Pair of plays at the plate spoil hunt for 2nd straight comeback

MILWAUKEE -- Tuesday’s game at American Family Field was shaping up to be a rousing encore for Monday, when the Brewers came from behind to knock off the Cubs.

But after Milwaukee erased another big deficit -- and forced extra innings with a late rally -- Chicago held on for an 11-inning, 7-6 victory.

“It was a great game today,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “We’re on the losing side of it, unfortunately. But a really good game.”

At the epicenter of a back-and-forth final few innings were a pair of plays in which Cubs left fielder Ian Happ threw out Brewers runners at home plate.

Happ’s first throw, in the 10th inning, cut down what would have been the Brewers’ game-winning run. His second throw, an inning later, retired Owen Miller and completed a game-ending double play as the Cubs secured the win.

"Happ made great throws,” Counsell said. “I think that's where you’ve got to start with those two plays, is he made two really, really good throws. Things [have] got to go right, still, to score a guy from third with one out. With two outs, there's no question about it.

“We made him make a good throw in the 10th. He made a good throw.”

“[Happ] did have to make a good throw, and he did,” Miller said of the game-ending play. “Credit to him. He made a good throw the inning before that, too. Credit to him. I mean, if you don't make that throw, then we obviously tie that up there.”

The Brewers scored twice in both the eighth and ninth innings to tie the Cubs at 6 and force extra innings. Chicago failed to score in the top half of the 10th, and Milwaukee appeared on its way to a walk-off win in the bottom half of the inning.

Miller lined a single into left field, but Happ came up firing with a perfect one-hop throw to the plate to retire Andruw Monasterio -- preserving the tie. Miller attempted to advance to second on the play, but catcher Miguel Amaya threw him out to end the inning on an unorthodox 7-2-4 double play.

The Brewers challenged the out calls at second and home, and also whether Amaya had illegally blocked the plate. The out calls were confirmed, and replay also showed that there was no plate-blocking violation.

"Well, I tagged him -- the guy at home plate,” Amaya said. “I saw [Miller], like, celebrating. He was halfway [to second], so I threw the ball there and we made that play and got out of the inning."

The Cubs took a 7-6 lead in the 11th, on an infield single by Nico Hoerner, which Willy Adames snagged but couldn’t throw accurately to first.

In the bottom half, Miller started on second base as the automatic runner before advancing to third on Raimel Tapia’s groundout. He tagged up on Brice Turang’s flyout to left, and Happ fired another strike to Amaya. It beat Miller by several feet for a game-ending double play.

“Any team you play on, you want to be an aggressive baserunning team,” Miller said. “You want to make the guys throw you out. That is kind of our perspective on stealing bases and tagging up on fly balls. … You can live with a guy throwing you out like that at the end of the game, because you're at least making him throw you out.

“You're making him make a play on you. It's baseball. Sometimes, it doesn't fall your way.”

Happ’s two denials stood between the Brewers and another impressive win, following Monday’s six-run comeback. Wade Miley held the Cubs to four runs in five innings despite allowing nine hits. The eighth- and ninth-inning rallies came against Mark Leiter Jr. and Adbert Alzolay, two of the Cubs’ top relievers.

“We didn’t roll over yesterday, and we fought back and won the game,” Miller said. “Today, we came back, and unfortunately we didn’t end up with a win. But obviously it showed that we were fighting. We put up a good fight, and that will set us up for success for the next two games.”

Said Counsell: “Both teams just left everything out there, for sure. We battled back down four again. Battled back and put together some great rallies late against two good relievers having good years. We did it right. We lost on a ground ball that unfortunately was hit to the right spot for them.”