Cubs fall to Brewers despite Bellinger's big day |
MILWAUKEE - When the Chicago Cubs (40-46) look back at this series with the Milwaukee Brewers (47-41), they will be kicking themselves. Not only should they have won three of four, but you could make the case that they should have swept the Brewers, which would have been massive heading into the all-star break.
Instead, the Cubs had to settle for a split at American Family Insurance Field as this series was filled with drama and was one of the more entertaining series in quite some time. Not only did you have extra-inning games, but every game was decided by two runs or fewer, which shows you the gap between these teams isn't as far as you would think. When you look at statistics, the Cubs are better than the Brewers in every stat, minus the record and bullpen ERA, making it harder to fathom how this team is in their position. Trailing 5-3 after another rough outing from Marcus Stroman, Yan Gomes came through with a massive homer in the eighth to tie things up 5-5. It is moments like that when a season can change, and the Cubs had plenty of them during the series. Unfortunately, so did the Brewers, with Victor Caratini providing one of the biggest moments of the series as his homer off of Michael Fulmer in the eighth gave the Brewers a 6-5 lead, and they would finish things off with a win. Getting back to Stroman, you have to be getting concerned with how things have gone for him lately. After pitching out of his mind to become the best pitcher in the National League, things have been a struggle for him as he has struggled in his last four outings. Today was no different, as Stroman dominated through four innings before the wheels fell off in the fifth. It was in that inning when a call didn't go his way on a potential strike three, which turned a 1-1 game into a 4-1 Brewers lead as Stroman got through five innings, allowing four runs on four hits. He struck out six and ended the first half with a 2.96 ERA. Like Stroman, Freddie Peralta struggled in this one but managed to limit the damage. Peralta needed more than 100 pitches to get through five-plus innings as he struck out nine. He allowed three runs, all coming from Cody Bellinger, who picked up a 4-4 game at the plate. It's not too often you can say that you scored first in all four games against the Brewers, but that is something the Cubs accomplished. The Cubs continued to do early game damage, with Christopher Morel leading off the second with what looked to be a solo homer, only to be reviewed and changed to a double. That didn't bother the Cubs as Bellinger laced an RBI double to the right a few pitches later to put the Cubs in front 1-0. The Cubs kept the pressure on the Brewers in the third, as Nico Hoerner was hit by a pitch with one out in the inning, followed by another Ian Happ walk. Both runners would advance 90 feet on a double steal attempt, but Peralta managed to strikeout out Morel to end the threat. Bellinger led off the fourth with a single and advanced to third on an error, only to be left stranded. That was the break that Peralta needed as he seemed to get stronger from the third inning on. After doing next to nothing through four innings, Raimel Tapia opened the bottom with a leadoff single to put the tying run on base. Tapia would then steal second to put himself in scoring position before a one-out walk to Caratini put a pair of runners on base. On the verge of getting out of the inning after the Bryce Turang flyout, Joey Weimer kept the inning alive as his single tied things up 1-1. The Caratini at-bat came back to haunt Stroman as he wasn't given a boarder line strike three call, which extended the inning. Not only did Weimer benefit from that, but so did Christian Yelich, who took Stroman deep the opposite way for the three-run shot and put the Brewers back in front 4-1. Walks to Jesse Winkler and Willy Adames followed that homer before Stroman finished the inning without further damage. With a comfortable lead in hand, Peralta was hoping to get through the sixth inning, but the middle of the order gave him fits. Walking Seiya Suzuki to start the inning didn't help, nor did the Bellinger homer as his third hit of the game brought the Cubs within 4-3 as Peralta was finished after that homer. Gomes kept the line moving by reaching on another Brian Anderson throwing error, but Bryse Wilson managed to keep things right there. With Stroman out of the game, it was up to the Cubs pen to keep things close Daniel Palencia was back on the bump. Despite allowing a two-out walk and a double, Palencia kept the Brewers off the board as he picked up a pair of strikeouts. Mark Leiter Jr took over in the seventh, and without the benefit of a hit, the Brewers tied things up as a leadoff walk, stolen base, and sacrifice fly gave them a 5-3 lead. Like Palencia Leiter Jr had plenty of traffic to deal with but still managed to get out of the inning without further damage. On the verge of splitting the series, the Cubs had six outs to work with but refused to give up. When you look at how this series has unfolded, you can see why, as Bellinger picked up his fourth hit with a one-out single to bring the tying run to the plate. That run was represented by Gomes, who went down and got a pitch to line it over the left field fence and brought the Cubs back to even 5-5. That was it for the Cubs and their offense, as it was up to Fulmer to hold things there. Fulmer started the bottom half of the eighth by getting Anderson to line out, but it was the former Cub Caratini that came back to haunt his old team as his one-out solo shot put Milwaukee in front for good 6-5 before Joel Payamps finished off the Cubs in the ninth to earn the series split. Bellinger provided most of the offense with four of the team's eight hits with three RBIs. Suzuki, Gomes, Trey Mancini, and Morel added the other hits, with Gomes picking up two additional RBIs.
