This week, the Milwaukee Brewers have bought into the saying, “It’s not how you start; it’s how you finish.”
The Brew Crew stunned their archrival, the Chicago Cubs, with dramatic late-inning rallies in the first two games of their recent three-game set. On Monday, Milwaukee erased a two-run deficit with three runs in the eighth inning to win. The following night, they again trailed but rallied for two runs in the ninth to tie it, then walked the Cubs off with a run in the 10th.
In reality, those outcomes were simply two victories in a 162-game season. Coming against their most hated opponent, however, made those dramatic finishes that much sweeter.
On Labor Day, Chicago starter Matthew Boyd baffled Brewers hitters for seven innings. To that point, the left-hander surrendered just one run on four hits while maintaining a 2-1 lead.
Leading off the bottom of the eighth, Garrett Mitchell worked a walk, then advanced to third on Joey Ortiz‘s double. Boyd was pulled in favor of reliever Ryan Zeferjahn, who promptly surrendered the one-run lead when Jackson Chourio plated both runners with an opposite-field single.
Brice Turang walked, and after William Contreras struck out, Cubs’ closer Jacob Webb was summoned to hold the Brewers in check. Jake Bauers walked to load the bases, and Christian Yelich drove in the insurance run with a sacrifice fly, making the score 4-2.
As it turned out, that final tally loomed large. MVP-candidate Pete Crow-Armstrong crushed his 41st home run of the year in the top of the ninth, but that is all the Cubs could muster, and the Brewers prevailed, 4-3.
Boyd certainly deserved a better fate, but Chicago’s bullpen, which has been a sore spot for the Cubs, let him down again. Manager Craig Counsell lamented that his starter’s work should have been enough to secure the victory.
“The mission was, ‘Get two hitters out,’ or, ‘You’ve got two hitters for the eighth,’” he said about his late-inning strategy. “Unfortunately, both those guys got on and then they created a good inning.”
As heart-wrenching as that setback was, it paled in comparison to what transpired just 24 hours later.
The Brewers and Cubs waged another tight battle on Tuesday night. Milwaukee starter Jacob Misiorowski gave up just one first-inning run while striking out nine in his 6.1 innings of work. Chicago pitchers, starter David Peterson and three relievers, were equal to the task, limiting the Brewers to just one run through eight innings.
With the score tied 1-1 in the top of the ninth, Cubs’ catcher Carson Kelly smoked a two-run double off the right-centerfield wall to take a 3-1 lead. Once again, Webb was asked to notch the save, but Milwaukee saved their best plate appearances for their half of the ninth inning.
The first two Brewers were retired, but pinch-hitter Yelich sharply singled to right, setting the stage for Chourio to be the hero.
Chourio did not disappoint. The 22-year-old outfielder rocketed an 0-1 changeup off the facade of the second deck, and suddenly, the game was tied 3-3.
“(W)e made a bad pitch,” said Counsell. “We made a bad pitch with men on base. It’s the one thing that can’t happen there. Unfortunately, it happened.”
Despite his relative inexperience, Chourio relishes such opportunities to produce in the clutch.
“Like I said before, I like to play with that pressure,” he said. “I think the adrenaline takes my game to another level.”
Chourio’s teammates knew the right man for the job was at the plate.
“There’s not another person I’d probably want in that situation,” said Mitchell. “He just, like, does less, and absolutely demolishes baseballs.”
That memorable blast merely tied the game, but rookie Luis Lara made sure the True Blue Brew Crew fans went home happy in the 10th inning.
The Brewers loaded the bases with one out, and the stage was set for Lara, who was equal to the task.
“He (manager Pat Murphy) asked me if I was ready,” he said. “He told me he believed in me 100 percent.”
Murphy, who regularly fields a lineup with three players 22-years-old or younger, exuded pride in his young outfielder.
“He (Lara) wants to do good for the team,” he said. “And when he’s doing bad, it’s not just about — ‘God, I challenged when I shouldn’t, for the 10th time.’ It’s not a forte of his right now. He’s proven that. I think he doesn’t understand that we only get two. … No, he just cares. When you come into the environment here, you care about team. That’s the deal.”
With the two wins, the Brewers are now nine games ahead of the Cubs in the NL Central with just 16 left to play. The “magic number” to clinch a fourth consecutive division crown is down to seven. More importantly, Milwaukee clinched the season series with Chicago, which means they own the tiebreaker between them should the Cubs incredulously catch the Brewers.
What do these two games mean in the grand scheme of a championship quest? Technically, it means Milwaukee prevailed in two games against a division rival, which amounts to 1.2% of a full season’s worth of games.
Outside of the standings or box scores, Monday and Tuesday meant so much more than that. Those two games proved Milwaukee is capable of prevailing despite short odds of victory; before Yelich’s walk in the ninth inning on Tuesday, the Cubs’ win probability was 99.1%.
To fans, the fact that these miracle finishes were at the expense of that team below the border could not be sweeter.
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