Dominant Harrison leads Brewers to 5-0 victory, sweep of Cubs

· Yahoo Sports

May 20, 2026; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Kyle Harrison (52) throws the ball against the Chicago Cubs during the first inning at Wrigley Field. Mandatory Credit: David Banks-Imagn Images | David Banks-Imagn Images

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The first series of the year between the Brewers and their arch-rivals, the Cubs, did not go the way that the Wrigley Field faithful wanted it to go. For the second straight night, Chicago was unable to score a run off of a dominant Milwaukee starter. This time it was Kyle Harrison, who struck out 11 in seven shutout innings for one of the best starts of his young career. Injury was added to insult when Chicago starter Edward Cabrera had to leave the game with an injury concern, and the Brewer offense capitalized on some Chicago miscues to cruise to a 5-0 victory and a surprisingly comfortable three-game sweep.

The Brewers got a couple of hits in the first inning when Brice Turang and William Contreras hit back-to-back one-out singles. But Cabrera got Christian Yelich to fly out and Garrett Mitchell to ground out and Turang didn’t make it past second base.

Nico Hoerner led off the Cubs’ half of the first inning with a double down the left-field line. But Hoerner tried to tag and advance on a fly ball to Mitchell in center, and Mitchell—who has one of the stronger outfield arms in the league—got him at third base (after an initial safe call was overturned on replay). A strikeout of Ian Happ ended the inning.

Things got weird in the top of the second. After a Jake Bauers groundout, Sal Frelick reached on catcher’s interference, a call that Milwaukee needed to challenge in order to get it right. Frelick stole second, then Joey Ortiz walked to put runners on first and second with one out. David Hamilton got ahead 2-0, which prompted a mid-at-bat mound visit from the Cubs’ dugout. On the next pitch, Hamilton hit what should’ve been a solid RBI single to center field… but for the second straight night, Pete Crow-Armstrong made an inexplicably bad play in center, and let the ball go under his glove. With the speedy Hamilton running, there was no question what would happen: it was a three-run little-league home run.

Cabrera got out of the second inning with the score still 3-0, despite a 104 mph fly ball to center from Chourio. Harrison walked Seiya Suzuki to start the second, but came back with strikeouts of Carson Kelly and Michael Busch, and Dansby Swanson flew out harmlessly.

The Brewers also got a leadoff walk in the top of the third when Cabrera issued a free pass to Contreras. Cabrera struck out Yelich and the Cubs could’ve had a strike-him-out, throw-him-out double play with Contreras running on the 3-2 pitch, but Kelly’s throw to second went into center field, and Contreras got up and made it all the way to third with one out. Mitchell had an ill-timed strikeout, but Bauers came through with a two-out RBI single through the right side that made it 4-0.

Miguel Amaya flew out to start the bottom of the third. PCA then watched four straight fastballs go by, three of which were in the zone, and then Hoerner flew out to center to end the inning.

Cabrera threw one pitch in the top of the fourth, and something was clearly wrong as Kelly and Craig Counsell came to the mound. It wasn’t exactly clear what happened to Cabrera, but the pitch was a fastball that was about four miles per hour below what he’d been throwing earlier, and he seemed to be favoring his pitching arm. He went straight from the mound to the clubhouse, and there was a delay as Trent Thornton was given as much time as he needed to warm up on the mound.

Thornton settled things down for the Cubs and got the Brewers in order, though Chourio hit one to the back of the warning track in right field, his second flyout of the night that clocked in with an exit velocity over 100 mph. In the bottom of the inning, Bregman flew out to left and Happ and Suzuki struck out, Harrison’s fifth and sixth strikeout victims.

Turang struck out looking to start the fifth on a pitch that needed to be overturned by a Kelly challenge. Thornton struck out Contreras, too, and the Counsell went to Old Friend Hoby Milner to face Yelich, who flew out to shallow center.

