Brewers 6, Cubs 2: Big opening inning paves way to Milwaukee's ninth straight victory

CHICAGO -- The Milwaukee Brewers wasted no time reintroducing themselves to the Chicago Cubs on Monday night.

Back at Wrigley Field for the first time since the teams' season-opening series, the Brewers scored four times in the first inning, tacked on a couple insurance runs after that and mostly coasted their way to a 6-2 victory at Wrigley Field.

The Brewers have now won nine straight games, their longest such streak since June 22-July 3, 2021.

Christian Yelich hit his fifth leadoff home run of the season and Mark Canha delivered a two-run blast five batters later in that opening frame -- exactly the type of opening salvo Milwaukee needed in its matchup against a Chicago team that has supplanted the Cincinnati Reds as the primary challenger in the National League Central.

BOX SCORE: Brewers 6, Cubs 2

Wade Miley and the ever-reliable trio of Elvis Peguero, Joel Payamps and Hoby Milner combined to generate ground-ball out after ground-ball out, and when all was said and done the Brewers had improved to 17 games over .500 at 74-57 and stretched their lead in the Central standings to five games.

The baseball was flying early

The conditions were perfect for a high-scoring game with the wind blowing at 8 mph from right to left at first pitch.

Two pitches after that Yelich launched his first homer since July 30 and 17th of the season, a 416-footer to left-center off Taillon.

Two batters later Sal Frelick singled and Willy Adames, up next, followed suit with a roller into the hole at shortstop on which Dansby Swanson made an ill-advised throw to second that ended up in short center field.

The runners advanced to second and third and Rowdy Tellez, starting in place of Carlos Santana at first base, lifted a sacrifice fly to center that scored Frelick.

Canha then crushed a 2-0 Taillon offering 436 feet out to left-center that sailed over the last row of bleachers, doubling Milwaukee's lead to 4-0.

Dating to the previous homestand, Milwaukee has put up single innings of five runs three times, seven runs and now four.

Chicago got a run back in the bottom of the first on -- what else? -- a homer to left-center by Ian Happ.

But the Brewers answered back with another run in the second, this time with Yelich reaching on an infield single, advancing to second on a throwing error by second baseman Nico Hoerner and scoring on a single to left by William Contreras.

Wade Miley had the Cubs beating the ball into the ground

The Happ shot in the first and a two-out solo blast by Patrick Wisdom in the fifth left the southpaw with just his second multi-homer start of the season and his first since May 10, when he allowed three to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Other than that, Miley induced a steady stream of ground-ball outs to keep the Cubs at bay.

Beginning with Seiya Suzuki in the second, 11 of Chicago's 15 outs through the sixth were hit on the ground, with a beauty of a play up the middle by Brice Turang on a shot by Nick Madrigal the highlight of the bunch.

Miley also had a gem of a play himself, deftly snagging an 88.6-mph line drive to his glove-hand side off the bat of Suzuki to end the fourth.

Even the fourth and final hit allowed by Miley (7-3) in his 82-pitch effort was beaten into the ground, with Swanson reaching on the well-place chopper before Turang closed out the sixth by vacuuming up a Cody Belliinger roller.

More: Brewers place Adrian Houser on the IL, but believe it will be a short-term stint

The offense quieted down the rest of the way

It appeared as though Taillon was in line for a quick exit after Milwaukee's big first inning.

But to his credit he hung in there and limited the Brewers to only three singles after the second. He went six innings in all and was replaced by Drew Smyly after his 99-pitch effort.

Milwaukee then quickly got to Smyly, a lefty recently removed from the Chicago rotation, when Contreras doubled to right, moved to third on a Sal Frelick grounder and scored on a double to left by Adames that landed on the foul line.

Brewers schedule coming up

Tuesday -- Brewers at Cubs, 7:05 p.m. Milwaukee RHP Corbin Burnes (9-6, 3.65) vs. Chicago LHP Justin Steele (14-3, 2.80). TV: Bally Sports Wisconsin/TBS. Radio: AM-620.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers 6, Cubs 2: Big first inning leads to ninth straight victory