go, but Milwaukee also clinched the season series between the teams, 7-4, with only two head-to-head matchups remaining.
That’s critical, because it means the Brewers would hold the tiebreaker over the Cubs should Chicago mount a wild comeback in the division race over the next two-plus weeks.
Brewers starter Robert Gasser was sharp for four innings before running into trouble in the fifth, so four Brewers relievers were called upon to hold the Cubs to two runs over the final 4 1/3 innings to give the hitters a chance to erase a 2-1 deficit in the eighth.
They did just that with a rally beginning with Garrett Mitchell -- whose fifth-inning single had briefly tied the game at 1-1 -- working a walk from Cubs starter Matthew Boyd to put the Brewers in business. Joey Ortiz’s double knocked Boyd from the game in favor of reliever Ryan Zeferjahn. The right-hander was ahead of Chourio, 1-2, when he fired a sinker above the strike zone that Chourio somehow put on the ground and snuck through the drawn-in first baseman and second baseman to score both runners for a 3-2 lead.
The Brewers eventually grew the advantage on Christian Yelich’s sacrifice fly, all while Milwaukee closer Trevor Megill warmed up for the ninth.
Megill earned his 27th save with some help from rookie right fielder Luis Lara, who made another sensational leaping catch at the wall to rob Pedro Ramírez of extra bases -- a snag that loomed very large when Cubs star Pete Crow-Armstrong followed with his 41st home run to make it a one-run game. Then Chourio ended it by making a terrific sliding catch of Seiya Suzuki’s sinking line drive for the final out.