Heavy Hearts in Wrigleyville: Cubs fall as fans mourn Ryne Sandberg |
Dustin Riese
· · 15 hours ago
MILWAUKEE - In what is by far their biggest series of the season to date, the Chicago Cubs (62-44) traveled North to American Family Field to open a massive three-game set with the Milwaukee Brewers (63-43). Not only is this a battle for the top spot in the NL Central, but it's also a battle for NL Supremacy, as these teams entered the game tied for the best record in the National League.
With a pair of ace-caliber pitchers, Matthew Boyd and Jacob Misiorowski, on the mound, this had the makings of being an instant classic, as they have been two of the better pitchers in the game for the past month. Instead, neither guy was on top of their game, but it was the Brewers who found a way to capitalize when it mattered as they took care of business 8-4. While the loss moved the Cubs back into second place, the game became secondary as it was announced in the sixth inning that Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg had passed away after his lengthy battle with cancer. That alone made the game feel secondary, as news like that is never easy to swallow, especially when it comes to a Cubs legend like Sandberg, who will never be forgotten. For anyone who wants to beat Misiorowski this season, they need to find a way to jump on the rookie early, as he does have a tendency to get rattled early in the game. The Cubs did that and more in the first inning as they forced the flame-thrower to throw 40 pitches in the first before watching him settle into a massive groove shortly after. All it took for the Cubs to put him on the ropes was a leadoff single from Michael Busch, which started a string of three consecutive batters reaching base. Kyle Tucker followed that with a walk, while a Seiya Suzuki single loaded the bases with no outs. Misiorowski struck out Pete Crow-Armstrong to record his first out, but with a wild pitch coming on strike three, it was the Cubs grabbing a 1-0 lead. Misiorowski came close to holding the Cubs right there, but it was an Ian Happ single that drove home two more as the Cubs opened up a 3-0 lead after one. From that point on, the Cubs' offense was next to non-existent as the Cubs let Misiorowski off the hook as he wound up getting through four innings, walking two, and striking out seven. The big story in this one was Matthew Boyd as he picked the worst possible time to have his worst outing of the season. Sure, the five runs allowed in five innings are what stand out, but Boyd had absolutely no command as he walked five and struck out two in his outing. Three of those five walks came in the first two innings as the Brewers had Boyd on the ropes in each of those innings, only to strand four runners on base. That brought his scoreless inning streak to 25 consecutive innings as he continued to do his part on the mound. Eventually, you knew the lack of command would come back to bite him, and that was the case in the bottom of the third as the Brewers used a massive inning to take the lead for good. You knew the more Boyd fell behind in the count, the more likely it was that the Brewers would find a way to get it done, and with Sal Frelick and William Contreras picking up a pair of singles, the Brewers offense was in business in the third. All it took for the momentum to change was a Christian Yelich RBI double, as that not only was his first extra base in 14 games, but it sparked an offense that scored six unanswered runs to seize control. Andrew Vaughn followed that double up with a walk to load the bases, only to have Isaac Collins go the opposite way for a two-run single that brought things back to even 3-3. Milwaukee continued to rely on their small ball approach with Brice Turang pushing across the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly as the Brewers closed out their four-run third with a 4-3 lead. One of the many reasons why the Brewers have been as good as they have been for close to a decade is their ability to take any player off the street and turn them into reliable major leaguers. Take Vaughn, for example, who was completely lost with the White Sox before being sent to the minors. He was acquired as the return for Aaron Civale in their early-season trade, and all he has done is produce at an all-star level as he took Boyd deep in the bottom of the fifth to push the Brewers' lead to 5-3. That was the first of three consecutive innings with a homer for Milwaukee as Frelick got in on the long-ball fun in the sixth to make this a 6-3 game. With Misiorowski now out of the game, the Cubs had the challenging task of trying to get to the Brewers' pen, but with Nico Hoerner leading off the seventh with a single, the Cubs' offense was set up to do damage. A hit by pitch to Busch two batters later sparked another pitching change for Milwaukee as the left-hander Jared Koenig took over for Grant Anderson. One batter into his outing, and Koenig allowed a run as Tucker connected for a hot shot up the middle to drive home Hoerner and pulled the Cubs within 6-4. Jackson Chourio came up with the play of the inning on that single as he fired toward third instead of home to gun down Busch, as that seemed to kill any momentum the Cubs had and proved to be their final run of the game. While the Brewers' pen was lights out for the most part, the Cubs' pen, in particular Ryan Pressly, had some issues as he allowed a leadoff single to Contreras to begin the bottom of the seventh, only to have Yelich take him deep for a two-run shot to push the Brewers' lead to 8-4. It marked the fourth time in his last five outings and the third straight outing where Pressly has allowed a home run, and that has to be a concern as we near the trade deadline. Still trailing by four and down to their final outs, the Cubs tried to make something happen against Craig Yoho as a pair of two-out walks to Busch and Tucker kept the inning alive and forced Pat Murphy to bring in his closer, Trevor Megill, to come in for the save. Facing off against the struggling Suzuki, Megill did his job as he blew Suzuki away for strike three to put the Brewers back in first with an 8-4 win. Chicago was held to six hits on the night, with Busch leading the offense with two hits and reaching base four times in the game. Chicago will look to even the series on Tuesday when they send Colin Rea to the mound against the young right-hander Quinn Priester. "People like (Ryne Sandberg) make you better." - Craig Counsell pic.twitter.com/bGSMIdJotj "I think he’s kind of the blueprint for what it means to be an amazing Cub."
Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner on Ryne Sandberg. pic.twitter.com/ZuDmbkVGoC
