CHICAGO – Kyle Harrison received some instant feedback from Nico Hoerner, and he paid heed.
After seeing the Chicago Cubs leadoff man belt a fifth-pitch slider to left field, the Milwaukee Brewers left-hander immediately knew it was time to switch up his tactics.
Meaning more four-seam fastballs – a season-high 64 over the course of the game – that ultimately rendered the Northsiders’ normally high-powered offense impotent.
Harrison absolutely dominated over seven innings, retiring 15 straight batters at one point and striking out 11 to punctuate a statement series by the Brewers with a 5-0 shutout that clinched just the fifth sweep ever for Milwaukee at Wrigley Field.
“Honestly, that first hitter let me know it wasn’t a really good slider,” Harrison said. “I was like, ‘Wind’s blowing in – let’s attack these guys and have them hit some flyouts.’ William [Contreras] was on the same page with me and was like, ‘Hey, the ball in the air is an out today,’ so kept attacking with the heater and tried to stay ahead.”
Harrison got some help from centerfielder Garrett Mitchell and then Brewers replay gurus August Sandri and Abdel Yeb when Hoerner was thrown out trying to tag from second, with Mitchell’s throw to third right on the money and the ensuing replay challenge overturning third-base umpire Jansen Visconti’s initial safe call.
A three-run second by the offense made possible by a terrible play in center field by Pete Crow-Armstrong gave Harrison some breathing room, and he more than made it stand up thanks in large part to well-located four-seamers that featured season-best velocity (high of 97.6 mph).
Harrison walked Seiya Suzuki to start the bottom of the second but went strikeout-strikeout-flyout to strand him, and then just mowed through the Cubs lineup with zero resistance from the third through the sixth before Alex Bregman started the seventh with a solid single to center.
No matter.
Harrison responded by fanning Ian Happ, getting Suzuki to pop out to shortstop and Carson Kelly to foul out to first. A David Hamilton triple in the top of the seventh had stretched the lead to 5-0, and DL Hall took over from there with two shutout innings.
“Fantastic,” is how manager Pat Murphy described Harrison’s night. “He was great. He’s getting better and better and this is a great testament to how hard he’s worked and how hard our pitching coaches have worked with him.
“He looked fantastic.”
Added Hamilton: “I’m not a pitcher and I’m not a pitching coach. But when you’re using the fastball and you’re putting it where you want to, it’s really hard as a hitter to get your rhythm going.
“It was really good stuff from him tonight.”
The seven innings tied a career high for Harrison, and the double-digit strikeout game was the fourth of his career and second of the season (he struck out 12 against the Pittsburgh Pirates on April 26). Of his 19 whiffs, 13 came on his four-seamer.
Harrison is now 5-1 on the season, riding a 12-inning scoreless streak and has allowed two runs or fewer in all nine of his starts with the Brewers 7-2 in those games.
His ERA on the season is down to 1.77, he’s struck out 59 batters in 45 ⅔ innings and developed into a budding ace on a staff that already has one of the game’s great young starters in Jacob Misiorowski.
“It definitely means a lot,” Harrison said of his body of work to date. “I think it shows the work. I’m not really focused on the results, per se, but really just been doing a good job commanding the zone. But as you know, it’s day by day. You can’t look at past outings. Just was focused on today, and now I’m focused on the next one.”
Harrison, 24, was the third and final piece of the Feb. 9 trade that sent Caleb Durbin to the Boston Red Sox to play a role in Milwaukee’s sweep in Chicago, with Shane Drohan pitching 4 ⅓ innings of relief to pick up the victory in the opener and Hamilton powering the offense with his legs in this one.
Is highway robbery too strong a term? Grand larceny? Because at this rate, Harrison might well be joining The Miz at the All-Star Game this July in Philadelphia.
“He’s coming into his own,” Murphy said of the one-time highly touted prospect who’s finally found a home after uneven showings with the San Francisco Giants and the Red Sox. “He’s bobbed and weaved for a couple years, two organizations, trying to figure out how to get it done and how to be consistent.
“He’s found a home.”
Run, David, run
With Sal Frelick on second base and Joey Ortiz at first, Hamilton stepped in against Cubs starter Edward Cabrera in the second inning and sent a 106.1-mph bullet to center for what should have been a run-scoring single.
Pete Crow-Armstrong raced in but overran the ball, which ended up rolling all the way to the edge of the warning track.
What was Hamilton thinking when he saw that happen?
“Run,” he said. “I saw it get past him and I was thinking (scoring), but not sure. Running as fast as I can.”
Which for Hamilton is elite sprint speed – 29.1 feet per second and 15.07 seconds from home to home as he slid in head-first with the throw in getting past catcher Carson Kelly for what’s affectionately called a “Little League” home run but goes down in the box score as an RBI single and error on Crow-Armstrong.
“The minute it got by him, I said he’s going to score,” Murphy said. “He’s got exceptional speed. I’m just happy with the way he hit the ball tonight.”
Hamilton’s triple in the seventh was skied down the line in right and carried into the corner where Suzuki was unable to reel it in. One batter later, Hamilton scored on a wild pitch by Phil Maton.
“I was hoping it would get out of here, but the wind was pretty crazy today,” said Hamilton, who also singled in the ninth with his three-hit night upping his batting average nearly 20 points to .248. “Saw it go off his glove and same thing – just started running.”
Garrett Mitchell is fine
Had it been a hot, muggy August night, Mitchell might well have finished the game.
Instead, he called it a night after five innings with a tight back as Blake Perkins took over in center.
“All good,” he said. “More precautionary. Just being careful. No real reason to push it right now.”
Understandable, considering Mitchell’s extensive injury history. He’s been productive to this point of the season with his 24 runs batted in fourth-most on the team while also playing a strong center field.
And to that point, it was his 90.6-mph throw in to Hamilton at third that ultimately cut Hoerner down for the first-inning double play that helped pave the way for Harrison’s dominant performance.
He had to wait a little while and watch the play on the video board in left-center before Milwaukee’s replay challenge was deemed successful.
“Just try to get behind the ball and make a good throw,” he said. “I feel like I’ve had a lot of those close ones, where they can go either way. When I saw it on the board I was like, “Please.’ It was nice that it went my way today.
“I’ll take it.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Kyle Harrison proving to be a star in the making for the Brewers
Reporting by Todd Rosiak, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
