CHICAGO (AP) — Jackson Chourio homered and the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Chicago Cubs 9-5 on Wednesday night, overcoming a shaky performance by Jacob Misiorowski.
William Contreras hit a tiebreaking RBI single as Milwaukee won for the sixth time in eight games, improving to a major league-best 87-53. Chourio had four of the Brewers’ 14 hits and scored twice.
Misiorowski allowed five runs and five hits in four innings. The front-runner for the NL Cy Young Award surrendered three earned runs or fewer in his first 25 starts this year.
Chicago (78-62) dropped nine games behind Milwaukee in the NL Central. It also remained one game back of Philadelphia for the top NL wild card.
Alex Bregman homered and drove in four runs for the Cubs, who have lost three of four. Bregman is batting .331 (48 for 145) with 14 homers and 37 RBIs in his last 35 games.
Milwaukee went ahead to stay with three runs in the fourth against David Peterson (7-8). Cooper Pratt scampered home on Brice Turang’s sacrifice bunt, and Andrew Vaughn singled home Chourio. Turang scored on Contreras’ liner to center for a 6-5 lead on a muggy night at Wrigley Field.
Joey Ortiz’s two-run single made it 9-5 in the ninth. Ortiz hit a two-run homer in Milwaukee’s 9-4 win on Tuesday night.
JoJo Romero (2-3) pitched a scoreless inning for his first win since he was acquired in a deadline trade with St. Louis.
Chicago wasted a stellar defensive play by shortstop Nico Hoerner, who made an outstanding diving catch on Sal Frelick’s sinking liner in the fifth, leaving the bases loaded. Ian Happ also cut down Ortiz when he attempted to score from second on Chourio’s single to left in the ninth.
Cubs reliever Jacob Webb departed in the ninth after he was struck on his right arm by Christian Yelich’s liner.
Up next
Logan Henderson (9-2, 2.48 ERA) starts for Milwaukee on Thursday night, and fellow right-hander Kevin Gausman (8-11, 4.52) pitches for Chicago in the finale of the four-game series.
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