It has been almost one year since Reed Johnson became a cult legend on the North Side with a diving catch into the wall in Washington.
Johnson one-upped himself Sunday night at Miller Park, leaping high over the right-field fence in the fifth inning to snare what would have been a game-tying grand slam by Brewers first baseman Prince Fielder.
Fielder wound up with a sacrifice fly, but Ryan Dempster escaped the inning with minimal damage after the highlight-reel catch.
The Cubs wound up winning 8-5 to take their second straight series.
Johnson wasn’t in the starting lineup. He entered as a pinch-runner for Milton Bradley in the fourth inning when the right fielder pulled up lame at third base while advancing from second on Ryan Theriot’s single.
The Cubs announced that Bradley had strained his right groin, but his status for Monday’s homer opener was not immediately known. He has been on the disabled list 12 times.
Sunday’s game was another wild one, befitting the Interstate Highway 94 rivalry that has grown over the last three seasons.
Dempster allowed four runs on six hits and three walks over six innings, leaving with the Cubs ahead 6-4. Derrek Lee’s sacrifice fly in the eighth made it 7-4 and Koyie Hill’s double made it 8-4 in the ninth. Rickie Weeks hit a solo homer for Milwaukee’s final run.
The game began with another leadoff home run by Alfonso Soriano, his second of the season and 51st of his career, on the first pitch of the game.
It became more interesting in the third when the slow-footed Fielder beat out an infield single to second baseman Mike Fontenot, who was playing in short right field on an exaggerated shift.
And it got really crazy in the fourth, when four bases-loaded walks by Brewers pitchers Jeff Suppan and Jorge Julio handed the Cubs a 5-1 lead. It was the ninth time since 1969 that a team had issued four bases-loaded walks in an inning — and the second time in five days, Atlanta having done it in a loss to the Phillies on Tuesday.
Suppan became the de-facto ace of the Milwaukee staff this year after the Brewers lost CC Sabathia and Ben Sheets to free agency. He lasted only 32/3 innings Sunday, issuing three of the bases-loaded walks, and six overall.
Playing at home on ESPN’s Sunday night game for the first time since 1997, the Brewers showed why they are such huge underdogs in the Central Division. Pitching problems figure to haunt them all season long, but the Brewers do have a strong lineup that’s the envy of many National League teams.
“Our expectations are to get back to the postseason and, ultimately, to have more success than we had there last year,” left fielder Ryan Braun said. “We recognize that it’s not going to be easy. Obviously, any time you lose your two best pitchers, it makes that job a lot more difficult. But we think offensively a lot of the younger guys are going to that continue to take steps forward and continue to progress.”
But they can’t outslug the opposition every time, and when your pitchers are giving away runs like the Brewers did Sunday, it’s bound to make for a long season.
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Big number
19: Alfonso Soriano’s 250th steal, in the third inning, made him one of 19 players with at least 250 homers and steals.
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psullivan@tribune.com
More on the Internet
For complete details of the Cubs’ late victory over the Brewers, go to chicagotribune.com/sports