Harrison had another 1-2-3 innings and two more strikeouts in the fifth, getting him to eight for the game. He’d also thrown just 65 pitches through five after needing 99 to get through five scoreless innings in his last outing. Milner continued in the top of the sixth and retired Blake Perkins, who’d entered defensively in the fifth (nothing wrong with Mitchell, it was just to counter the Milner move), Bauers, and Frelick in order.

Another 1-2-3 inning for Harrison in the sixth meant he’d retired 15 straight. He also struck out two more batters, bringing his total to 10.

Phil Maton was the new Chicago pitcher in the seventh. Ortiz hit a hard line drive into right field, but Suzuki had him positioned well and made the catch. Hamilton was next, and he hit a towering fly ball into the right-field corner that Suzuki reached but seemed to lose it at the last moment—it hit Suzuki (it would’ve been a very nice play had he caught it), and Hamilton ended up at third base with a triple. Maton’s first pitch to Chourio was wide and got past Kelly, and Hamilton scored easily from third on the wild pitch.

Milwaukee tried to keep the rally going in the seventh—Chourio drew a one-out walk, and Contreras singled with two outs. Counsell went back to his bullpen to bring in lefty Ryan Rolison to face Yelich. Yelich nearly came throw with a two-out RBI single on a slow grounder up the middle, but Hoerner made a nice play to end the inning.

Harrison, at just 80 pitches, was back out to start the seventh. Bregman hit the first pitch of the inning into center field for a hit, and he became the first Cub batter to reach since Suzuki’s leadoff walk in the second inning. But Harrison wasn’t rattled: he struck out Happ and got Suzuki and Kelly on pop outs.

That end a gem of an outing for Harrison. He pitched seven innings on 94 pitches and allowed only two hits, Hoerner’s leadoff double in the first and Bregman’s single in the seventh, and walked just one batter. He struck out 11, one less than the career-high 12 he recorded against Pittsburgh on April 26th, and recorded 19 whiffs, which at publication time was tied with Minnesota’s Joe Ryan for the most of the day. Harrison finished the day with a 1.77 ERA—lower even than his superstar teammate, Jacob Misiorowski.

Rolison got a clean inning against the Brewers in the top of the 8th. In the bottom of the inning, the Brewers turned to DL Hall, making his 20th appearance of the season. Hall, who has gotten fantastic results that belie his issue with walks this season, gave a free pass to Busch to start the inning. But he recovered quickly: Swanson struck out, and Amaya hit a ground ball to second with which Turang started a 4-6-3 double play, possible only with the lead-footed Chicago catcher running.

Chicago kept rolling with Rolison in the ninth. Ortiz poked one further than it looked into the right-center gap, but Crow-Armstrong ran it down for the first out. After Ortiz was retired, Chicago turned to its closer, Daniel Palencia, with one out. Hamilton greeted him by picking up his third hit of the night, a single to left. Chourio flew out, Turang drew a walk, and Contreras hit ball up the middle which Hoerner made a diving play on—he couldn’t get any outs, but he did save a run, and that mattered, because Palencia struck out Yelich with the bases loaded to end the inning.

Pat Murphy let Hall continue in the ninth with a five-run lead. Contreras showed some annoyance that Hall fell behind PCA 3-1, but Hall came back to get him to ground out to Bauers at first. Hoerner also grounded out to Bauers, and Bregman struck out looking on a 3-2, backdoor curveball to end the game.

Harrison and Hall dominated Chicago on the evening. After Hoerner’s leadoff double, the Cubs didn’t get another runner into scoring position for the rest of the game. Hamilton was the offensive star: he had two singles and a triple and scored twice, but of course one of those singles turned into his little-league homer. (The triple was close to a homer, too, but Hamilton is still searching for his first actual home run of the season.) Contreras was the other offensive standout, as he was 3-for-4 with three singles, a run scored, and a stolen base.

Tomorrow is a well-deserved off day for the Brewers before they start a big series back at home with the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday in a rematch of last year’s National League Championship Series. See you then.

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