Gary Sánchez gave the Milwaukee Brewers the start they wanted, but not the finish they needed. His 415-foot homer down the left-field line put Milwaukee ahead 1-0 against the Chicago Cubs on Sunday afternoon at American Family Field, yet the game was tied 1-1 in the 10th inning after the Brewers let chances slip away and the Cubs answered in the seventh.
That is why the Brewers Game was still drawing attention late into June 28, the club’s 81st game of the season. Brandon Woodruff started for Milwaukee, and Ryan Rolison started for Chicago, setting up a low-scoring game that depended on one swing, one mistake and one clean inning after another. Sánchez, who has been the person in the middle of Milwaukee’s early edge, turned on a fastball on the inner half for the only Brewers run before the night started to tilt.
Woodruff’s recent return had made him a central reason Milwaukee was in position at all. Since coming off the injured list on June 22, he had worked 11 2/3 scoreless innings across two starts, allowing two hits and two walks while striking out 16 and cutting his season ERA to 2.59. That was the kind of stretch that can cover for a quiet offense, and Milwaukee needed it because the lineup finished 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position and stranded eight runners.
The turning point came in the seventh. Aaron Ashby let the Cubs back in when a wild pitch allowed Ian Happ to score, and he later balked with Nico Hoerner on base in the same at-bat. Pedro Ramírez had already pinch-hit for Chicago in the inning, and the sequence turned a one-run Brewers lead into a tie that hung over the rest of the game. Milwaukee still had relief help left, but it had already used Abner Uribe for 1 2/3 scoreless innings, and Trevor Megill worked the ninth by striking out three while working around a Nico Hoerner single. In simple terms, the late bridge had been crossed, and there was no room for another mistake.
That is the cost of a game like this. Craig Counsell’s club did enough to get one ball over the fence and enough from the mound to keep the Cubs contained for long stretches, but not enough to separate after the lead disappeared. With the game tied in the 10th, Milwaukee was left waiting on the next clean inning or the next swing that could finally decide what Sánchez had started.
