Matthew Boyd pitched two-hit ball into the fifth inning, and the Chicago Cubs shut down the Milwaukee Brewers for a 6-0 victory Thursday night that pushed their NL Division Series all the way to a decisive Game 5.<\/p>\n
Ian Happ, Kyle Tucker and Michael Busch homered for Chicago, delighting a rollicking Wrigley Field crowd of 41,770. Busch went deep for the second straight game and third time in the series.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s cool that the brightest lights have brought the best out of a lot of our guys,\u201d said Nico Hoerner, who had three of Chicago\u2019s 10 hits.<\/p>\n
The Cubs were on the brink of elimination after they dropped the first two games in Milwaukee. But they held on for a 4-3 victory Wednesday before making the most of a sharp performance by Boyd and four relievers in Game 4.<\/p>\n
Next up is the finale of the best-of-five series back in Milwaukee on Saturday night. The winner takes on the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to regroup,\u201d Brewers star Christian Yelich said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got one more game to play. We\u2019ve got to make sure we\u2019re ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Brewers, who went 97-65 this season for the majors\u2019 best record, finished with three hits. They were 1 for 13 with runners in scoring position and left 13 on base overall in the two games at Wrigley.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re built to be great, and they played great these two games,\u201d Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy said. \u201cHopefully the tables will turn when we get into Game 5 at our place. But we have to find out how bad we\u2019re going to fight back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boyd also started the series opener Saturday. Pitching on three days\u2019 rest, he recorded just two outs while Freddy Peralta worked into the sixth inning in Milwaukee\u2019s 9-3 win.<\/p>\n
Ian Happ belts a three-run homer in the first inning of the Cubs\u2019 6-0 win over the Brewers in Game 4 of the NLDS. David Banks-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
Given another opportunity, Boyd delivered. The All-Star left-hander struck out six and walked three in 4 2\/3 innings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe atmosphere was amazing tonight,\u201d Boyd said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got the best fans in baseball, and it was electric. We\u2019ve been feeding off them since April, but tonight was another level, and that was super special.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 34-year-old Boyd was staked to an early lead when Happ drove a 1-1 fastball from Peralta deep to right for a three-run drive with two out in the first. Hoerner singled and Tucker walked ahead of Happ\u2019s third career postseason homer.<\/p>\n
MLB-bracket<\/p>\n
Chicago has gone deep in the first in each of the four NLDS games. It has scored 11 of its 16 runs in the series in the first inning.<\/p>\n
It was a big swing for Happ, who went 2 for 21 with 11 strikeouts in Chicago\u2019s first six postseason games this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe guys have been carrying me all postseason so to contribute in that moment and give us the lead was awesome for me,\u201d Happ said.<\/p>\n
Matthew Boyd throws a pitch during the Cubs\u2019 Game 4 win over the Brewers. Getty Images<\/p>\n
Happ hit a solo drive off Peralta in Game 1, but he is 2 for 32 with 14 strikeouts against the right-hander in the regular season.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, it wasn\u2019t a mistake. It was a pitch we wanted, and he was just able to hit it really hard,\u201d Peralta said.<\/p>\n
The Cubs had a 3-0 lead when Boyd exited with runners on second and third in the fifth, drawing a huge ovation from the crowd. Daniel Palencia came in and retired Jackson Chourio on a popup to shortstop, ending the inning.<\/p>\n
Kyle Tucker belts a solo homer in the seventh inning of the Cubs\u2019 Game 4 win. Matt Marton-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
Palencia also worked the sixth in this third win of the playoffs. Drew Pomeranz and Brad Keller each got three outs before Caleb Thielbar handled the ninth.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust a really great group effort,\u201d Hoerner said.<\/p>\n
Chicago blew a bases-loaded opportunity in the fifth, but Matt Shaw hit an RBI single off Aaron Ashby in the sixth. The rookie third baseman had two hits after he went 0 for 12 in his first six postseason games.<\/p>\n
Michael Busch celebrates after hitting a solo homer in the eighth inning of the Cubs\u2019 Game 4 win over the Brewers. Getty Images<\/p>\n
Tucker added a leadoff drive in the seventh against Robert Gasser, and Busch connected in the eighth. It was Busch\u2019s fourth homer in this postseason overall.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just made them uncomfortable,\u201d Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. \u201cWe just made every pitch uncomfortable, and that\u2019s what you\u2019re supposed to do.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matthew Boyd pitched two-hit ball into the fifth inning, and the Chicago Cubs shut down the Milwaukee Brewers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2401],"tags":[5,136,24,29,2000,843,59,4280,4,2305,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-372342","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-milwaukee-brewers","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-brewers","10":"tag-chicago-cubs","11":"tag-kyle-tucker","12":"tag-matthew-boyd","13":"tag-milwaukee","14":"tag-milwaukee-brewers","15":"tag-milwaukeebrewers","16":"tag-mlb","17":"tag-mlb-playoffs","18":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115349072363532033","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}