The Brewers gave up only two hits yet somehow found their way to another gut-wrenching loss against the Cubs
The two best Milwaukee Brewers relievers each threw the best pitch in their arsenal in critical spots to Ian Happ. The Chicago Cubs leftfielder, simply, was better.
Happ crushed those offerings over the right field fence at American Family Field for a pair of two-run homers Friday night, accounting for the only Cubs hits for the entire game, to send the Brewers to an agonizing defeat.
The pitches weren't the only thing he crushed when he wielded his game-deciding swings.
A generally upbeat Milwaukee clubhouse was dismayed following the 4-3 extra-inning loss that saw a no-hitter carried through six innings by Freddy Peralta wasted and runners stranded in scoring position time and time again.
There was apoplexy afoot from those exiting the stadium – or at least those of the 33,549 in attendance cheering on the home side – as well as on the team.
"Entirely frustrating," Brewers first baseman Rowdy Tellez said. "As a team, we were frustrated. They only have one guy that has two hits. They have two hits the entire day and it’s a one-man wrecking crew. It’s frustrating. It really is. But it’s something we got to deal with and something to move forward from."
Box score: Cubs 4, Brewers 3
It's almost hard to believe that the Brewers were four games up in the Central Division when the calendar turned to August. They walked out of a hushed clubhouse night trailing by six in the division and sunk to 2½ games back of San Diego for the final wild card spot.
Deflating, although to what degree depends on how much air one believes is left in the Milwaukee's balloon of a 2022 season. And right now, having lost 15 of 23 and also eight games under .500 since rocketing off to the best 50-game start in franchise history, that balloon is looking like it's filled with helium, slowly floating out of grasp.
"When you lose a tight game, when you lose a game when you had chances for one hit to impact a game, it's frustrating," Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. "Absolutely."
Thirty-eight games remain for the Brewers to rein in the balloon before it escapes to the stratosphere. Even with that many games remaining on the regular season schedule, the Brewers acknowledge they must right the ship sooner than that in order to salvage their lofty aspirations – namely, a World Series title they set out for by name in spring.
"These games and the next, probably, 14-15 games are really important for us," Peralta said. "We're just trying to do our best. I know the guys are doing the best (to) get out there and win games. But, you know, sometimes it’s hard. This game is hard."
Peralta sure made it look like it wasn't hard. Over six no-hit inning with only one base runner allowed, a second-inning walk to Franmil Reyes, it had the appearance of a video game player who had turned all the artificial intelligence gameplay sliders down.
And speaking of sliders, Peralta had some of his best breaking balls of the year, shooting out of his right arm, crashing toward Cubs hitters with ferocity before sweeping out of the zone late. It was by far the best he has looked in five starts since returning from an extended stay on the injured list with a shoulder injury.
"It was amazing," Bush said. "He had all his pitches working and he was working quickly and very effectively."
But after six innings, Counsell pulled Peralta from the game despite an intact no-no and a relatively modest pitch count of 82 pitches.
Peralta had no chance at completing the feat, but any time a pitcher is removed while spinning a no-hitter, the move will be scrutinized.
Counsell indicated that he and pitching coach Chris Hook had seen some signs, including body language, from Peralta during the sixth inning to the point they felt it was best to take him out.
"It's really just from talking to Freddy, reading Freddy," Counsell said. "Obviously he pitched beautifully but he thought he was at the end of the line and going through the order again, we thought that was enough.
"Just talking to him, just listening to him and reading body language. Our goal is for Freddy to make eight more starts so we're not going to push him at a time when it's a little questionable whether he should be out there again."
Peralta himself felt some fatigue all day leading up to his start following a long, late plane ride back from Los Angeles following a series with the Dodgers that concluded late Wednesday night. He acknowledged he thought it was the correct decision to end his outing at six innings, albeit somewhat begrudgingly.
“I was trying to get out to the seventh," Peralta said. "But, we took the last decision, talking to (pitching coach Chris Hook) and then said ‘OK, it’s better if you leave it here because you did what you need to do for us’. So he finally said, 'You’re good for tonight.'
