Brewers 4, Cubs 3: Brewers squeeze out victory

Win: Jim Henderson (5-5)
Loss: Justin Grimm (7-9)

HR: Carlos Gomez (20), Welington Castillo (8)

MVP: Carlos Gomez (.361 WPA)
LVP: Jean Segura (-.165 WPA)

Fangraphs Win Expectancy Graph
Boxscore

After struggling to figure out the starting pitchers all night, both teams finally found success in the seventh inning forcing each starter out of the game with three earned runs.  The game remained tied until bottom of the ninth inning when the Brewers loaded the bases and successfully executed a suicide squeeze to pull out a victory at home.

Neither team had much success against starting pitching tonight, but the Brewers were able to get to Jeff Samardzija in the bottom of the second inning.

Aramis Ramirez led off the inning with a double to right center that was bobbled by center fielder Ryan Sweeney and allowed Ramirez to move up to third base.  Carlos Gomez followed Ramirez with a sacrifice fly to center field that scored the game's first run of the game.

Marco Estrada was able to hold the Brewers' one-run lead until the seventh inning.  In the seventh, Estrada gave up a leadoff double to Junior Lake.  With one out and runners on first and third, Sweeney scored Lake on a sacrifice fly to tie the game at one.  It looked as though Estrada may be able to escape with the game tied, but Welington Castillo smashed a ball to left field for a two-run home run that gave the Cubs a 3-1 lead.

Puzzled by Samardzija all night, a two-run deficit seemed insurmountable, but the Brewers quickly tied the game in the bottom of the seventh.  After Ramirez walked to lead off the inning, Gomez once again scored Ramirez.  This time he did it with a line drive home run that barely cleared the wall in left field.  The home run was Gomez's 20th on the season.

After holding the Cubs scoreless in the eighth and ninth, Ramirez and Gomez were again able to spark the offense.  Ramirez walked to start the bottom of the ninth and Gomez followed with a single to center field.  After failing to advance the runners on the his first two attempts, Scooter Gennett was finally able to get a sacrifice bunt down to move the runners over.  Relief pitcher Justin Grimm bobbled the ball and allowed Gennett to reach first base and load the bases with no outs.

Caleb Gindl came up with a chance to be a hero for the second straight night, but popped out to shortstop Starlin Castro.  With the bases still loaded and one out, Logan Schafer came to the plate and executed a suicide squeeze to score pinch runner Jeff Bianchi from third and win the game for the Brewers.

The Brewers will face off against the Cubs again tomorrow in the third game of their four game series.  Tyler Thornburg will take the mound for the Brewers and face off against Chris Rusin for the Cubs.  Rusin has pitched well for the Cubs this season, but struggled in his last start against the Brewers.  On September 6th, the lefty lasted just 3.2 innings, but only surrendered two earned runs at Wrigley Field.  First pitch tomorrow is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.