Kyle Harrison had another solid outing on Saturday night, handing the bullpen a 2-2 tie with the Cubs in the sixth inning. Unfortunately, Milwaukee’s bullpen struggled, allowing six runs over the final four innings in what ended up as a blowout 8-2 loss.
After Harrison breezed through the first with a 1-2-3 inning, including a strikeout, Jackson Chourio greeted lefty David Peterson — in his Cubs’ debut, after being acquired from the Mets earlier this week — with a first-pitch homer over the wall in center at 411 feet to make it 1-0.
The bats went quiet after that, as singles by Gary Sánchez and Joey Ortiz were the only other baserunners through the end of the third.
In the fourth, the Cubs finally broke through. After Harrison struck out Pete Crow-Armstrong, Matt Shaw singled up the middle for Chicago’s first baserunner of the evening, and Seiya Suzuki followed with a two-run homer, his second homer in as many games, to give the Cubs a 2-1 lead. Harrison worked out of the inning with no further damage, though he did allow a two-out walk and single.
The Brewers got a run back in the bottom of the fifth, as Blake Perkins lined a double into the right-center gap, and Sal Frelick followed with an RBI single to left to knot it up at 2-2.
The tie wouldn’t last, though, as Chad Patrick found himself in some trouble in the sixth after taking over from Harrison. While he got the first two outs without a problem, he then issued a pair of walks before Nico Hoerner hit a single to right to make it 3-2 Chicago.
It wouldn’t end there, either, with Ian Happ jumping on a first-pitch cutter from Patrick for a three-run homer, quickly stretching the Cubs’ lead to 6-2.
Milwaukee, meanwhile, couldn’t do much of anything against the Cubs’ bullpen — they went down in order in the sixth and seventh, and their only baserunner in the eighth came on a two-out walk by David Hamilton.
Chicago was able to add one more insurance run in the seventh off Grant Anderson, as he walked Shaw, Suzuki singled to put runners at the corners, and Alex Bregman brought in a run with a sac fly. The Brewer defense was able to limit the damage, though, as Chourio, Cooper Pratt, and William Contreras combined to cut Suzuki down at the plate on a double into the gap by Michael Busch.
Just for good measure, the Cubs added a pinch-hit solo homer from Michael Conforto against Joel Kuhnel in the ninth to bring this one to an 8-2 final.
In an even more unfortunate turn of events in the ninth, Garrett Mitchell entered as a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the ninth, and after swinging and missing at the first pitch, immediately grabbed his left hamstring. After a visit from the trainer, he remained in the game (the team was out of position players), ultimately grounding out — hopefully nothing major and something more like a cramp.
Harrison looked good, though he wasn’t the most efficient. He threw 92 pitches across just five innings, allowing two runs on three hits and a walk while striking out nine. Patrick took the loss as he gave up four runs in less than an inning of work, while Anderson and Kuhnel each gave up a run. Jared Koenig, in his first appearance since early April after being activated from the IL yesterday, was the only pitcher with a clean inning, allowing one hit and striking out one.
The offense collected just five hits and one walk, with no players reaching base more than once. Chourio had the homer, Perkins had the double, and Frelick, Ortiz, and Sánchez each singled.
The Brewers still hold a 6.5-game lead over the Cubs, but they’ll look to move that back to 7.5 games with a series win on Sunday. Brandon Woodruff is slated to make the start for Milwaukee, with the always terrifying TBD scheduled for Chicago. First pitch is at 1:10 p.m.