Cubs beat Brewers 17-3 as Bregman hits 3 homers
Alex Bregman's 3 homers buried Milwaukee 17-3 in Chicago, but the loss barely dents a 7-game NL Central lead as the Brewers get ready for a rematch Tuesday night.
Bregman's three homers bury Milwaukee 17-3
The Brewers went to Wrigley Field and left having allowed 17 runs, falling 17-3 to the Cubs on August 31. Alex Bregman hit three home runs to power the Cubs' offense, according to the site's own coverage of the game. Kyle Harrison lasted just 3.2 innings on the mound, allowing 10 hits and 9 earned runs against 2 walks and 3 strikeouts. Cooper Pratt supplied the only offense that mattered for Milwaukee, going 2-for-4 with a home run and 2 RBI.
Cubs3-17It came after a stretch that had otherwise gone well: the Brewers were 3-2 in their last 5 games, including consecutive wins over Texas, before Monday's finish. A 17-3 final is the kind of score that stands out even inside a winning week, and it left Milwaukee looking for a quick answer with the same opponent again Tuesday.
Seven up on Chicago, and the Cubs' number is 18
None of that changes what the NL Central standings say. At 85-53, Milwaukee leads Chicago by 7.0 games, with St. Louis 17.0 back, Pittsburgh 18.0 back and Cincinnati 20.0 back. The Cubs carry an elimination number of 18 — the combination of Cubs losses and Brewers wins that ends Chicago's chances — while St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati sit at 8, 7 and 5 respectively, all closer to being finished than to catching up.
A single 17-3 loss, even one that ugly, does not move a number like that. The Brewers built a 7-game cushion over 138 games, and Monday's result is a bad night in a season that has otherwise gone their way for months — the kind of laugher that hurts more the day after than it does in the standings the day after that.
Upcoming
Robert Gasser gets the ball for Milwaukee against Matthew Boyd and the Cubs as the Brewers are in Chicago tonight. Gasser is 4-5 with a 4.59 ERA and was rocked in his last outing, against Seattle on August 20, allowing 4 earned runs on 4 hits in just 3.2 innings. Boyd has been the better of the two lately at 8-3 with a 3.99 ERA, though his last start, on August 26 at Arizona, ended in a loss despite 6 innings of 1-run ball with 5 strikeouts.
The market has Chicago favored, and the total points to a high-scoring game — not a surprise given what happened the last time these two clubs met. If that reading holds, it will take more from Gasser than his last start showed, and a Cubs offense that just produced 17 runs will need to be kept inside the ballpark for Milwaukee to leave Wrigley with a series win instead of a split.