The Milwaukee Brewers took the field tonight hoping to make it two victories in a row against the defending World Series champ Chicago Cubs. Things got off to a promising start in the first - starter Tommy Milone tossed a 1-2-3 inning in the top half, while Jonathan Villar lead off the bottom half with a home run and Travis Shaw would also add an RBI double to stake Milone to a 2-0 lead.
It didn’t take long for things to head south, however. Milone would allow three runs in the third inning on a two-RBI double by Kris Bryant and and an RBI groundout by Ben Zobrist. He’d cough up another run in the 4th inning, as well. With the bullpen having already been taxed plenty this week, Milone could only manage 4.0 innings pitched before being pulled. He allowed 4 earned runs on 9 hits with one walk and two strikeouts. His ERA stands at 9.00 on the season.
Nick Franklin tied things back up in the bottom half at 4 apiece with a two-run home run, a 422 foot moonshot that went in as his first hit as a member of the Brewers. It didn’t stay that way for long, though, as Jhan Marinez came on for Milone in the fifth. He allowed two runs in that frame and after a scoreless sixth inning, came back out for the 7th and allowed another run to score while recording just one out to give Chicago a 7-4 lead. He was pulled with one out in the 7th to make way for Brent Suter, who would get the final two outs to escape the inning.
Suter came back on in the 8th inning with the score still at a manageable 7-4, but four runs by the Cubs allowed the game to get out of hand. Suter allowed two doubles, two walks, a single, and a fielder’s choice, recording just that one out before Jared Hughes came on with the score having reached a laughable 11-4 and retired the side.
Corey Knebel would pitch a scoreless top of the 9th and the Crew would add two runs in the bottom half of the frame on Jett Bandy’s first home run as a Brewer, but wound up losing the game by a score of 11-6.
The Brewers’ record falls to 2-4 while the Cubs now sit at 3-2. Milwaukee can still win the series with a victory during tomorrow’s contest, which is scheduled to begin at 1:10 PM CST. Zach Davies (0-1, 12.46 ERA) is slated to face off against Jake Arrieta (1-0, 0.00 ERA) and the game will be televised on FSWisconsin and also will be available on the Brewers Radio Network.