Milwaukee has scored just twice in dropping the first three of the four-game series. He worked two scoreless innings in Tuesday’s first game.
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That Chicago Cubs outfielder Jorge Soler homered on a low fastball from Brewers pitcher Jimmy Nelson shouldn’t be that big of a surprise.
The Chicago club Davies opposes will have some different faces from the one he saw last month, as the Cubs made a series of roster moves Wednesday. Evan Longoria had three hits and his 27th homer while tying Carl Crawford atop the Rays’ career list with his 1,235th game played. Ben Zobrist and Addison Russell had RBI singles and Soler’s homer on a 2-2 pitch landed just under the videoboaard atop the stands in left-center field. Smith has been a bust so far with the Cubs, yielding three earned runs on four walks and six hits over just 3 2/3 innings of work. Kluber is 5-0 with a 1.80 ERA in seven starts since a July 3 loss at Toronto. But Lester credited the offense for the starters’ success. “The offense has been really good for us, consistent”. He’s now hitting.358 for August with a home run and six RBIs, not to mention some obviously stellar defense.
Chicago is also concerned with the status of RHP John Lackey, who had to leave his last start Sunday night against the Cardinals with shoulder soreness.
Milwaukee rarely threatened Lester. Milwaukee loaded the bases on two singles and a walk in the second inning, but Lester got Nelson to ground into an inning-ending forceout.
The loss was the fifth in six games for the Brewers.
“We didn’t get the right guys on tonight to put any pressure on (Lester)”, manager Craig Counsell said. “But there’s no breaks, no quit. I’ll just try to keep getting better and string together a couple good starts and consistently carry it over the next couple months so I can finish this thing off good”. “He’s reported to Double-A, and moving on up to Triple-A, and he’ll be back here probably by the first of September”, Maddon said before the game. Braun injured his left knee and ankle and was out of the lineup Wednesday. RHP Chase Anderson, who was hit in the left quadriceps by Bryant’s comebacker Tuesday, said he felt much better and would play light catch and evaluate from there.
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The Chicago Cubs placed reliever Joe Smith on the 15-day disabled list with a left hamstring strain. In his latest appearance on Tuesday against the Brewers, Smith walked two of the three hitters he faced in the ninth inning of an eventual 4-0 Cubs victory.
