By JAY COHEN AP Baseball Writer
CHICAGO (AP) — Pete Crow-Armstrong hit a tiebreaking two-run single and the Chicago Cubs avoided a sweep by holding off the Milwaukee Brewers for a 4-3 victory in Game 3 of their NL Division Series on Wednesday.
Crow-Armstrong’s two-out swing was part of a four-run first inning for Chicago — continuing a wild trend. Michael Busch kicked off the rally by becoming the first player in major league history with multiple leadoff homers in a single postseason series.
The matchup of NL Central rivals is the first postseason series in which both teams scored in the first in each of the first three games. Game 4 is on Thursday night.
“Yeah, I’m going to tell our guys it’s the first inning every inning tomorrow,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “I think that’s our best formula right now offensively.”
Jake Bauers rallied Milwaukee with an RBI single in the fourth and a leadoff drive in the seventh. He started at first base in place of Andrew Vaughn, who hit a three-run homer in the Brewers’ 7-3 victory in Game 2 on Monday night.
Milwaukee loaded the bases in the eighth, but Brad Keller escaped the jam when he struck out Bauers on a foul tip on a 97.1 mph fastball. Keller then retired the side in order in the ninth for the save.
“He’s got a great fastball. He got it by me,” Bauers said.
Looking to sweep their way to the franchise’s first trip to the NL Championship Series since 2018, Milwaukee jumped in front in the first.
With runners on first and second with one out, William Contreras hit a mile-high popup that Busch lost in the sun before it landed in the infield for a single. Sal Frelick followed with a sacrifice fly off Jameson Taillon.
Chicago got the run right back when Busch drove a full-count cutter from Quinn Priester deep to right-center, delighting the crowd of 40,737 at Wrigley Field. It was the first baseman’s team-high third homer of the postseason.
Busch said he had to move on right away after the miscue with the popup in the top of the first.
“Just tried to reset,” he said. “It’s a long game and there’s a lot of outs, and just tried to remind myself just to have a good at-bat.”
A single by Nico Hoerner and walks for Kyle Tucker and Ian Happ loaded the bases for Crow-Armstrong, who chased Priester with a liner to right. Happ made it 4-1 when he scampered home on a wild pitch from Nick Mears.
The 23-year-old Crow-Armstrong is batting .227 (5 for 22) with 11 strikeouts in six games in his first postseason. But the All-Star center fielder also hit a key RBI single off Yu Darvish in a clinching 3-1 victory over San Diego in the wild-card round.
“I’m pretty fortunate in a couple of these elimination games to just have pretty nice opportunities in front of me with guys on base, and I think that makes this job just a little bit easier sometimes,” Crow-Armstrong said.
It was a rough homecoming for Priester after a breakout performance this season. The 25-year-old right-hander, who grew up in the Chicago area, threw 39 pitches, 21 for strikes.
“Very frustrating. Very frustrated with that first inning, the only inning,” Priester said. “Command wasn’t good. My stuff wasn’t coming out the way I wanted it to and ultimately it falls on to me to make an adjustment.”
Taillon surrendered Bauers’ run-scoring single in the fourth. But the veteran right-hander limited the damage when he retired Joey Ortiz on a grounder to third, stranding runners on second and third.
The Brewers went 2 for 9 with runners in scoring position and left seven runners on base. The Cubs went 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position and also stranded seven baserunners.
“Oftentimes when you see close games, you look at the runners in scoring position and how successful you were,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “Yeah, we didn’t get the big hit. We did hit some balls hard, but credit to them and what they did in the first inning to do just enough to win.”
Up next
Both managers declined to announce their starting pitcher for Thursday.
Brewers right-hander Freddy Peralta and Cubs left-hander Matthew Boyd got the ball for Game 1 on Saturday. Peralta threw 95 pitches while striking out nine in 5 2/3 innings. Boyd recorded just two outs in the loss, throwing 21 of his 30 pitches for strikes.
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