September baseball between the Brewers and Cubs has a way of turning every inning into a gut check, and Tuesday night fit the script all the way through the final swing. Milwaukee erased an early deficit, survived a late Cubs push, and finished with a 4-3 walk-off win in 10 innings thanks to rookie Luis Lara.
The Cubs struck first in the opening frame, when Seiya Suzuki and Nico Hoerner handled Jacob Misiorowski’s sliders for base hits to open a quick 1-0 lead. Milwaukee answered almost immediately. Jackson Chourio started the bottom of the first with a double, Brice Turang brought him home with a single, and just like that the game was tied at 1-1.
After that, the offense went quiet for a long stretch.
The Brewers had a real chance to break it open in the fifth. Chourio singled and Turang walked to chase starter David Peterson, and William Contreras followed with a single through the right side. Chourio tried to score on the play, but he was thrown out at the plate after sliding feet first and reaching with his hand instead of getting his foot down.
Misiorowski, meanwhile, found his rhythm. He retired 11 Cubs in a row at one point and finished with 6.1 innings, nine strikeouts, and the kind of outing that looked much more like the version Milwaukee has seen earlier in the year.
From there, it became a bullpen fight. Aaron Civale, an old friend, was sharp for Chicago with two perfect innings and four strikeouts. On the Milwaukee side, Chad Patrick, Aaron Ashby, and Antonio Senzatela helped bridge the 7th and 8th innings after Pat Murphy used some of his top arms.
Trevor Megill took over in the ninth with the game still tied, but the Cubs finally broke through. Nico Hoerner and Ian Happ opened the inning with back-to-back singles, Matt Shaw struck out looking, and then Michael Conforto drew a walk on what should have been strike three, though Milwaukee was out of ABS challenges. That set up Carson Kelly, who doubled off the wall in right-center to score two runs and put Chicago ahead 3-1.
The Brewers’ bottom of the order went down quietly in the ninth, and the game looked all but over. Then Christian Yelich worked a full count after falling behind 0-2 and lined a single to right. That brought Chourio back to the plate, and he did what he’d hinted at before the game, saying yesterday that “sometimes I feel like I was born for those (clutch) moments”.
Chourio backed it up in a big way. He crushed a 109.8 MPH homer off the front of the second deck in left field, his 22nd of the season and a new career high. Jacob Webb tried to beat him inside with back-to-back changeups, and Chourio punished both the approach and the moment to tie the game again.
The drama kept rolling in the 10th. With the ghost runner at second, Alex Bregman lifted a deep fly to center, but Garrett Mitchell settled under it and fired a 94 MPH throw to third to nail Seiya Suzuki. DL Hall then worked a scoreless top half, and Milwaukee came to bat needing one run.
William Contreras was intentionally walked with one out, Sal Frelick dropped in a bloop single, and the bases were loaded for Luis Lara. Before the at-bat, Murphy pulled Lara aside in the on-deck circle while the Cubs set up a five-man infield.
“He asked me if I was ready and he told me that he believed in me 100%” Lara said, through translator Daniel de Mondesert.
Lara answered on the first pitch, lining a single down the left field line and over the infield to win it for the Brewers.
Lara had cost Milwaukee its last ABS challenge in the sixth and had not come close to overturning it, but he got the last word. Chourio, who had the fifth-inning slide that helped keep the game tied, delivered the home run that forced extras. Mitchell, who struck out in each of his first three trips, made the defensive play that kept Chicago from adding more in the 10th.
“We made some junior mistakes…but again, (we) hung in there and (were) resilient. That’s just kind of what you love to be a part of, trusting your team and believing that they’ll keep coming back.” Pat Murphy said.
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