Brewers dance around Cubs, 8-3

Things were looking a bit uneasy early in this one.

Milwaukee starter Corbin Burnes was pumping fastballs in the upper 90s and his slider looked nasty — however, he was wild. In the bottom of the first inning, he walked Anthony Rizzo and hit Javier Baez in the hand.

With two strikes on Wilson Contreras, Burnes delivered one of those devastating sliders that the Cubs catcher was fooled and tried to hold his swing. Contreras got the benefit of the doubt from the first base umpire, and the at-bat went on. With the next pitch, Burnes missed his spot and Contreras delivered a single to left that plated Rizzo, giving the Cubs the early lead.

The Brewers would answer and embarrass the Cubs in the top of the second. Lorenzo Cain slashed a double to left field, which was followed by what should become called the “Lorenzo Cain” play. Ben Gamel hit a ground ball to shortstop, and Cain was hung up between second and third. In the ensuing run down, Gamel got to second base, but LoCain pointed for him to go back to first because no one was covering, and Cain went back to second base. Everyone was safe.

Cain later scored on a single by Eric Sogard, and the score was tied 1-1.

Javier Baez was taking exception to being pitched inside by Corbin Burnes and was playing a game of histrionics with the young starter. So in the top of the fourth, Yu Darvish hit Omar Narvaez in the ankle. Milwaukee answered all of this by outplaying the Cubs for the rest of the game.

Right after Darvish hit Narvaez, singled to left field. Dervish airmailed a pitch to Ben Gamel that allowed Narvaez and Cain to move up ninety feet. Gamel next laced a triple into the left-centerfield gap plating both and the score was 3-1.

In the top of the fifth, Justin Smoak crushed a home run over the right field pole. The Brew Crew was off and running, 4-1.

Kyle Schwarber and the Cubs would answer in the bottom of the fifth. Baez beat the shift with a single, and Schwarber delivered a mammoth shot of his own to bring Chicago to with in one run.

With two outs in the top of the sixth, Eric Sogard drew a walk, allowing Christian Yelich to come to the plate. Coming into the sixth inning, Yelich was 0 for 6 to start the season. He said, “Enough of that.”

In the top of the seventh, the Brewers would add on. Avi Garcia singled the other way. He would score all the way from first on a double by Narvaez. Lorenzo Cain lined a single to left that scored Narvaez for the eighth and final run of the game.

The Milwaukee Brewers’ bats were on display in this contest. Lorenzo Cain in particular had a good day going 3 for 4, scoring twice and driving in another run. It was good see Yelich and Smoak hit moon shots after looking off-balance the entire evening in their previous contest.

Milwaukee’s pitchers were pretty good in this one too. With the exception of some wildness from Corbin Burnes and the bomb given up by Brent Suter, the pitchers shut down the vaunted Cubs lineup. Burnes and Suter along with Devin Williams (he looked really good), David Phelps, and Eric Yardley held the Cubbies to just the three runs on six hits. There were five walks and a hit-by-pitch by Milwaukee pitching with most of that the result of the Burnes’ wildness mentioned previously.

These two teams wrap up this first series of the season tomorrow with first scheduled for 12:20 CT. Freddy Peralta takes the ball for Milwaukee, and Tyler Chatwood does the same for Chicago. The game can be heard on WTMJ 620, and it can be seen on Fox Sports Wisconsin.