The ball hit Cubs first baseman Cody Bellinger’s mitt, and second baseman Nico Hoerner brandished his fist in celebration.
On their way to a 3-2 win, the Cubs had just turned a seamless double play to move one out away from a series victory against the Brewers.
“It was a huge play,” Bellinger said after the game. “... It was a hard hit ball, and Nico just made it really easy on a good throw, and Dansby as well with the turn. Really good play.”
The Cubs had little margin for error in a three-game series against the Brewers this week. The NL Central leaders were coming off an eight-game winning streak. And two of the three games they played were decided by a run – the kinds of games in which the Brewers, who are 27-13 in one-run games, have excelled.
The knock against the Cubs has been that though they have by far the best run differential (+76) in the division, they struggled early in the year closing out close games.
This week, they won both the one-run games they played against the Brewers to claim the series victory and move up to three games back of Milwaukee in the standings. And they did so against the Brewers’ best pitchers, Corbin Burnes and Brandon Woodruff.
The Cubs are 17-6 in one-run games since late May.
“That’s what this team has done,” manager David Ross said Wednesday. “They’ve found a way to win for a while now. Scratching, clawing, overcoming adversity. [Against] good teams, bad teams, coming back late in games, tying things up.”
That’s what they did Wednesday.
“We knew coming in it was going to be a big series,” said starter Kyle Hendricks, who held the Brewers to one earned run in six innings Wednesday. “A little more energy, a little more tension from the outside, but we were able to stay locked in and just keep it pitch to pitch.”
The Cubs took a two-run lead in the first inning Wednesday, taking advantage of the two free bases – a walk and hit by pitch – Woodruff gave them to start the inning. The Cubs scored those runners on an RBI double from Ian Happ and a sacrifice fly from Dansby Swanson.
The Brewers got one of those runs back in the third inning, after Christian Yelich reached on Hendricks’ throwing error. Then, William Contreras tagged a single down the right field line to drive in Yelich.
The Cubs got out of the inning with a diving play by Hoerner. The sharp comebacker flew in between Hendricks’ legs, but Hoerner laid out to make the stop and hopped up quickly to throw to first. Bellinger made a pick at first to complete the play.
The Cubs’ 2-1 advantage held until the eighth inning. All three of the Cubs’ back-end relievers were on the second day of a back-to-back, after completing a shutout the night before. Julian Merryweather retired four straight batters. But with two outs in the eighth inning, Mark Leiter Jr. loaded the bases. Closer Adbert Alzolay came in to get the final out, but not before hitting Mark Canha with a pitch to push the Brewers’ tying run across the plate.
The Cubs offense responded in the bottom half of the inning. With two outs and runners on first and third, Bellinger chopped a hard ground ball back at Brewers reliever Joel Payamps. He deflected it, and Bellinger beat out third baseman Andruw Monasterio’s throw to first base as Mike Tauchman scored from third.
“You’ve seen the last few days, everyone picking each other up, making plays for each other, going out there and giving everything” said Alzolay, who finished the game and was credited with the win. “[It] tells you the resilience that this team all has right now.”
