Milwaukee Brewers Cy Young Award hopeful Jacob Misiorowski had not allowed more than three earned runs in a start this season when he took the Wrigley Field mound Wednesday night.
The Chicago Cubs made the 24-year-old right-hander work. They forced Misiorowski to throw 92 pitches in four innings and tagged him for a season-high five earned runs on five hits and four walks.
Those runs didn’t hold up, however, in a 9-5 loss, wasting great offensive production against the hard-throwing Misiorowski.
“It was a pass-the-line night against Misiorowski, and I thought that it was a pretty darn good job,” manager Craig Counsell said. “Their bullpen pitched very well and kind of put the game in order. I thought we swung the bats better than the results, but their bullpen did a really nice job.”
Cubs starter David Peterson struggled to finish off innings and put his team in a 2-0 hole after the top of the first. Alex Bregman responded with a two-run home run in the bottom half, a preview for the back-and-forth swings through the first two innings in which each team grabbed the lead.
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Bregman followed his home run with a two-run, go-ahead single in the second on the heels of Tyrone Taylor’s RBI single.
“I thought the guys did a good job of battling and trying to take some good swings on good pitches, and when the ball’s out of the zone, not swing,” Bregman said. “Just didn’t do enough after that.
“They’ve got a really good ballclub over there and it takes execution on our end to win these kind of games, and we didn’t execute in all phases of the game the way that we should have today.”
It’s a frustrating outcome for a scuffling Cubs team whose offense hasn’t been helped much by the pitching staff lately.
Peterson departed after surrendering six runs and seven hits in 3 2/3 innings while walking four and striking out four.
“There was kind of a mixed bag with the stuff,” he said. “Just felt like I wasn’t getting ahead of hitters the way that I needed to and the way that I usually do, and wasn’t executing to the level that I have been recently.
“So credit to them. They put up good at-bats. But you get behind in counts, and the pitch count goes up and found ourselves in the spot that we were in.”
Nico Hoerner’s stellar diving catch in shallow left field with the bases loaded ended the top of the fifth to keep the deficit at one run for the Cubs (78-62). Hoerner covered 63 feet to make the play at 27.8 feet per second.
“Oh, a huge play,” Bregman said. “Obviously an unbelievable defender and making a clutch play is huge, especially in that spot.”
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The good vibes from the Cubs’ blowout win Monday night have evaporated quickly with back-to-back losses that effectively close the window for them to chase down the first-place Brewers, now nine games up in the division.
Although the bullpen didn’t implode Wednesday, key relievers still weren’t sharp. Daniel Palencia, pitching in his first back-to-back since spending two months on the injured list, gave up one run on two hits. He was checked on mid-inning after tweaking his knee but was OK and stayed in the game.
In a scary moment during the ninth, closer Jacob Webb took a 102.5 mph liner off his right forearm and was in immediate pain. He exited with a significant bruise, and X-rays were negative for a fracture, Counsell said postgame.