Ryan Braun and Casey McGehee homered as the Milwaukee Brewers avoided a sweep with an 8-6 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Thursday.
Rickie Weeks added an RBI single and Jim Edmonds had three hits and scored three runs for the Brewers, who got three more hits from Gregg Zaun.
After blowing a 6-3 lead in the eighth inning on Wednesday, Milwaukee looked like it intended to let the game slip away again, grabbing three different leads in the first six innings only to watch the Cubs battle back to take the lead or tie each time.
The Brewers finally pulled ahead for good when Weeks reached Jeff Samardzija (0-1) for an RBI single in the seventh.
Braun extended the lead with a solo blast – his third of the season – off Samardzija in the eighth and added an RBI on an infield hit in the ninth to put the game out of reach.
Chris Narveson (1-0) picked up the win with an inning in relief of starter Jeff Suppan.
Trevor Hoffman allowed a run in the ninth but got Aramis Ramirez to fly out to center to end the game for his third save.
Chicago ace Carlos Zambrano struggled through five innings, yielding four runs – three earned – and eight hits. The burly right-hander struck out seven but walked three while throwing 112 pitches.
Milwaukee | Chi. Cubs | |
Jeff Suppan | Player | Carlos Zambrano |
No Decision | W/L | No Decision |
5.0 | IP | 5.0 |
4 | Strikeouts | 7 |
6 | Hits | 8 |
7.20 | ERA | 5.40 |
Milwaukee | Chi. Cubs | |
Ryan Braun | Player | Marlon Byrd |
4 | Hits | 2 |
3 | RBI | 2 |
1 | HR | 1 |
7 | TB | 6 |
.800 | Avg | .500 |