One pitch from beating the Cubs, Brewers lose lead, then game on an error
First, the Milwaukee Brewers were burned by bad luck Wednesday night at American Family Field.
Then they made their own luck.
A pair of weakly struck base hits set the stage for the Chicago Cubs against Devin Williams in the ninth, but the Brewers closer was one pitch away from securing a win. Then everything fell apart.
Box score: Cubs 4, Brewers 3
Down to his final strike, Mike Tauchman sliced a two-run double to left to tie the game at 3-3, taking second base with some aggressive base running.
Nico Hoerner then hit a routine grounder to third base, but Brian Anderson rushed the throw, put it in the dirt and Owen Miller wasn't able to make the scoop at first base. Exacerbating matters was the ball bounded a few feet away from Miller at first, allowing Tauchman to go all the way home from second.
4-3, Cubs.
Yikes.
The Brewers went quietly in the bottom of the ninth against Cubs reliever Adbert Alzolay, and were on the wrong side of their 11th game in the last 12 decided by three or fewer runs.
After starting the year 14-4 in one-run games, the Brewers have now dropped three in a row.
Milwaukee (46-41) fell two games behind the scalding-hot Cincinnati Reds for first place in the NL Central.
Adrian Houser got the start and assumed the role of traffic cop from the outset, allowing at least one batter to reach base in all five of his innings of work. Multiple Cubs reached base in three out of five.
The Cubs scratched one run across in the third to open the scoring as Tauchman singled, advanced to second on an error by Miller on a pickoff throw and scored on Ian Happ’s broken-bat single to center.
Houser, however, was able to escape that jam with two on and one out by getting Dansby Swanson to ground into a double play.
The Brewers righty did the same in the fifth as the Cubs loaded the bases with one out. Houser’s pitch count had climbed over 100 when Swanson strolled to the plate and chased a sinker well below the zone and rolled it to Anderson at third. Anderson made a quick exchange and strong throw to second to start another rally-killing double play.
That kept the game tied at 1-1, with the Brewers’ tying run coming on William Contreras’ RBI single with two outs in the third.
Willy Adames gave the Brewers the lead with a home run to lead off the sixth against Cubs starter Justin Steele, whose 2.43 earned run average entering the night was the best in baseball.
Milwaukee tagged Steele for nine hits, the second-most he’s allowed in a start all year, the penultimate of which was a two-out RBI single from Anderson to push the lead to 3-1 in the sixth.
Hoby Milner got five outs after taking over for Houser beginning in the sixth, J.C. Mejia finished off the seventh with one out in his 2023 MLB debut and Joel Payamps pitched a scoreless eighth to take over the team lead in holds with 15.
In the ninth, Williams was burned by a bloop single off the bat of Cody Bellinger at 69.2 mph to lead off the inning, then a cue-shot against the shift at 58.4 turned into an infield hit from Jared Young. Williams struck out Christopher Morel and got Yan Gomes to bounce out, but Bellinger and Young each advanced a base on that grounder.
But Williams couldn't put Tauchman away and on the fourth two-strike pitch the Cubs designated hitter saw, he sliced a fastball to left.
Hoerner's roller off the bat, meanwhile, was a defensive disaster. Anderson gloved the ball cleanly but seemed to realize time was running short on him with the speedy Hoerner sprinting to first, short-armed the throw and Miller, who was at first base on the day Rowdy Tellez went on the injured list, failed to dig it out. Tauchman never slowed down and scored with ease.
Yikes.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers, Devin Williams lose to Chicago Cubs in ninth inning
