MILWAUKEE – The Cubs started the National League Division Series with a blast, but that was all the meaningful pop the team had in Game 1.
The Brewers routed the Cubs 9-3 to take a 1-0 lead in the NLDS.
The backstory:
Milwaukee scored six times in the first inning, where 11 batters got an at-bat. That chased Cubs’ left-handed All-Star Matt Boyd from the game. He got the start on Saturday on three-days rest.
Boyd’s one-inning start was the shortest postseason start for a Cubs’ pitcher since the 1945 World Series. The best development of the day for the Cubs were the 4.1 innings pitched from reliever Aaron Civale. The former White Sox pitcher, who the Sox acquired from the Brewers this year, prevented the Cubs from using a high number of their bullpen arms.
Nico Hoerner, Ian Happ and Michael Busch all homered to provide the Cubs’ three runs of offense, however they were all solo hom runs. If anyone was on base for those three home runs, they would have made it a closer game. Instead, the Brewers took Game 1 in emphatic fashion. Game 2 is Monday night.
The other side:
Milwaukee’s Jackson Chourio left Saturday’s NL Division Series opener against the Chicago Cubs with a hamstring injury after becoming the first player to have three hits in the first two innings of a postseason game.
Chourio spent a month on the injured list after straining his right hamstring while running the bases on a triple in a July 29 victory over the Cubs.
“It’s scary,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said during the TBS telecast of Game 1. “He had a hamstring that kept him out a month, and it’s the same hamstring, so we’re worried about it. It’s really unfortunate.”
The Brewers announced Chourio’s injury as right hamstring tightness.
Chourio hit a bases-loaded grounder up the third base line in the second inning. He beat the throw for an RBI single that extended Milwaukee’s lead to 9-1, but he moved awkwardly after crossing first base.
Chourio, 21, departed after he was visited by Murphy and head athletic trainer Brad Epstein. Isaac Collins entered as a pinch runner and remained in the game in left field.
Chourio also hit a leadoff double and a two-run single as part of the Brewers’ six-run outburst in the first inning. He capped his rookie season last year by going 5 of 11 with two homers in the Brewers’ NL Wild Card Series loss to the New York Mets. – Associated Press
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