Cubs-Brewers split weekend series at Wrigley
Rain and Conspiracy Theories were Abundant in the Split
Game 1 (Friday, May 19th) — Brewers 6, Cubs 3
The Cubs were trying to continue their bounce back home stand after a sweep of the Reds. Meanwhile, the Brewers were on a tear, winning 9 of their last 11 entering the game on Friday.
The Brew Crew continued to look impressive against Eddie Butler. The righty could not replicate his impressive debut, laboring through three innings and giving up a pair of runs in the first inning.
Butler’s struggles on Friday stemmed from him trying to nibble at the corners. This nibbling resulted in five walks and a lot of traffic on the base paths throughout his start.
Butler attacked the zone in St. Louis. This allowed him to get ahead of hitters. He failed to execute a similar game plan against Milwaukee.
The Cubs recovered from the early deficit despite the howling wind. A Javy Baez double in the third cut the lead in half and then a Wilson Contreras single in the 4th scored Rizzo and Happ to give the Cubs a brief 3–2 lead.
However, the Cubs would give the lead right back. Walks continued to be an issue on this day as the Cubs would hand out 10 free passes. Fittingly, it was a bases loaded walk from Mike Montgomery to Jesus Aguilar that would give Milwaukee the lead for good in this one.
Domingo Santana would tack on a couple insurance runs in the 6th, and the Brewers bullpen shut down the Cubs to cap the 6–3 win.
Game 2 (Saturday, May 20th) — Postponed
Game 2 was called before the game could get underway. The rain appeared to let up shortly after first pitch was scheduled but the Wrigley grounds crew apparently didn’t feel as if the field was in playing condition.
Having played the previous day’s game through heavy rain put Wrigley Field in a precarious position.
The rather mild inclement weather led some to question the validity of the postponement. Not sure what they were hinting at but it made for some great content on a pseudo off day.
Game 3 (Sunday, May 21st) — Cubs 13, Brewers 6
This one felt like an opportunity to get a few things moving in the right direction. And boy did Jake and the bats respond in a big way on Sunday afternoon.
Joe Maddon decided to switch up the top of his batting order, moving Ben Zobrist into the leadoff spot and dropping Kyle Schwarber down into the 2 hole. The move seemed to pay dividends immediately, with Zobrist ripping a leadoff bomb to right to give the Cubs an early 1–0 edge.
The Cubs bats were far from done. Ian Happ continued his hot start by lacing a one-out double that grazed the wrong side of the basket and drove home Schwarber. Willson Contreras drove Bryant home with a sac fly to give the Cubs a 3–0 edge after one.
It was also great to see Arrieta return to form. The powerful righty was sharp over 6 innings, allowing only one unearned run to cross the plate. He surrendered one walk and struck out six. It was nice to see a few 1–2–3 innings for him as nothing has come easy this season for the former Cy Young winner.
But this day belonged to the bats. Kris Bryant led off the 3rd with a deep blast into the right-center bleachers. It would be the first of two homers on the day for the reigning MVP.
His Bryzzo Souvenir Company partner made sure he wasn’t carrying too much of the load.
Anthony Rizzo went yard in the 8th to make the score 12–1. The struggling first baseman is still only hitting .228 on the year with a .400 slugging percentage. He needs to pick it up if this offense is going to reach its potential but his big stick in the 8th was a sight for sore eyes.
Willson Contreras had himself a line you don’t see very often. The young catcher was 3–3 with 3 RBI due in part to two sac flies.
Willson also did a great job catching Arrieta and handling pitches in the dirt and out of the strike zone from becoming wild pitches.
This was another shift for Maddon, as Miguel Montero had become Jake’s personal catcher over the last year and a half. The move seemed to work, so we’ll see what Maddon sticks with in the future.
Recent call-up Dylan Floro struggled to record the last three outs. The Brewers scored five of their six runs in the final frame.
The Cubs will look to complete a successful home stand by hosting the San Francisco Giants for four games, while the first-place Brewers host the Toronto Blue Jays in interleague play starting Tuesday.
Jason Schwartz is the Editor-in-Chief of BulletinBoard, a Chicago Bulls blog. Only his love for the Cubs would dare him to write elsewhere. You can find him on Twitter here.
