Ian Happ reached the majors in May 2017, just six-plus months after the Chicago Cubs won the World Series for the first time in 108 years.
The nine-year veteran is now the longest-tenured player on the Cubs, and he came up big Thursday night with his team facing elimination.
Happ smacked a three-run homer in the first inning to set the tone as the Cubs rolled to a 6-0 victory over the visiting Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday night to even the National League Division Series at two wins apiece.
Kyle Tucker and Michael Busch also homered as Chicago won its second straight game in the best-of-five series. The clubs will play the deciding contest on Saturday night in Milwaukee.
The homer by Happ was his second of the series off Brewers ace Freddy Peralta. It also revved up an already high-octane crowd to ear-thumping decibels.
“I’m just so happy for Ian,” Chicago manager Craig Counsell said. “It was great for Ian to have the playoff moment that he deserves. It was a huge swing, a huge swing.”
Happ was just 2-for-21 with 11 strikeouts in six games this postseason before that electric swing on Thursday.
Nico Hoerner singled off Peralta with one out in the first and Kyle Tucker walked. After Seiya Suzuki struck out, Happ jumped on a 1-1 fastball and slammed it into the right field seats to give the Cubs a quick 3-0 lead.
“We’ve been doing really good at starting the game off,” Happ said. “Guys are getting on base and the big swing there, giving us a chance to get up.”
Hoerner had three hits and a run, Matt Shaw added two hits and an RBI and Tucker had two hits and two runs for the Cubs.
Matt Boyd struck out six in 4 2/3 innings as five Chicago pitchers combined on a three-hitter. Boyd gave up two hits and walked three.
Cubs reliever Daniel Palencia (3-0) permitted one hit in 1 1/3 innings. Drew Pomeranz fanned two in the seventh, Brad Keller worked the eighth, and Caleb Thielbar tossed a perfect ninth.
Peralta (1-1) gave up three runs and three hits in four innings. He struck out six and walked two.
Milwaukee was 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position in Game 4, one night after finishing 2-for-9 in a 4-3 defeat.
The Brewers will try to find their bats at home on Saturday. They scored 16 runs while winning two straight in Milwaukee before posting just three runs in the two losses at Chicago.
Now the Cubs have the momentum that the Brewers had earlier this week.
“It’s something you can’t force,” Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy said. “Momentum in baseball happens based what’s on the field. The Cubs earned it. They had their backs against the wall and they played great these last two games.”
Milwaukee is in the postseason for the seventh time in the past eight seasons and has reached the NLCS just once during that span, in 2018.
“It’s part of the story,” Brewers designated hitter Christian Yelich said of the latest do-or-die situation. “Sometimes you have to win some big games and sometimes you face some adversity in the postseason. You just have to keep going.”
The Brewers threatened in the fifth as Sal Frelick doubled and Blake Perkins walked to start the inning. Boyd, a left-hander, retired the next two hitters before right-hander Palencia entered and got right-handed-hitting Jackson Chourio to hit an inning-ending popup.
In the sixth, Carson Kelly reached on an error by Brewers third baseman Caleb Durbin and was sacrificed to second by Pete Crow-Armstrong. Dansby Swanson drew a walk from Aaron Ashby before Shaw hit an RBI single to center to make it 4-0.
Tucker led off the seventh with a blast to center off Robert Gasser. Kelly appeared to hit a two-run homer to left later in the inning, but the play was reviewed and the ball was shown to be just foul.
Busch took Gasser deep to right-center in the eighth to make it a six-run margin. It was Busch’s third homer of the series and fourth of the postseason.
–Field Level Media
