Crew scores 17, wraps up 'a fun four days'
Adam McCalvy
@AdamMcCalvyCHICAGO -- There was a time in this Interstate 94 rivalry when the Cubs were contenders and the Brewers were building. But now, with Chicago dismantling the roster that won the World Series five years ago, those roles have reversed.
The Brewers (70-46) are a season-high 24 games over .500, and became the second team in the Majors to reach 70 victories after completing their first four-game sweep of the Cubs (52-65). They did it in emphatic fashion with a 17-4 win at Wrigley Field on Thursday afternoon on the rare day that Brandon Woodruff scuffled through an outing.
¡°It was a fun four days here in Chicago,¡± said Milwaukee infielder Luis Urías after a record-setting day.
Said catcher Manny Piña: ¡°This team is going to have a lot of special moments.¡±
There were plenty of special moments on Thursday, including Pi?a twice delivering on a promise to give his batting gloves to some young fans in the front row if he hit a home run. The Brewers set season highs for runs (17) and hits (22) thanks to a barrage from the No. 5-6-7 spots in the order, with Ur¨ªas and Pi?a each homering twice and Pi?a driving in six runs. Ur¨ªas drove in five runs, tied the modern Major League record with five extra-base hits -- the first player in Brewers history to do that -- and also became the first player in Brewers history to score five runs. Jace Peterson, starting for banged-up right fielder Avisa¨ªl Garc¨ªa, had five hits and four RBIs.
This offensive outburst came on a day when Woodruff had terrific movement on his offspeed pitches but couldn¡¯t get ahead in a count to use it. He needed 18 pitches in the first inning, then 38 pitches in the second after the Brewers spotted him a 5-0 lead with an outburst against Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks and 18 more pitches in the third before departing his shortest start since pitching two innings against the Pirates in September 2019, when he was coming back from an oblique injury.
That adds up to 74 pitches in three hard-fought innings, and it was enough for Brewers manager Craig Counsell, especially after Woodruff was nearly struck on the back of his right leg by a comebacker on the final out of the third.
"Look, he gave up one run in three innings, so nothing really bad happened here,¡± Counsell said. ¡°He just was out of sync, and he was fighting his delivery and he just continued to fight it.¡±
¡°He just basically said, ¡®I¡¯m going to take you out,¡¯¡± Woodruff shrugged. ¡°What can I say? I had 80 pitches through three innings. I can¡¯t really fight that. It¡¯s just one of those days.¡±
So the bullpen finished a victory in which Brewers hitters finally roughed up Hendricks, the crafty right-hander who entered the day 10-6 with a 2.86 ERA in 26 career starts against Milwaukee, never allowing more than four runs or more than nine hits in those outings.
On Thursday, the Brewers touched Hendricks up to the tune of nine runs and 11 hits in four-plus innings, starting with a five-run second in which the first four batters combined to hit for the cycle, including Peterson¡¯s two-run home run, and a fifth inning in which Pi?a hit his first career grand slam to force the 31-year-old right-hander from the game.
And they kept on hitting. Pi?a smacked a second home run in a four-run sixth, and Ur¨ªas hit the first of his two home runs in a three-run seventh. All three of those players -- Urias, Peterson and Pi?a -- have played off the bench more than they have started in recent weeks.
¡°It shows how deep we are,¡± Woodruff said. ¡°Any time we roll out a lineup, there¡¯s nine guys who can put together good at-bats. We play the heck out of some defense in the field. We¡¯ve been throwing the ball well. That¡¯s a good recipe for some wins. We¡¯re just playing good baseball. We¡¯re putting together good at-bats as a team, as a whole. And that¡¯s showing up.¡±
This matchup has been all Brewers so far in 2021:
? The Brewers are 13-3 against the Cubs this year, and they have won all five series, with one more three-game set to go at American Family Field from Sept. 17-19. That¡¯s during Milwaukee¡¯s final homestand.
? Just by avoiding a Cubs sweep next month, the Brewers would break their franchise record for victories against the Cubs in a season. They were 13-4 in 2012 and 13-6 in ¡®13.
? The Brewers have won nine in a row between these clubs, the longest single-season spree for a Milwaukee Major League team -- Braves or Brewers -- against the Cubs. The Milwaukee Braves won as many as six in a row over the Cubs in a season. The Brewers won eight in a row against Chicago in 2012, but never nine before this year.
? The Brewers outscored the Cubs by 28 runs (37-9) in the series and have outscored them by 54 (78-24) during the nine-game winning streak.
? Thanks to that run of victories, the Brewers now lead the all-time matchup between the teams, 198-197. They began playing in 1997, when Interleague play debuted and Milwaukee was still an American League franchise.
¡°The big thing for me is we have not had a lot of success against Hendricks, so to get him like we did today felt good,¡± Counsell said. ¡°It was a really good week at Wrigley.¡±