It’s not easy for a pitcher making his major-league debut to give up seven runs without getting out of the first inning yet become a mere footnote by game’s end.
But that’s what happened Wednesday afternoon at American Family Field in one of the craziest games you’ll ever see.
Down7-0before their first at-bat, the Milwaukee Brewers came roaring back in stunning fashion, scoring 15 unanswered runs to defeat the Chicago Cubs, 15-7, and complete a three-game sweep.
It was the eighth consecutive victory for the Brewers and the sixth loss in a row for the Cubs. Thus, in a period of six days, the teams went from being tied atop the National LeagueCentral to Milwaukee holding a six-game lead.
BOX SCORE: Brewers 15, Cubs 7
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Milwaukee fans had seen nothing like this since July 8, 1990, when the California Angels took a 7-0 lead at County Stadium, only to have the Brewers storm back with 20 runs to win 20-7.
It was the first time in the modern baseball era (since 1900) that both teams led by seven or more runs over the first four innings of a game.
“That’s why we love the game, at least on this side right now," manager Craig Counsell said. "There was a long way to go. We had a good first inning. We had a good second inning. And also the game, as bad as the top of the first was, I thought once (Luis)Urías hit the home run (in the second inning), it felt like it was a nothing-nothing game, honestly. It felt like we were right back in the game.
"It was a crazy first four innings, for sure. The job our bullpen did, the job specifically (Miguel) Sanchez and (Trevor) Richards did, to just kind of stop them in their tracks really was just brilliant today. That was the game.”
The remarkable about-face allowed the Brewers to absorb an ill-fated debut by left-hander Aaron Ashby, who allowed first-game jitters to get to him in a disastrous first inning. Ashby allowed four hits, three walks and seven runs (four earned) before being removed after recording only two outs.
Ashby’s nightmare began with singles by Willson Contreras and Patrick Wisdom, followed by a walk to Joc Pederson that loaded the bases with no outs. Javier Báez followed with an opposite-field single to right that scored two runs and left runners on the corners.
Jake Marisnick hit a grounder toward shortstop Willy Adames that perhaps could have been turned into a double play, but he whiffed on it and the ball rolled into left-center as another run scored. Ashby caught a bit of a break when Ian Happ lined out to second, but Eric Sogard dragged a bunt hit to the right side that sent another run home to make it 4-0.
A shaken Ashby allowed the runners to pull off an uncontested double steal, then wild-pitched the fifth run of the inning home. Sergio Alcántara bounced into a third-to-home out, catching Sogard, but Ashby completely lost his command, walking pitcher Jake Arrieta and Contreras to load the bases.
That brought Ashby’s pitch count to 39 and ended his disastrous debut, with Counsell coming out to remove him. Wisdom greeted reliever Sánchez with a two-run single to left-center, giving the Cubs their seven-run lead.
"I can’t really put a finger on it," Ashby said about what went wrong. "Just sneaky hit after sneaky hit. Then, I couldn’t find the strike zone there at the end. But that’s baseball. I’ve got to lock inin that situation and make some pitches. I wasn’t able to do that.
"As bad as it went, I did have fun. It was pretty cool to have this experience. What I’m going to take away is I’ve got to attack hitters. When things aren’t going my way, I can’t try to make a nasty pitch. Just stay in the (strike) zone and stick to what I do."
Arrieta was not up to protecting that touchdown advantage, however. After allowing a leadoff single to Urías in the bottom of the inning, he issued three walks over the next five batters, the last one to Jace Peterson that forced in a run. Arrieta stopped it there by striking out Keston Hiura but the second inning would be his undoing.
With Jackie Bradley Jr. aboard via a leadoff single, Urías blasted a one-out, two-run homer to left that cut Chicago’s lead to 7-3. Christian Yelich struck out, but that would be the last out Arrieta recorded. Adames walked and Omar Narváez singled, putting runners at the corners.
Tyrone Taylor hit a tapper to the left side of the mound and Arrieta had plenty of time to throw him out but fired the ball into the baseline that got past first baseman Wisdom as he collided with the runner. Both Adames and Narváez came around to score and Wisdom had to leave the game, with Arrieta also getting the hook from manager David Ross in favor of Keegan Thompson.
A bloop single by Peterson kept the inning alive, and when Hiura smacked a sharp grounder off the glove of the diving Sogard at third to send in another run, the Brewers had drawn within 7-6, totally changing the complexion of a game that had been a rout an inning earlier.
As it turns out, the Brewers’ offense was just getting started. That one-run deficit became a 14-7 lead when they exploded for eight runs in the fourth. Peterson, who has been in the middle of so many rallies of late, came through again with a two-run single off lefty Rex Brothers with one down.
Right-hander Tommy Nance replaced Brothers and quickly turned the brushfire into a roaring inferno. He hit Hiura with a pitch, then surrendered a run-scoring single to Bradley Jr. Reliever Trevor Richards batted for himself, and after a wild pitch, walked to load the bases. Nance then hit Urías with a pitch to force in a run.
When Yelich struck out for the third time in a row and the second time looking on a pitch he thought was low, Brewers hitting coach Andy Haines let home plate umpire Jeremie Rehak hear about it and was ejected, coming out on the field to further express his displeasure.
Adames then capped the explosion with an opposite-field homer to right-center, the team’s first grand slam of the season, giving the Brewers an unfathomable 14-7 lead three innings after they trailed, 7-0.
"We knew since the first inning that we were going to come back," Adames insisted. "We had that feeling. It felt like that since the first inning, that we were going to come back. After we scored that run we put the bases loaded there, and I think everybody got that feeling that we were going to come back, and we actually did, and it was good.
"Definitely,this one was crazy. Coming back from 7-0. Never give up. We knew that we had the whole game to try to come back, and we've got to give the credit to the pitchers to maintain the game 7-0 to give us an opportunity, an entire game, to try to come back, and they did.
"The bullpen, they stepped it up and did a tremendous job and we were able to score a lot of runs and get that sweep. That felt good."
While the Brewers' offense was running wild, including a second home run byUrías in the sixth inning, Milwaukee's bullpen indeed was shutting down the Chicago lineup.Sánchez pitched 2⅓scoreless innings, followed by Richards and Hunter Strickland with two apiece, then Jake Cousins and Brent Suter with one each.
"I think it was a game where you’re in the second inning making decisions, you’re in the third inning making decisions," Counsell said of the parade of pitchers he used. "And so there was still so much game to happen that I thought on our end it just required some patience really more than anything.
"We had to cover a lot of innings. When you’re going to ask for 8⅓ innings out of your bullpen, you can’t make a quick decision in the third inning. You have to get outs. Those guys got outs. For Sanchez to get through two innings, 2⅓, it gave us a shot, I thought, really, to make it a game and see what could happen.”
RECORD
Overall: 48-33
Home: 26-18
Away: 22-15
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COMING UP
Thursday: Brewers at Pirates, 6:05 p.m. Milwaukee RHP Corbin Burnes (3-4, 2.53) vs. Pittsburgh RHP Wil Crowe (1-4, 6.50). TV: Bally Sports Wisconsin. Radio: FM-94.5.