Game 1 goes to Cubs after Brewer blunders
MILWAUKEE -- So CC Sabathia is human after all.
Rickie Weeks and turning double plays still go about as well together as Brett Favre and Ted Thompson.
And if they couldn't stand him already for being in a May 1 collision near first base that led to Yovani Gallardo's likely season-ending knee surgery, Milwaukee Brewers fans must surely loathe Chicago Cubs outfielder Reed Johnson now.
Those were just three points to consider after the Cubs rallied for a 6-4 victory and a two-game lead in the NL Central before 45,311 supercharged fans on Monday night at sold-out Miller Park in the opener of a four-game series that is perhaps the Brewers' biggest in the regular season at home since their last pennant year of 1982.
After Sabathia went 4-0 with a 1.36 earned run average and three consecutive complete games since he arrived from Cleveland on July 7, Chicago collected four runs (three earned) and nine hits in 6 2/3 innings off Sabathia, who walked two and struck out only three despite being the top strikeout pitcher in the major leagues with 157.
Leadoff hitter Alfonso Soriano just missed a home run in the first inning but crushed one into the loge bleachers in left field in the third to give Chicago a 2-0 advantage.
By going 2-for-4, Soriano boosted his career batting average vs. Sabathia to .370 along with four home runs. Most of that success came when Soriano played for the New York Yankees and Texas Rangers.
J.J. Hardy and Ryan Braun's back-to-back homers and Corey Hart's RBI double in the sixth put Milwaukee ahead 3-2, and the score would have remained that way if Weeks had completed a double play following Sabathia's 124th and final pitch in the seventh.
With the bases loaded, Derrek Lee hit a ground ball right to the shortstop Hardy, who made a clean flip to Weeks at second for the force. But with Johnson barreling down on him, Weeks' low, sidearm relay to first base sailed wide of Prince Fielder and went out of play, allowing the Cubs to retake the lead 4-3.
Weeks' inability to make accurate throws to first on double-play opportunities has plagued him throughout his four-year tenure with the Brewers.
So instead of being in line for his fifth consecutive victory as a Brewer, Sabathia had to settle for a no-decision after teammate Russell Branyan tied it at 4-4 in the bottom of the inning with a pinch-hit homer into the Brewers' bullpen in left-center.
"He's a horse. There's no question about that," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said of Sabathia, a 6-foot-7, 290-pound left-hander. "You can see what confidence they have in him.
"They left him in there to face the meat of our lineup when he got in trouble. Reed Johnson did a real nice job of sliding hard into Weeks and getting him to throw that ball away."
Lee, who went 3-for-5 with three RBIs and ripped the game-winning double down the right-field line off Brewers closer Salomon Torres in the ninth, admitted that the Cubs received a game-changing break when Weeks committed his ninth error this season.
"I was trying to get to first before the ball did. I've got to thank Reed for breaking it up," Lee said. "That's a huge play. We get two runs when we shouldn't have gotten any.
"It's nice to beat him. He's their ace, and he's tough."
However, Lee wouldn't go so far as to say the Cubs' ability to prevent Sabathia from winning again diminished the swagger that has been evident in the Milwaukee clubhouse since Sabathia first put on his No. 52 Brewers jersey three weeks ago.
"It's not like we really hit him hard. He pitched a good game, and when he gets in tough spots he takes it to a whole different level," Lee said. "We just got the little bit better end of him (Monday)."
As for his career success vs. Sabathia, Soriano summed it up this way:
"I think when I face him, I feel very good at home plate," he said. "I think that's the only way I can hit him because if your hands are like a little slow it's so difficult to hit him because he's a very good pitcher."
And it turns out, at least to Brewers fans, that Johnson is a very good pest.
"When I'm in that situation, I always tell myself to follow the ball," said Johnson, who went 0-for-3 Monday but is still a .333 lifetime hitter (8-for-24) vs. Sabathia.
"If the ball's hit to the left, you slide to the left side of the bag. If it hits to the right, you slide to the right side of the bag. That way you try to beat the middle infielder to a spot, and I was able to get in there and get a good piece of him."
Not that Johnson's hard slide mattered much to Brewers manager Ned Yost.
"It's a double play that has to be made," Yost said on mlb.com. "What happens is, sometimes he tries to be too quick."
Added Weeks to mlb.com: "I tried to turn it the best way possible. It just got away from me. ... It's not a mental thing, it's going out there and making a play. I made a mistake."
A very costly one at that for the Brewers, but a welcome sight for the Cubs (62-44), who won for only the seventh time in their last 21 road games and extended their lead in the NL Central to two games over the second-place Brewers (60-46).
"Look, it's a win. That's all I care about. It's in the win column," Piniella said. "The guys played a hard ball game, they played tough, and we won the first game of an important series."
Associated Press
The Milwaukee Brewers' CC Sabathia pitches against the Chicago Cubs on Monday night in Milwaukee.
