Chicago Cubs Score and Recap (8/28/22): Brewers 9, Cubs 7 – Brewers Nuke Newcomb, Take Series From Cubs

The Cubs attempted to win another series against the Brewers Sunday afternoon. After a promising start to the game Milwaukee exploded in the middle innings and took home the victory. The upside, if there is one, is that the Cubs take the season series 10-9.

Chicago grabbed an early lead against Eric Lauer with a pair of run-scoring singles. Nico Hoerner hit one of the singles in the 1st inning and Seiya Suzuki added the other in the 2nd. Adrian Sampson gave up an RBI double to Hunter Renfroe but that was the only run he allowed in 3.1 innings.

Sean Newcomb took over in the 4th and it was a disaster for the big left-hander. Three consecutive singles gave Milwaukee a 3-2 edge and suddenly homer-happy Christian Yelich hit a two-run bomb to make it 5-2.

The Cubs did answer back in the 5th inning when Hoerner blasted his own two-run dinger. Unfortunately, Newcomb came back out for the bottom of the frame and gave up yet another homer to Kolten Wong to push the score to 7-4.

The Brewers scored what would eventually become two important insurance runs off of Luke Farrell in the 6th inning.

Franmil Reyes crushed a massive two-run homer off of Brad Boxberger in the 9th but Devin Williams took over from there and closed out the 9-7 win. (Box score)

Why the Cubs Lost

David Ross was attempting to neutralize the heavily left-handed Brewers lineup with Sean Newcomb and unfortunately, it went very badly.

Eye on the Future

• A huge game for Nico with three hits and a couple of outstanding defensive efforts.
• Nick Madrigal singled and more importantly drew a pair of walks from the leadoff spot.

Taking Note

• Reyes had a couple of hits again and keeps impressing in his time as a Cub.
• Chicago winning the season series against the Brewers is a little salve for the deep gash left by this season.

Bottom Line

The Cubs continue to audition players for 2023, so when a reliever melts down as Newcomb did on Sunday it serves as a potentially helpful datapoint, although not very fun to watch. On the other hand, the continued breakout of Nico Hoerner is very fun to watch.

On Deck

Most of the Cubs head to Canada to take on the Toronto Blue Jays starting Monday at 6:07pm CT. Javier Assad takes the mound against José Berríos in a broadcast available on Marquee Sports Network and 670 The Score.