Milwaukee Brewers: Video highlights of four game set against Chicago Cubs

The Milwaukee Brewers wrapped up a seven-game homestand in a bad, bad way, losing three of four to division rival Chicago Cubs.

The Milwaukee Brewers had a chance to bounce back in a big way after losing two of three games against the St. Louis Cardinals earlier in the week. Unfortunately, they fell flat on their faces by losing three of their four games against the Chicago Cubs and going 2-5 on their homestand.

This series was especially frustrating for fans, as the Cubs didn’t play particularly well. Instead, it was the Brewers who continued to shoot themselves in their own foot time and time again. And again. And still, yet again.

Milwaukee put up zeroes on the scoreboard to bookend the series and never scored more than five runs in any game. In fact, the committed as many errors as runs in this game:

Nonetheless, we still have the highlights for you, as there were a few moments to cheer about from a Brewers’ perspective. So let’s dive into those and get after it.

Series Opener:

The Brewers chose the worst way possible to open up a four-game series against their biggest division rival. By getting shutout for the second consecutive game, Milwaukee extended their scoreless streak to 18 innings.

Keeping with an early trend, starting pitcher Brent Suter gave up some early runs including three in the second and two more in the fifth.

However, in between those innings was a nice defensive play by first baseman Nelson Aguilar:

That was one of the only highlights for the Brewers, unfortunately, as they were only able to muster four hits on the evening. Another troublesome sign was the three errors they committed, another nasty trend they were continuing from early on in the season.

When things looked like they couldn’t get any worse, All-Star closer Corey Knebel went down with a hamstring injury after recording the first two outs in the ninth inning:

Later, it was announced he will head to the disabled list and is out for a minimum of six weeks.

Game Two:

The Brewers got off to another slow start in this one, as the Cubs put up two runs in the first thanks to some timely hitting by Addison Russell and Victor Caratini to drive in one run apiece off singles to the outfield.

Milwaukee extended their early season scoreless streak to 22 innings before bursting out for four runs in the fifth inning thanks to a pair of home runs by Eric “Big Game” Thames and Travis Shaw.

Josh Hader recorded his first Major league hit and set the table for Thames game-tieing blast:

Two batters later, following a Ryan Braun single, Travis Shaw decided to take matters into his own hands with another two-run home run:

Unfortunately, Milwaukee’s leads didn’t last long as Cubs tied things up in the top of the sixth inning thanks to some more sloppy play by the Brewers’ defense. Milwaukee was lucky to get out of the inning without falling behind.
The last few innings went relatively quickly until the bottom of the ninth. A Brewers’ team who has already proven to have a flair for the dramatic with comeback wins, did so again. After Manny Pina walked with one out, Hernan Perez reached base as well and thanks to a throwing error by third basemen Kris Bryant, Pina advanced to third.

Then, Orlando Arica did his thing and that’s all she wrote:

Game Three:

Game three began a little bit differently than the other two with Milwaukee able to keep Chicago off the board for the first few innings. And it was actually the Brewers who struck first thanks to a solo shot by “Big Game” Thames.

https://twitter.com/fswisconsin/status/982728061077536770

Brewers’ starter Zach Davies pitched wonderfully, tossing six innings while only allowing four hits, one earned run and striking out eight hitters. That should certainly be enough to earn a victory, unfortunately, it wasn’t this time around.

Cubs’ new offseason acquisition Yu Darvish was equally impressive as he also only gave up one earned run in six innings.

That left things up to the bullpen where Milwaukee’s fared pretty well all things considered.

Milwaukee struck first in the bottom of the eight. Jett Bandy was just barely grazed by a pitch so he was awarded first base. Eric Sogard then doubled to deep (I mean really deep) right center and the ball bounced off the wall and rolled toward the infield. Unfortunately, Bandy was never able to unhitch the wagon and only ended up at third base, giving the Brewers runners on second and third with one out.

Lorenzo Cain knew exactly what to do from there as he smacked the first pitch he saw to mid-deep right field, which was enough to send the slow-footed Bandy home from third on a sacrifice fly:

That’s where the fun ended for Milwaukee, as they had a complete defensive collapse in the top of the ninth. Jacob Barnes got the first opportunity to fill in for the injured Knebel and pitched well enough to earn the save and the victory for the Brewers.

Unfortunately, the defense had other plans as they committed two errors and at least two other defensive miscues to allow the Cubs to score four runs and take the lead for good. A disgusting inning for the defense in what’s already a worrisome pattern:

Series Finale:

Yuck. This was a disgusting way to put a bow on a disgusting series for the Milwaukee Brewers. Unfortunately, I don’t have much for you on this page as Milwaukee only mustered three hits in the entire game.

What I can say, however, is the mental miscues continues for the Brewers, as they racked up another error and multiple other mistakes that aren’t necessarily seen in the box score.

Christian Yelich missed the entire series and was placed on the disabled list before this game retroactive to April 5. The Brewers have sorely missed his production at the top of the lineup and can’t wait to have him back.

In his position, the Brewers called up right-handed pitcher Taylor Williams who made his 2018 debut in this game. He pitched one inning, allowing two hits and one unearned run. With runners on first and second, Tommy La Stella hit a sharp groundball to first baseman Jesus Aguilar who botched the perfect double-play opportunity. This brought the run all the way around to score and increased the Cubs lead to 3-0.

Next: Too many outfielders IS a problem for the Brewers

That was way too much for the Brewers to overcome, as they failed to score in the game for the third time in their last five. Let’s hope things turn around as Milwaukee heads to St. Louis for a tthree-gameset beginning on Monday.