In a game that was over almost before it started, the Chicago Cubs made a strong statement to the Milwaukee Brewers. The red-hot Cubs offense spat on Pat Murphy’s idea to use Tyler Alexander to open for Quinn Priester and jumped all over Brewers pitchers who looked unfit for the moment. After a second-inning deluge, this game was over before the Brewers sent four hitters to the plate.
Murphy’s idea to use Alexander as the opener did not go very well. He started the game by giving up back-to-back singles to Ian Happ and Kyle Tucker, and while he did get a big strikeout of Seiya Suzuki for the first out, another single — this one from Carson Kelly — scored the game’s first run. Alexander then got the second out on a fielder’s choice when Michael Busch grounded to first base, and with two outs and runners on the corners, Murphy decided to move to the originally scheduled starter, Priester. He got ahead of Nico Hoerner, but Hoerner managed to shoot a single into right field for a big two-out hit, increasing the Cubs’ lead to two. Pete Crow-Armstrong then grounded out to end the inning, but Chicago was up before the Brewers had a chance to hit.
Brice Turang gave Milwaukee’s offense a positive start with a single up the middle, but Jackson Chourio flew out on the first pitch he saw, and Christian Yelich hit a hard grounder right at Hoerner for an easy double play. After one, it was Cubs 2-0 Brewers, but this one was about to get ugly.
Priester, who through a whole bunch of really bad two-strike pitches in this game, left a 2-2 pitch over the middle to Dansby Swanson, who led off the second inning with another single. Nine-hole hitter Nicky Lopez and Happ then drew consecutive walks, and Priester was in deep trouble in the second inning with the bases loaded, nobody out, and the scariest part of Chicago’s order coming up.
Things went badly.
Tucker knocked another single to right, scoring Swanson. Priester’s first pitch to Suzuki was a slider that nearly hit him in the head, and while Priester did have a pretty solid sequence after that, the at-bat ended with bad luck: a high pop fly, shallow down the right field line, in exactly a spot where no one could get it but was still in fair territory. It dropped in for another single, and the fourth Cubs run scored.
With Kelly at the plate, the training staff needed to check on Turang, who is recovering from illness and had sprinted a long way trying to catch Suzuki’s pop-up. Turang stayed in the game and made a nice play a couple pitches later; Kelly hit a chopper up the middle, and Turang, playing in, fielded it and threw home for the first out. But it wouldn’t matter.
Busch took an 0-2 curveball that didn’t get low enough (but was probably slightly off the plate) and hit an opposite-field grand slam into the Brewers’ bullpen. Milwaukee had recorded four outs and given up eight runs. Priester got Hoerner to fly out to right, but Crow-Armstrong — again, when he was behind in the count — got a changeup right in the middle of the zone and hit another homer. Finally, Swanson was retired for the final out, but the Cubs had just about put this one out of reach before the Brewers had their fourth plate appearance.
With cheers pouring in from the Chicago-friendly crowd, it was an embarrassing first two innings for the Milwaukee Brewers.
There was still a game to play, I guess. William Contreras started a new hitting streak with a base hit to lead off the bottom of the second, but Sal Frelick popped out in foul territory and Rhys Hoskins struck out for the first two outs. Isaac Collins knocked a two-out single to put two on for Joey Ortiz, who hit a ball hard, but he hit it to the deepest part of the ballpark, and PCA caught it on the warning track. Milwaukee had three balls with exit velocities over 102 in the second, but just two singles and no runs to show for it.
Lopez struck out to start the third, and then Happ walked on a 3-2 pitch that was … about half a foot inside the strike zone. Truly one of the worst missed strike calls I’ve ever seen. Tucker then walked for real, probably better than letting Priester throw him strikes. Suzuki grounded to third and Durbin stepped on the bag for the second out, but when he threw to first to try to get the double play, he didn’t return to the bag, and Tucker advanced to third base with no one paying attention. Thankfully, Ortiz made a nice play in the hole on a Kelly ground ball and ended the inning. Two more walks, but a zero on the board!
The Brewers went down in order in the third, but at least Chourio took the first pitch before swinging at the next three. Priester recorded a 1-2-3 inning in the fourth, but all Milwaukee could muster in the bottom of the inning was a two-out Frelick single. Priester had another three-up, three-down inning in the fifth — where was this earlier? — but the Brewers also failed to get anything in the bottom of the inning.
Figuring that Turang didn’t need to keep playing at less than 100% health, Murphy substituted him with Vinny Capra in the top of the sixth. He made another odd move in this inning: having already burned the long man, Alexander, as the opener, Murphy turned to Wednesday’s starter, Tobias Myers, who was pulled after just 49 pitches, to get some relief work. Myers had another three-up, three-down inning against a Cubs lineup that had maybe taken its foot off the gas.
In the bottom of the inning, Capra flew out to fairly deep center, Chourio again flew out to shallow right on the first pitch (so much for the first-pitch take we saw earlier), and Yelich struck out on four pitches.
Myers only pitched one inning and gave way to Joel Payamps in the top of the seventh. He got the first two outs, but PCA golfed a slider that was about a foot below the zone out to right. It was a ridiculous pitch to hit a home run on. This game was so annoying.
Frelick and Collins walked in the seventh (and Daz Cameron pinch ran for Frelick) but Milwaukee couldn’t do anything with them. Payamps pitched a 1-2-3 eighth in his second inning of work. The Brewers were retired in order in the bottom of the inning, including strikeouts by Chourio and Yelich.
Jake Bauers was the pitcher in the top of the ninth, making his fourth appearance already this season (and second in two days). He gave up a couple of hits but managed his fourth scoreless appearance of the year. Maybe he should join the bullpen on a full-time basis. The Brewers could muster nothing against Chris Flexen, in his third inning of relief, in the bottom of the ninth. The game mercifully ended with a final score of 10-0.
This was a humiliating effort in a game that you’d expect the Brewers to show up for. They haven’t scored in 19 innings and managed just five singles and two walks tonight. They made Ben Brown, who came in with an ERA over six, look like an ace. I guess it’s hard to blame them for appearing to give up after falling behind by nine so early, but it sure wasn’t fun to watch.
A series victory is still within reach, so the Brewers will go back out there tomorrow at 6:10 p.m. for a matchup between Jose Quintana and Jameson Taillon.
