'That's on me': Yelich, Crew own miscues in 11-inning loss

CHICAGO -- As if anyone needed reminding, it isn’t easy to close out a Major League baseball game.

On the same day the Padres responded to his series of poor outings by pausing Josh Hader’s status as closer, Hader’s former team saw a one-run lead get away not once, not twice but three times over the final three innings of an excruciating 11-inning, 6-5 Brewers loss to the Cubs at Wrigley Field.

It was just three weeks ago that the Brewers beat the Red Sox at Fenway Park to push four games ahead of the Cardinals and the rest of the National League Central. Since then, the Brewers have lost 12 of 18 games while falling to 4 1/2 games behind the Cardinals in the division standings and 1 1/2 games behind the Padres for the final NL Wild Card spot, pending those teams’ games later Saturday night.

Of all the recent losses, none was more brutal than this one, considering the Brewers got Freddy Peralta’s first quality start since returning from the injured list, then Willy Adames’ huge two-out, two-run home run for a 3-2 lead in the eighth, and then took a 4-3 lead in the 10th inning and a 5-4 lead in the 11th.

Every time they pulled ahead, that advantage slipped away, including in the bottom of the 10th when Christian Yelich fumbled the exchange on a fly ball to shallow left field and sent Ian Happ scampering home with a run just as important as the one that scored on Willson Contreras’ walk-off single off Peter Strzelecki an inning later.

“I don’t really have an explanation for what happened other than it can’t happen,” Yelich said. “That one’s on me. Pretty bad extra innings for me today.”

Pretty bad extra innings for everyone.

In the ninth, Nico Hoerner, a thorn in the Brewers’ side at shortstop all afternoon, immediately tested Devin Williams, Hader’s replacement as closer, with a seven-pitch groundout. Then Patrick Wisdom worked a 10-pitch walk. Williams got the second out of the inning but walked pinch-hitter Rafael Ortega on four pitches to push the tying runner into scoring position ahead of Nick Madrigal, who flared Williams’ 32nd pitch just out of reach of leaping second baseman Kolten Wong, tying the game at 3-3 and marking Williams’ first blown save this season.

After Williams walked Contreras, Brewers manager Craig Counsell pulled the plug at 37 pitches.

The Cubs had fouled off 11 of them.

“That’s not done against Devin a lot,” Counsell said.

Taylor Rogers, acquired from the Padres in the Hader trade and himself a decorated closer, had struck out Happ with the bases loaded to send the game into extra innings, and the Brewers had scored their free baserunner for a lead but then left the bases loaded. Yelich was particularly upset about that. With two on, no outs and the lead runner already in, he couldn’t execute a bunt and wound up striking out, giving the Cubs a path to escaping further damage.

So, back to the mound went Rogers with only a one-run lead.

This time, the Brewers’ problem was less Cubs hitters and more their own mistakes, beginning with allowing Happ to steal third without making a play. That put the tying runner 90 feet from home for Franmil Reyes, who got the benefit of two close calls on balls at the end of the strike zone before lifting a fly ball to Yelich in shallow left field.

Yelich made the catch but fumbled the transfer. Happ, who said he had decided to assess the quality of Yelich’s throw to choose whether to go home, had the debate settled for him.

"I kind of took off to at least draw a throw,” Happ said. “When the ball hit the ground, I was going."

Said Yelich: “I didn’t get the bunt down, didn’t move the runners, and then that fly ball in extra innings, too. Pretty tough sequence. That’s the game of baseball sometimes. But if you want to win baseball games, especially on teams trying to make the playoffs, you have to make those plays.”

The Brewers haven’t won a series of more than three games since their visit to Boston at the end of July. They need to win Sunday to avoid being swept before heading to Los Angeles for a rematch with the best-in-baseball Dodgers.

“We’ve kind of put our backs up against the wall a little bit, and you have to respond,” Counsell said. “That’s the baseball season and that’s our job moving forward. … Every team has losses like this that feel like it stings a little bit more. But we have to come out tomorrow and understand that it’s worth the same as the game today.”

Said Williams: “Realistically, it’s only one game. ... We have a lot of games left to play, a lot of chances to get some wins on the board.”

Those wins are especially precious. In the Wild Card race, the Brewers must finish with a better record than the Phillies and Padres because they lost the regular season series to both teams. They trail in their regular season series against the Cardinals, 8-7, with four matchups remaining.

“We don’t really have a choice [but to move on],” Yelich said. “That was a tough one, one that we should have won. If I do my job, we probably win that game. Got no choice but to bounce back.”