Two runs in the third, nothing after it
Carson Kelly singled with one out. Pete Crow-Armstrong turned on a 2-1 changeup. That was the Chicago Cubs’ entire offensive night, and it beat the Milwaukee Brewers 2-1 overnight to split a four-game series.
Chicago did not record another hit after that swing. Crow-Armstrong’s 39th homer of the season came from a man who had entered the game batting 3-for-33 against Brewers pitching this year, and who had been named National League Player of the Month for August a few hours earlier.
Kevin Gausman handled the rest. Seven innings, five hits, one walk, nine strikeouts, one run. His record moved to 9-11, a number that says almost nothing about how he has thrown.
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Milwaukee had the better of the argument
Logan Henderson matched him for six of the seven innings he worked. The Milwaukee rookie gave up the Crow-Armstrong homer and then retired 14 batters in a row, striking out seven, walking nobody, throwing a career-high 102 pitches. He has yet to concede more than three runs in any of his first 20 big-league starts.
Andrew Vaughn provided Milwaukee’s answer in the fourth, a 420-foot drive to left-centre after Gausman had struck out William Contreras and Jake Bauers to open the inning. It was Vaughn’s sixth homer of the year and his first since Aug. 4.
The Brewers put runners on second and third with two outs in the fifth. Gausman struck out Brice Turang. Bauers reached third in the sixth. Christian Yelich grounded out. Ryan Zeferjahn threw a perfect eighth and Ryan Rolison retired the side in order in the ninth for his second save.
Eight games, 21 to play
Milwaukee sit 87-54 and still hold an eight-game lead over Chicago in the National League Central with 21 games remaining. The split does not move that. The Cubs, at 79-62, opened this series with a 17-3 win and then lost two straight by a combined 18-9, which is roughly the shape of their season against this opponent.
What Thursday gave them was proof they can win a game in which they touch the ball once.
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