Christian Yelich helped turn a sloppy night into a win the Brewers could live with.
Milwaukee beat the Chicago Cubs 9-4, a result that evened the series and pushed the Brewers’ division lead back to eight games. It was the kind of game that started with mistakes piling up, then flipped once the bats finally woke up and started hitting like big leaguers.
The Brewers had their first real trouble in the top of the fourth, when a promising inning fell apart on the bases. With two on and one out, William Contreras popped out to Michael Busch, and Jackson Chourio broke for third without Brice Turang moving up to second. Carson Kelly made the play at third with a sharp throw, and Jake Bauers followed with a strikeout to end the threat.
That should have been enough to reset the night. Instead, the Cubs grabbed control in the bottom half.
Seiya Suzuki led off with a walk, Alex Bregman followed with a hit, and former Brewer Tyrone Taylor kept his strong start with Chicago going by doubling home two runs for a 2-0 lead. The inning only got uglier from there.
Nico Hoerner hit a ground ball to Andrew Vaughn, who fielded it near the area where Turang usually stands and tossed it underhand from deep. Gasser then dropped the catch on what should have been the first out, and the error opened the door for another run and a 3-0 Cubs lead.
Milwaukee finally cracked through in the fifth. Luis Lara and Joey Ortiz kept the inning alive with two-out hits, and Cooper Pratt lined a single to left to put the Brewers on the board and cut it to 3-1.
The sixth inning changed everything.
Turang and Contreras opened the frame with back-to-back hits, and after Bauer popped out, Daniel Palencia came on for Boyd and immediately balked before throwing a pitch, allowing another run to score. Vaughn then delivered a double to right to tie the game at 3-3, and Yelich finished the rally with his 10th home run of the season, giving Milwaukee a 5-3 lead.
The Brewers had more chaos to manage in the bottom of the inning when JoJo Romero entered with two outs as part of the bullpen’s first full-strength look this season. Michael Busch doubled, then a tense moment followed when Ortiz, Pratt, and Chourio collided in left field.
All three stayed in the game. After the delay, Kelly reached on a fielder’s choice to bring in another run and trim the lead to 5-4.
That was as close as Chicago would get.
Milwaukee kept piling on. Contreras added a run with his 24th double of the season, and Sal Frelick, coming off the bench, singled in another to stretch the lead to 7-4. Ortiz then put the game away for good, jumping on a hanging cutter from Tyler Ferguson and sending it into the left-center field bleachers for a 9-4 cushion.
The pitching staff did enough to steady the game after the rocky start. Gasser went 4.1 innings and allowed two earned runs while walking two and striking out four.
The bullpen handled the rest, covering the final 4.2 innings and allowing just one run on three hits. Romero gave up two hits in 0.2 innings, and Abner Uribe, Aaron Ashby and DL Hall combined for three scoreless innings with four strikeouts.
After the mess of Game 1, Milwaukee will head into Game 3 with Jacob Misiorowski on the mound. A win would give the Brewers the series and push their division lead to a season-high nine games.
First pitch is set for 6.40 p.m., with MLB Network carrying the game along with Brewers.TV and WTMJ 620.
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