“I think we just took the decision because I’m coming from the IL. This is only my fifth game and we are just trying to keep everything right. I think it was the right decision, but I didn’t want to come out. But at the end of day, this is the best for me and the team.”
It turned out to not be best for the team, as Happ unloaded on a 100 mph fastball from Bush on a 3-2 count two batters after Nick Madrigal reached on an error by Urias.
"It stung," Bush said.
It zapped the life out of the Brewers, who had only provided Peralta with one run of support coming on a Tyrone Taylor solo homer to that point. The Brewers offense continued to be befuddled by Cubs starter Justin Steele, who has allowed just two runs on eight hits over his last 18 innings spanning three starts against Milwaukee.
The offense was radio silent with ample opportunities early in the game, going 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position in the first three innings, and left 10 on base over the entire game.
"He’s one of those, not effectively wild, but his misses are decent. He’s tough on righties because everything goes in on them," Tellez said. "He’s pitched pretty good the last six or seven starts. He’s kind of feeling himself and is in a groove."
Tellez gave the Brewers new life with a solo homer to lead off the bottom of the ninth, but, somehow, the inning spiraled into a false rally that only exacerbated matters.
Keston Hiura reached on an error and Luis Urias walked to put the winning run on second with nobody out. The Brewers, however, dropped to 0 for 11 on the night with runners in scoring position as Victor Caratini failed to get a bunt down and struck out, Kolten Wong popped out and Christian Yelich flew out.
Happ greeted Brewers righthander Devin Williams with a wedge that lofted one of the reliever's patented changeups out to right for a two-run blast to put Chicago up, 4-2, to lead off the top of the 10th. It was only the third homer allowed by Williams in his career on a changeup.
It was, astonishingly, only the second hit for the Cubs all game and it gave them their first win in franchise history in which they had two hits and they only came on homers. The Cubs have been around a long time; that isn't the kind of history a team wants to be making while chasing a playoff spot.
As if the first nine-plus innings hadn't been torturous enough for Brewers fans (or losing three of their last four games and five of the last eight against the Cubs by one run), Milwaukee had one final excruciating blow to deliver in the bottom of the 10th.
With one out, Andrew McCutchen and Hunter Renfroe singled to drive in a run and Tellez walked to load the bases and put the winning run on second for Jace Peterson, who was fresh off the injured list and making his first plate appearance in nearly six weeks.
Facing reliever Manuel Rodríguez, he of a 6.11 earned run average and 1.698 WHIP in 20 career big-league outings, Peterson bounced a 1-0 pitch to second baseman Nick Madrigal, who tagged Tellez and flipped to first to end the game in excruciating fashion for the Brewers.
Peterson had entered the game in the top of the 10th as a defensive replacement for Keston Hiura, who has been Milwaukee's best hitter this year.
The loss came in the Brewers' seventh extra-inning game in their last 20 games and was their fourth one-run loss since last Wednesday.
"There's a lot of singular plays we can all point to and want to go a different way," Counsell said. "It just highlights the importance of every out and every pitch. You've got to be good in these games. You've got to be the better team. When you're not playing with leads, grabbing some margin in a game, you're going to play games like this. We've just got to be a little better.
The Brewers fell to 7-10 on the year against the Cubs and are 3-12 over their last 15 against the bottom three teams in the Central Division – the Cubs, Reds and Pirates. Since the hottest 50-game start in franchise history, they are 33-41. They have lost 10 games in the division standings in 26 days.
"We're just in a little funk right now," Tellez said.
A win, no-hitter or not, Friday on the shoulders of a vintage Peralta performance could have gone a long way to give the Brewers a lift.
Instead, the result was sobering, the clubhouse doleful, the fanbase perturbed. And the only thing that was lifted was Peralta six innings into a no-hit bid.
More: These are the best performances with Milwaukee Brewers position players pitching
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Cubs' Happ delivers one-two punch to the gut of the Brewers
