MILWAUKEE — It was a sour, yet not surprising welcome home for former Brewers manager Craig Counsell. As the boos rained down, all the veteran manager could do was smile. This was not an unexpected ovation, as Counsell rejected the Brewers offer of $5.5 million annually in favor of a much larger five year, $40 million offer from the archrival Chicago Cubs. This left the Brewers, as well as their fans in stunned disbelief. Counsell led the Crew to five playoff appearances in nine years. Though he never won manager of the year, he finished as the runner up a whopping four times. 

The game was dominated early by pitching. Milwaukee's Robert Gasser delivered six scoreless innings, allowing just three hits while striking out seven Cubs batters. On the other side, Justin Steele bounced back with a strong performance for Chicago, tossing seven shutout innings of his own. He also gave up only three hits and struck out eight.

The scoring didn’t begin until the eighth inning, when Cubs third baseman Nick Madrigal mishandled a sharply hit grounder off the bat of William Contreras. The error allowed Sal Frelick to score from second, giving Milwaukee a 1-0 lead. Later in the inning, shortstop Willy Adames put the game out of reach with a towering three-run home run off Cubs reliever Mark Leiter Jr. The 427-foot blast extended the Brewers' lead to 4-0.

To add insurance, rookie Jackson Chourio followed with an RBI double to right-center, pushing Milwaukee’s lead to 5-0.

In the top of the ninth inning, Brewers reliever Hoby Milner got Dansby Swanson to fly out to left, ending the game with a victory for the Crew.