Brewer Daily News for September 8th: Hellweg and Crew beat Cubs

Hello again everyone and welcome to the Sunday morning edition of Brewer Daily News. Yesterday, the Milwaukee Brewers (61-80) won a close game over the Chicago Cubs (60-81), with a strong performance by rookie starting pitcher Johnny Hellweg.

Johnny Hellweg pitched well enough to pick up his first major league victory. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

In yesterday’s close 5-3 Brewer win, Hellweg made his first start since July 10th and picked up his first major league win with a quality start. Hellweg went six innings and allowed three runs on four hits, three walks and struck out one.

"“It feels awesome,” Hellweg said. “It feels good to contribute to the team up here. I am going to embrace it a little bit. I am not going to put it behind me yet, it feels good to go out there.” – via ESPN.com"

The only trouble Hellweg ran into were two home runs. Luis Valbuena hit a two-run homer in the second inning, his 10th, and in the sixth, Brian Bogusevic hit a solo home run, his fourth.

After Hellweg’s day was done, relievers Rob Wooten and Brandon Kintzler pitched a combined scoreless two innings while allowing only two hits. In the bottom of the ninth, closer Jim Henderson acquired his 23rd save of the season by pitching a perfect inning.

For the Cubs, Jake Arrieta took the mound and was hit hard, receiving his second loss. Arrieta pitched five innings while surrendering four runs on three hits, three walks and struck out four.

Reliever Chang-Yong Lim made his major league debut in the seventh and pitched 2/3 of a scoreless inning. Blake Parker gave up an unearned run in the top of the ninth while striking out two.

Offensively for the Brew Crew, Scooter Gennett got things going in the fourth when he hit an RBI single. Soon after that, Logan Schafer would hit a bases clearing triple, giving the Brewers a 4-2 lead. In the ninth, Jonathan Lucroy hit a triple that scored Norichika Aoki.

Today the teams will play in the rubber match of the series at 2:20 p.m. ET / 1:20 p.m. CT. The projected starters are Yovani Gallardo (10-9, 4.31 ERA) for Milwaukee and Scott Baker, who will be making his 2013 debut, for Chicago.