The Milwaukee Brewers finished off their series against the Chicago Cubs with a 4-1 win despite minimal offensive opportunities. Two hits alone provided the entirety of their run production, but between Quinn Priester’s and the bullpen’s ability to escape tricky situations, they secured another win to help pad their lead in the division.
Milwaukee’s offense was distinguished by a lack of production for almost the entirety of the game, but with two crucial moments, they built a lead good enough for the win. The first came courtesy of Brice Turang in the second inning. After Christian Yelich led off with a walk, Turang eventually came up to the plate with two outs. Facing off against Chicago starter Shota Imanaga, Turang got his bat out early on a pitch that hung inside the inside-bottom corner of the zone, sending it over the wall in right. Turang’s 381-foot homer gave the Brewers an early 2-0 lead that they would never relinquish. Turang is slashing an astonishing .365/.421/.788 over his last 15 games.
Priester’s outing fluctuated between efficiency and unpredictability, but ultimately squeezed through 4 1/3 innings with just one run allowed. He walked five batters, which would usually be a disaster, but with three hits allowed, he limited the Cubs’ offense.
The first inning was a prime example of what would follow. After starting Kyle Tucker with an 0-2 count, he ended up walking him, but forced a double play to counteract the free pass. Priester loaded the bases in the second inning before narrowly getting out of danger, only to follow with a three-up, three-down sequence in the following inning.
Priester came back out to the mound for the fifth inning, but once again loaded the bases. His pitch count was already approaching 100, so manager Pat Murphy made the call to the bullpen. Nick Mears entered to face Pete-Crow Armstrong, who swung at the first pitch he saw. It resulted in a sacrifice fly, with the run marked against Priester’s record. Mears finished off the inning with another flyout and the lead at 2-1.
Imanaga would lock down the Brewers’ offense for the rest of his outing. He ultimately pitched through the seventh inning without allowing another Milwaukee baserunner to reach scoring position. Milwaukee only struck out five times against Imanaga, but never managed to create more opportunities. Only once Chicago resorted to their bullpen did Milwaukee find another offensive jolt.
Ryan Brasier was Chicago’s reliever of choice. After one out was recorded, Andruw Monasterio came up to bat for the first time of the day. He had entered earlier as a replacement for Joey Ortiz after he had a hamstring injury. He hit a bloop single to left field, followed by a double from Sal Frelick to get two runners into scoring position.
With the clear-cut opportunity in place, Isaac Collins came through with a blazing line drive to right field to score both runs. The pitch was a slider that caught too much of the plate, and Collins didn’t hesitate to get his bat around early. It was his first hit after returning from paternity leave, and the two RBIs served as important insurance runs. After Collins stole second, he was caught jumping around at second, a big no-no for Murphy’s Brewers. Luckily, it wouldn’t matter as Milwaukee’s bullpen held things down despite it looking like, for a moment, that Chicago was going to crawl back into it.
Abner Uribe entered in relief for Milwaukee in the eighth inning and immediately walked the first two batters he faced. Uribe struck out the following batter to relieve some pressure and retired another with a hard-hit line drive. On that ball, the lead runner was able to advance, but Uribe secured a groundout to finish the inning.
In the ninth inning, the responsibility fell to Trevor Megill, who recorded his 30th save of the season. After he surrendered a leadoff single, the following three batters succumbed to a strikeout, a flyout, and a groundout to finish the game. On the final groundout, Caleb Durbin made an impressive throw on the run to beat the runner.
Turang and Frelick led the offense with two hits apiece, while Turang and Collins each had two RBIs with their big hits. After Priester’s somewhat shaky start, the bullpen kept the Cubs off the board over the final 4 2/3 innings, with Mears picking up the win, Grant Anderson, Jared Koenig, and Uribe each getting a hold, and Megill saving his 30th game, putting him into third place in the league behind the Royals’ Carlos Estévez and the Padres’ Robert Suarez, who each have 33 this season. The win also marked the 80th of the season, making Milwaukee the first team in MLB to reach that mark this year.
This marked the final game in the team’s road trip, which they finished up at 4-4. They’ll now head home to face the San Francisco Giants. Tomorrow’s game is set for a 7:10 p.m. first pitch time with Jose Quintana starting against Carson Whisenhunt.
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