Pitching on his 31st birthday, Marcus Stroman allowed two hits over seven stellar innings and outdueled Corbin Burnes to earn his first victory for the Chicago Cubs in a 2-0 road win that cooled off the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday.
Patrick Wisdom belted a solo home run and Seiya Suzuki delivered an RBI double for the Cubs, who snapped a three-game skid and avoided being swept while winning for just the third time in 12 contests.
However, the day belonged to Stroman (1-3), who allowed 15 runs over 19 1/3 innings of his first four starts as a Cub. He yielded only a first-inning single to Willy Adames and a double to Tyrone Taylor in the third on Sunday. Then the right-hander retired the final 14 batters he saw against a Brewers squad that totaled 20 runs in the first two games of the set and had won five in a row.
Burnes (1-1), meanwhile, retired the first 13 batters he faced, including seven on strikeouts. Then Wisdom clubbed a 1-0 pitch well over the left-field wall in the fifth. The Cubs extended their lead in the sixth when Alfonso Rivas reached on a two-out infield single, then scored via Suzuki’s double down the left-field line.
Milwaukee’s reigning NL Cy Young Award winner also completed seven innings, allowing four hits, while striking out 10 and walking one batter.
The Brewers put runners on first and second in the bottom of the eighth, but Chicago’s David Robertson took over for Rowan Wick and fanned Jace Peterson for the final out. Robertson stayed on for the ninth to retire three of the four batters he faced for his fifth save in five chances.
Milwaukee pounded 25 hits on Friday and Saturday, but just three in the finale. The Brewers were shut out for the third time this season, and the second time by Chicago.
Though the Cubs managed to salvage a win in the series, they struck out 12 more times Sunday, leaving their total strikeouts for the set at 36.
–Field Level Media