Mishaps plague young Crew at Wrigley: 'Our youth showed tonight'

CHICAGO -- It’s been a season to remember for right-hander Tobias Myers, but for he and some of the Brewers’ other young players, this was a night to forget.

In a sloppy, 3-1 loss to the Cubs at Wrigley Field on Monday, Myers was burned by a balk, his own throwing error and a run-scoring wild pitch -- that hurt most of all, considering it came in an 0-2 count with two outs -- as Milwaukee reached the 100-game milestone with one of its most regrettable defeats.

“I think our youth showed tonight,” manager Pat Murphy said.

Youth is a defining feature of these Brewers, who reached the century mark at 57-43 with the second-youngest position player group in the Majors and a pitching staff populated by what Murphy lovingly referred to earlier Monday as “misfits.” Myers has a nasty arsenal of pitches but still manages to fit that description, given that he pitched in the Minors for the Giants, Guardians, Rays, Orioles and White Sox before coming to the Brewers via Minor League free agency in 2022. All that, and he’s still only 25.

With the Brewers’ offense unable to come up with the big hit they’d delivered so often the two previous days in Minnesota, Myers pitched with no room for error all night. And he was burned by a series of them.

In the third inning, Miguel Amaya reached on a spinning short-hopper to Brewers shortstop Willy Adames that got away for an infield hit. Myers then fell down on the mound during his delivery to Pete Crow-Armstrong, moving Amaya to second before he scored on Michael Busch’s two-out single. Myers said his cleat slipped off the back of the mound.

“I don’t know why that tends to happen, but we have to figure that out,” Myers said.

In the fourth, Myers found more trouble. First, he fielded a Dansby Swanson comebacker that might have produced an inning-ending double play had Myers’ throw down to second base not tailed into center field for an error.

“I probably just rushed it a little bit,” he said.

The Cubs ultimately loaded the bases with two outs, but Myers had a chance to escape when he worked into an 0-2 count against Crow-Armstrong, who went into that at-bat hitting .188 with a .542 OPS. Crow-Armstrong did eventually strike out, but not before Myers spiked a 58-foot changeup for a run-scoring wild pitch that gave the Cubs a 2-0 lead.

“It just can’t happen, a [wild pitch] with the bases loaded,” Myers said. “That’s the main thing that frustrated me. I feel like if I made that pitch, I give the team a chance to win and take the momentum away from their side a little bit. But it happened.”

Ian Happ homered off Myers in the sixth inning to close the book on the Brewers' right-hander, who was charged with three runs (two earned) on six hits in 5 1/3 innings, moving his ERA up only slightly from 3.13 to 3.14.

“It’s been under the radar, but except for a couple of outings, he’s been tremendous,” Murphy said. “He’s worked his tail off in between starts and he’s hooked on with some people who are teaching him the ropes. They’re tough on him, but he takes it all in.”

It wasn’t all on Myers, whose 77 1/3 mostly quality innings make him one of the most unexpected success stories for NL Central-leading Milwaukee. Brewers hitters worked six walks from Cubs starter Javier Assad before making their 11th out, but couldn’t score any runs. Between the third and fourth innings alone, the Brewers collected five walks and a base hit, but didn’t collect any runs. That finally changed when Willy Adames homered leading off the eighth.

The team’s youth showed in small ways. Red-hot rookie Jackson Chourio saw 12 pitches in four at-bats. Brice Turang finished 0-for-5 and has four hits in his past 44 at-bats. Sal Frelick was 0-for-4 including groundouts in the first inning with runners at first and second and in the third after Assad issued a trio of two-out walks.

“There were some youthful at-bats,” Murphy said. “We had a guy on the ropes, 33 pitches in the second [inning], but we had some early swings at the first pitch. … Just some little things we didn’t do, but we’re coming off playing really good offensive baseball [while sweeping the Twins].

“It’s frustrating and it [ticks] you off, but you understand it. You understand that it’s part of the game and you understand that it’s part of these guys growing up. This is a great environment to play in and they’re going to have to learn how to play in these environments.”