Chicago Cubs outfielder Jason Heyward went 2-for-5, scored twice and drove in three runs on Sunday. (Credit: Jon Durr-USA TODAY Sports)
Cubs knock off Brewers, put finishing touches on 3-game sweep |
by Cole Little
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Senior Writer
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Sun Aug 04 18:13:40 GMT-04:00 2019
CHICAGO — The proverbial brooms were brought out at Wrigley Field on Sunday, as the Chicago Cubs (60-51) knocked off the Milwaukee Brewers (57-56) and secured a 3-game sweep. Winning by way of a well-balanced mixture of power hitting and small ball, the Cubs racked up 14 hits and topped the Brewers by a final score of 7-2. As a result, Cubs starting pitcher Yu Darvish collected his second straight winning decision at home. At the plate, Anthony Rizzo manned the charge for the Cubs by going 4-for-5, while Jason Heyward drove in three of the North Siders' seven runs on the day.
Darvish found himself in an early hole when Christian Yelich provided the Brew Crew with a 1-0 lead on a solo jack hit out to left in the top of the first. Heyward quickly responded by swinging at the first pitch thrown to him in the bottom of the first and sending it into the center-field seats for his second leadoff bomb of the series. The 407-footer knotted the game up at 1-1 and led to the Cubs loading the bases off Brewers starter Adrian Houser with one out. Chicago experienced a deflating ending to the first frame, though, as a questionable strike-three call that came at Victor Caratini's expense was followed by Rizzo being tagged out at home while attempting to score on a wild pitch.
A 2-out rally resulted in the Cubs taking control of the game in the second inning. With two outs and David Bote on second, Heyward swatted a go-ahead triple into the right-field corner that plated Bote with ease. Then, Heyward crossed the plate on a chopper hit through the 5-6 hole by Nicholas Castellanos, which provided Castellanos with his first RBI as a Cub. Castellanos' RBI single made the score 3-1 in favor of the Cubs and provided Darvish with breathing room. Darvish pitched five innings on the afternoon, in which he struck out eight and gave up a modest five hits. Interestingly, Darvish did not issue a walk, which marked the sixth straight game that a Cubs starter did not walk anyone. That is the longest such streak for the Cubs in the live-ball era.
Kyle Schwarber increased the Cubs' lead to three runs with a solo dinger in the bottom of the fifth. The 387-foot moonshot floated out beyond right field and served as yet another critical 2-out hit for the North Siders. Houser departed the game at the conclusion of the fifth and wound up being handed the losing decision for giving up four runs on nine hits and one walk in five innings of work. The Cubs went on to tally three runs against Brewers relief. Heyward scored recently acquired Cub Tony Kemp on a fielder's choice in the sixth. Kemp, who started at second base, kicked off the bottom half of the sixth with a deep single and eventually scored from third on Heyward's grounder.
Kemp picked up an RBI during the following inning, as he enabled Javier Baez to tag up and go home by skying a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the seventh. The next at-bat saw Bote notch an RBI with two outs via single to right-center that scored Schwarber. Brewers youngster Trent Grisham led off the eighth with his first career home run, but, other than that, Cubs reliever Tyler Chatwood was fairly flawless en route to finishing off the 7-2 triumph. Chatwood became the first Cubs pitcher to record a 3-inning save since Mike Montgomery did so in August of 2017. The Brewers amassed nine hits but did not draw a single walk in their sweep-inducing loss. Furthermore, Milwaukee struck out a whopping 15 times and went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position.
| Milwaukee Brewers at Chicago Cubs |
| Aug 4, 2019 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
R |
H |
E |
| Milwaukee (57-56) |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
9 |
0 |
| Chicago (60-51) |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
- |
7 |
14 |
1 |
| W: Yu Darvish (4-5) L: Adrian Houser (4-5) S: Tyler Chatwood (2) |
