Brown loses the plot in the fourth against team that traded him

CHICAGO -- For three innings on Saturday, Ben Brown was on his way to a revenge game of sorts.

The Cubs’ right-hander was facing the Phillies – the club that drafted him in 2017 before trading him as a prospect to Chicago five years later – for the first time in his career, and he was shutting them down.

“It’s awesome,” Brown said. “Growing up for six years dreaming about playing on that team, [then] being traded and dreaming about being a Cub and dominating against them is pretty cool.”

Unfortunately for Brown, whatever hopes he may have had as far as showing his former organization what it was missing unraveled in a chaotic fourth inning. The 25-year-old allowed six hits and six runs in the frame, essentially sealing the Cubs’ 10-4 loss at Wrigley Field.

“The inning just snowballed a little bit on him,” manager Craig Counsell said. “As a starter, you’ve got to be able to navigate and limit damage. Giving up runs, yeah, it’s going to happen, but you’ve got to be able to navigate the damage to get your way into games.”

Counsell noted before the outing that he felt Brown might bring “a little something extra” when facing the team that took him in the 33rd round of the 2017 Draft. Though Brown never played for Philadelphia, he spent 4 1/2 seasons in the club's Minor League system before being dealt to the Cubs for reliever David Roberston on Aug. 2, 2022.

The Phillies’ first glimpse at Brown as a big leaguer certainly started off on a high note.

Brown struck out the first two hitters he faced, and though he allowed two singles in the second, he dodged any trouble by inducing an inning-ending double play. Brown breezed through the first three innings on 45 pitches with five K’s, one shy of his season high.

“If you were to look at my starts over the last couple years,” Brown said, “and you said there was a start where I struck out five and I walked one through three innings, I’d love to see where you ended up after six. Today, obviously, that didn’t happen.”

The wheels came off quickly in the fourth, as Brown opened the inning by grazing Kyle Schwarber in the ribs on a 1-2 count. He followed by hanging an 0-2 curve that Nick Castellanos cracked for the first of four consecutive Philly singles.

As Philadelphia’s onslaught continued, Brown began leaving pitches over the heart of the plate. The hits kept coming, getting progressively louder throughout the frame. Of the five final batted balls Brown allowed on the day, four had an exit velocity of 101.3 mph or higher.

By the time the dust settled, Brown departed with a line of six runs on nine hits in 3 2/3 innings.

“The 1-2 hit-by-pitch and the 0-2 curveball up [to Castellanos],” Brown said when asked where things went wrong. “I like to roll the dice, and some days they’re going to go your way, some days it’s not. Ultimately, those first two right there, those were the two mistakes.”

The outing marked the latest in an uneven start to Brown's 2025 campaign. He had a 7.71 ERA after his first three games but then rebounded with a scoreless six-inning gem in Los Angeles. He held Arizona to one run on April 19, but he lasted only four innings after throwing 100 pitches.

When asked to assess Brown’s season to date, Counsell’s response was blunt.

“We need better, frankly,” Counsell said. “There’s been some bright spots, and there is clearly some good things there. But 3 2/3, four innings -- fortunately we’ve had off-days – but during the course of a normal part of [a season], that’s going to hurt you.”

Brown, in response, didn’t bristle at the critique. The outing didn’t go as he’d hoped, and an opportunity to prove something to a team which once found him expendable slipped away. But he left knowing what was expected of him moving forward.

“The team needs better out of me, and the bullpen needs a break when they can get it,” Brown said. “Ultimately, I’ve got to wake up tomorrow and do my best to get out there in six days and give that length that the bullpen needs and the team needs. It starts now with how I recover and how I go about reviewing my outing and just doing better.”