Crew's sweep bid falls short after Grandy HR

MILWAUKEE -- The favorable first impression is nice. A sweep would have been nicer.
Brewers newcomer Curtis Granderson continued to cement the former but was denied the latter on Wednesday night, when he smashed a pinch-hit, two-run home run in the seventh inning that gave Milwaukee hope, but struck out to end a once-promising threat in the ninth and sealed a 6-4 loss to the Cubs at Miller Park.
Milwaukee's mistakes loomed large in the Cubs' four-run fourth inning, and Daniel Murphy and Kyle Schwarber homered for Chicago to avert a three-game sweep. It was an important swing game for the Brewers; instead of pushing 19 games over .500 for the first time and moving within two games of the Cubs in the division with three more head-to-head matchups next week at Wrigley Field, Milwaukee fell four games back at 79-62.
In the NL Wild Card standings, the Brewers still hold the top spot, but the Cardinals climbed within a half-game of Milwaukee with another tense win at Washington on Wednesday night.
"Whether it was win or lose, the season doesn't end today," Granderson said. "You still have to come back and reset."

The Brewers host the Giants for three games this weekend before they do it all over again against the Cubs.
"Look, we won the series," said Brewers manager Craig Counsell. "This was a chance to put a big dent in the division lead and we were unable to do so, and now it's just kind of onto winning games and keep winning games and let's have a good weekend and go back there [to Wrigley Field] and give ourselves another chance to put a dent in it."

The Brewers were left to lament missed opportunities at the plate -- they finished 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position, including three consecutive outs in the bottom of the ninth with the batter representing the winning run -- and in the field. Errors charged to center fielder Lorenzo Cain and shortstop Orlando Arcia on one ugly play in the fourth inning helped the Cubs take a 4-0 lead against Brewers starter Jhoulys Chacín, who entered with a 2.01 ERA over his last five starts but was out of this game before the end of the fifth.
It was 6-2 entering the seventh, when Granderson's home run off Cubs reliever Jesse Chavez gave Granderson his first home run and RBIs since being acquired in a trade with the Blue Jays ahead of Friday's deadline to add players and have them eligible for potential postseason play, and gave the Brewers a jolt after they were held to two runs on five hits over 6 2/3 innings against Cubs starter and longtime nemesis José Quintana.
Granderson remained in the game in right field and came up again as the potential winning run in the ninth inning but struck out swinging against Pedro Strop to end the game. Granderson has reached safely in five of his first eight plate appearances since the trade. He also has walked three times and delivered a key pinch-hit single in the Brewers' walk-off win over the Cubs on Labor Day.
"Curtis has done exactly what we expected," Counsell said. "He's got on base; he's really good at getting on base."

And of his clubhouse contributions, Counsell said, "It takes him like, a day to make an impact in the clubhouse. He's that well-respected around the league. There's very few guys who I think can just walk into a clubhouse and guys are going and sitting next to him. That's the kind of guy Curtis is. You want to hear Curtis talk."
When he talked after the game, Granderson expressed calm.
"[My first impression] doesn't mean much one way or the other," Granderson said, "because regardless of whether I was 0-for-5 or 5-for-5 at the beginning, there was still going to be meaningful at-bats as the season comes along. We're at the beginning part of September."
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Throwing it around:Javier Báez's hustle on the basepaths contributed to a big play for the Cubs and a bad one for the Brewers in the pivotal fourth inning. With Baez at first base and Chicago leading, 1-0, Anthony Rizzo singled to center field. Baez had barely touched second base when Cain fielded the ball, but his throw sailed way over third and caromed back onto the diamond, allowing Baez to hustle home. Meanwhile, third base was unoccupied so Rizzo kept going, and while it appeared he would have been out had the Brewers' moving pieces come into place, Arcia misfired a throw for another error, and Rizzo was safe. He scored on Ben Zobrist's double over first base, and Zobrist eventually scored as well.
"The play was a little unorthodox, but we had an out at third base and Orlando just rushed the throw a little bit," Counsell said. "That was an out and that could have shut down that inning right there and then it's a two-run inning, probably, instead of a four-run inning."

It started with Baez.
"[Baez] puts a lot of pressure on the defense. He always does," Chacin said. "He's not scared. When he sees an opportunity, he tries to take advantage."
Said Cain of Baez: "He didn't surprise me, I knew he was going. But I made a [poor] throw. I know what kind of player he is; he hustles. I just made a terrible throw."
Something cooking: Expanded rosters plus a rare day off for NL MVP candidate Christian Yelich meant the Brewers had all the pieces in place for a comeback in the bottom of the ninth. Against Strop, one pinch-hitter (Travis Shaw) walked before Yelich singled to bring the potential winning run to the plate with no outs. But yet another pinch-hitter (Eric Thames) popped out before Cain grounded into a fielder's choice and Granderson struck out to end the threat.

"We had the guys up there in the ninth inning," Counsell said. "That's one thing when you're sitting on the bench and you're kind of debating when to deploy those guys. You know Strop's got the ninth, and it worked out that we had a good setup there and put a little rally together. But he made pitches."
HE SAID IT
"It would have been nice to sweep these guys, but it's always tough to sweep a team -- and they have a pretty good team over there. We've been playing them tough all year. It's definitely been good games all season long. I don't expect anything less when we play those guys [next week]." -- Cain
UP NEXT
Yelich will be back in the lineup Friday when the Brewers return from an off-day to host the Giants at 7:10 p.m. CT for the opener of a three-game series. Chase Anderson, who beat the Giants in late July at AT&T Park, is on the mound for Milwaukee against Giants left-hander Derek Holland.