Jackson Chourio had four hits, including his 21st homer, and the visiting Milwaukee Brewers beat the Chicago Cubs 9-5 on Wednesday.
Joey Ortiz singled home two runs for the major-league-best Brewers (87-53), who have won two straight since losing the opener of the four-game series 17-3 on Monday.
The Brewers overcame a shaky outing by ace Jacob Misiorowski to move nine games ahead of Chicago (78-62) in the National League Central with 22 games remaining.
JoJo Romero (2-3), one of five Milwaukee relievers who combined for five shutout innings of one-hit ball, handled the fifth inning for the victory.
Alex Bregman hit a two-run homer and singled in two runs for the Cubs, who were outhit 14-6 and lost for the sixth time in eight games.
Milwaukee jumped ahead in the first inning against David Peterson (7-8). With the bases loaded and two outs, Luis Lara singled in a run before Peterson walked Gary Sanchez on four pitches for a 2-0 lead.
The Cubs pulled even with one out in the bottom of the first on Bregman’s two-run homer against Misiorowski after Pete Crow-Armstrong drew a leadoff walk. The long ball was Bregman’s 24th of the year.
Chourio hit a solo homer into the right-center field bleachers with one out in the second inning.
Chicago took its first lead with two runs in the bottom of the second. Matt Shaw hit a one-out triple and scored on Tyrone Taylor’s single. With two outs, the Cubs loaded the bases on back-to-back walks before Bregman delivered a two-run single to center.
The Brewers forced Peterson out of the game with three runs in the fourth. Cooper Pratt drew a one-out walk, moved to third on Chourio’s double and scored on Brice Turang’s sacrifice bunt.
Andrew Vaughn and William Contreras followed with RBI singles to put the Brewers ahead 6-5.
Peterson allowed six runs on seven hits over 3 2/3 innings. He walked four and struck out four.
Misiorowski was replaced by Romero after giving up a season-high five earned runs on five hits with four walks over four innings. He fanned five.
Milwaukee added to the lead in the seventh when Christian Yelich hit a leadoff double against Daniel Palencia and scored on Pratt’s one-out single.
Ortiz capped the scoring with a two-run single in the ninth.
