After another 1-2-3 inning for the Brewers offense in the sixth – they sent the minimum to the plate in all but the second inning -Nelson finally ran out of gas in the bottom half.
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Cubs 4, Brewers 3: Addison Russell’s two-out, two-run triple in the sixth inning snapped a tie and the Cubs held off the Brewers at Wrigley Field to secure their best 20-game start since 1907.
The Cubs (15-5) have won three of their last four games.
Ryan Braun had the night off for rest, but was brought in as a pinch hitter in the eighth as the Brewers were down 1-4. After Strop ran into the aforementioned trouble in the eighth, Travis Wood got Villar to pop up to end the inning and Hector Rondon (fourth save) finished things off, though not before allowing Kirk Nieuwenhuis to single, putting the tying run on base, and giving up this fly ball to end it [VIDEO].
Russell – who’s only 22 years old and still just scratching the surface of his offensive potential – drilled a Carlos Torres fastball into the right-center field gap and hustled for a two-out, two-run triple that broke open a tie game. “He’s not afraid of that moment”.
A day after becoming the third Cub to throw more than one no-hitter in Thursday’s 16-0 rout of Cincinnati, Arrieta (4-0, 0.87 ERA) admitted that he probably won’t become the first pitcher since Johnny Vander Meer in 1938 to accomplish that feat in back-to-back outings.
“I think it’s amusing because I’ve always been in good shape, ” the 30-year-old confirmed health nut said. The Cubs settled for one run, on Dexter Fowler’s sacrifice fly, but the move paid off – with no hard feelings.
“A lot of guys would have been crying, a lot of guys, ‘Why me?’ ” Maddon said. Baez later scored on a double by Anthony Rizzo (another heads-up play, Rizzo took second when no one covered the base).
In his last start, Arrieta pitched 9.0 innings, allowing zero runs, striking out six and walking four in a 16-0 victory over the Reds. The Brewers have a record of 6-9 when they are struck out that many times or more. He made the most his opportunity and batted in two runs with a double. He’s 14 for his last 26. The Brewers average just 9.3 strikeouts per game, one of the lowest marks in the NL. In June 2015, he went to the sinker just under 35 percent of the time, but he’s up to just about 60 percent in April of this year.
“We love playing here, but so does everybody else”, Maddon said.
“His pitch count just kind of got up there quick on him, but he did a nice job”, Brewers manager Craig Counsell said.
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Second baseman Scooter Gennett also was a late scratch from the lineup with right oblique tightness. Montero said it was “nothing insane”.
