By Andy McCullough, Patrick Mooney and Sahadev Sharma
CHICAGO — For the third straight game in this series, the visiting team scored in the first inning. And for the third straight game in this series, the home team immediately responded, stealing the momentum and carrying it to a victory.
This time it was the Cubs, who scored four runs in the first, including one on Michael Busch’s second leadoff home run of the series, to claim a 4-3 victory over the Brewers in Wednesday night’s Game 3 of the best-of-five National League Division Series.
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The Cubs’ inability to add on made this more of a nail-biter than manager Craig Counsell would have liked. But starter Jameson Taillon and a quintet of relievers did enough for Chicago to avoid the sweep and send this series to a Game 4.
The Cubs can save their worries about their pitching plan for that game for Thursday. For now, their season lasts another day, and Wrigley Field will host at least one more postseason game this fall.
Priester blows up in nightmarish first
Making his postseason debut, pitching a couple hours from his hometown in Cary, Ill., Quinn Priester lived out a nightmare on Wednesday afternoon in recording only two outs. He was undone by a simple but devastating problem: He was unable to command either his two-seam sinker or his slider. He rode those two pitches to a 3.32 ERA during the regular season. But with neither responding, he was subjected to a four-run pillorying by the Cubs.
His unraveling started with the first at-bat, when Busch swatted his second leadoff homer of the series. Priester responded to the haymaker by surrendering a single and issuing two walks. A sprawling catch by Sal Frelick in right field prevented an extra-base hit, but Priester could not find an escape hatch. He yielded a two-out, two-run single to outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong, who went 1-for-8 in the first two games.
Crow-Armstrong’s knock ended Priester’s outing, but did not end Milwaukee’s misery. Reliever Nick Mears lost a wild pitch to add a fourth run to Priester’s tab. The Brewers turned to veteran southpaw Jose Quintana to soak up the game’s middle innings. That decision opened the door for Freddy Peralta, the Game 1 starter, to take the ball again on Thursday.
For now, the Cubs’ pitching house of cards is still standing
After Matthew Boyd failed to finish the first inning of Game 1, and Shota Imanaga got knocked out in the third inning of Game 2, the Cubs simply needed a credible performance from a starting pitcher just to give themselves a chance to win.
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Taillon did his job very well, not allowing a missed pop-up to spiral into a big first inning for the Brewers. The right-hander went through Milwaukee’s lineup twice, giving up only two runs over four innings and handing a lead over to Chicago’s top relievers.
That is a reliable winning formula for October baseball, as Taillon demonstrated last week in the deciding game of the NL Wild Card Series, shutting down the San Diego Padres in the first four innings of an eventual 3-1 victory. Though his game isn’t the flashiest, Taillon’s dependability is appreciated by teammates and coaches alike.
To cover the rest of an elimination game, Counsell matched up his trusted “out-getters” for specific parts of Milwaukee’s lineup, turning to Drew Pomeranz, Daniel Palencia, Andrew Kittredge, Caleb Thielbar and Brad Keller.
Where, exactly, that leaves the Cubs for Thursday’s elimination game is unclear, other than it will be an all-hands-on-deck contest.
Beating baseball’s best regular-season team two more times will be extremely difficult. The Cubs already pushed their best relievers throughout the Wild Card Series, and across the mid-to-late innings of this NLDS. But at this moment, all that matters is they will get another night at Wrigley Field.
Brewers lineup switch pays dividends
Brewers manager Pat Murphy made a curious move for Wednesday’s lineup when he benched cleanup hitter Andrew Vaughn and put Jake Bauers at first base. Vaughn had reached base three times in Game 1 and provided a homer in Game 2. But the Brewers wanted to give the left-handed-hitting Bauers a chance against Taillon. Solid choice: Bauers supplied an RBI single against Taillon in the fourth inning. Three innings later, his solo shot off Kittredge cut Chicago’s lead to one.
Yet Bauers would not etch his name into franchise lore on Wednesday. He struck out with the bases loaded to end a threat in the eighth.