On Friday night, the Chicago Cubs continued to work towards a playoff appearance by securing their division lead. Meanwhile, the Milwaukee Brewers were trying to continue their fight to get into the final National League wild card spot. An extra-innings game was the result here, with the Cubs managing to escape with the 5-4 win. Here's the latest Cubs vs. Brewers recap including top performers, game stats, a standings update, and what's next on the schedule for these teams.
MLB game recap
The Milwaukee Brewers picked up the early lead in tonight's game after Scooter Braun smacked a single to right to score Walker.
In the second inning, the Brewers added back-to-back home runs from Stephen Vogt and Brett Phillips to make it a 3-0 lead. However, the Cubs were ready for the challenge.
At the top of the third inning, Jon Jay hit a double to deep right, scoring Javier Baez. One batter later, Kris Bryant stepped to the plate and knocked a single into right-center to score Jay. The Chicago Cubs were now down 3-2. It would continue that way until Ben Zobrist hit a single in the fifth inning to score Jay and Bryant, giving the Cubs the 4-3 lead.
Milwaukee tied it up in the fifth inning when Travis Shaw hit a double to left center. That scored Braun and the game remained 4-4 through the bottom of the ninth inning.
With Knebel on the mound in the 10th for the Brewers, he gave up a walk to Bryant, a single to Anthony Rizzo and another walk to Zobrist. Once Tommy La Stella walked, it allowed Bryant to score the game-winning run, making it 5-4. Milwaukee was unable to answer in the bottom of the inning.
Picking up the win tonight was Carl Edwards Jr.
who is now 5-4 for the season. He struck out two batters in 1.2 innings pitched for the Cubs. Corey Knebel gets the loss and is 1-4 for the season.
Standings & what's next
The Chicago Cubs are now 86-67 overall and 40-35 away from home. The team continues to lead the National League Central division. They'll take on the Brewers again on Saturday with start time set for 1:05 p.m.
Eastern Time. Right-handed pitcher Kyle Hendricks gets the start for the Cubs.
Tonight's loss took a slight hit on the Milwaukee Brewers in the Wild Card chase for NL teams. The Brewers, now 81-73 overall are 1.5 games back from the Colorado Rockies for the second of two Wild Card spots. The Cardinals are right ahead of Milwaukee and one game back from Colorado. Next up for the Brewers will be an early afternoon game against Chicago with Brent Suter on the mound.