Travis Wood draws bases-loaded walk to lift Cubs to win in 13th

MILWAUKEE – For the last three games, the Cubs barely hit, rarely scored and scarcely resembled the team that owns the best record in the majors.

But they managed to win again anyway on Wednesday night, with their most bizarre finish yet of an already ridiculous season.

It took a pitcher drawing a bases-loaded walk in the 13^th inning, just before midnight in Milwaukee, for the Cubs to take their first lead since Saturday.

And Travis Wood’s RBI stood up despite the lefty giving up a leadoff double in the bottom of the inning as the Cubs held on for a 2-1 victory over the Brewers.

“If any game was a team victory today was,” Wood said of a game in which all eight members of the bullpen and all four bench hitters were exhausted by manager Joe Maddon.

“Whenever you win a game like that, on the road, that really says a lot about your group,” said Maddon, who used his last two relievers – right-hander Neil Ramirez and lefty Clayton Richard to get the last two outs of the game. “All the little things we did tonight to win that game jacks the guys up. There’s so much energy in victory it’s incredible. And then if you lose that game, I probably would have given a couple guys the day off [Thursday].

“Victory provides its own energy.”

Wood only got the chance to hit after escaping a bases-loaded, nobody-out jam in the bottom of the 12^th (after Maddon had used up his bench).

“When he came into the game, I said, `Understand one thing: if you get out of this, you’re getting an at-bat,’ “ Maddon said. “That kind of jacked him up.”

Wood: “Absolutely.”

That Houdini act involved a five-man infield and three popups, including one to shallow center for the first out, followed by two over the infield.

Kris Bryant, who started in left field, played three positions, using three different gloves during that inning. He took over at the third-base slot as the fifth infielder with none out, then moved to first, switching places with Javy Baez (who had replaced Anthony Rizzo as a pinch runner in the ninth), with Aaron Hill up.

Bryant didn’t actually get a ball hit to him.

“It would have been cool If I’d got the ball at each position,” he said. “But I think I made history. I don’t know if there’s many people who have done that.”

Probably not – although the infield moves were technically shifts and not actual position changes.

“I enjoyed it,” he said. “I’ll remember this game for a very long time.”

If the victory leads to the kind of energy Maddon talks about, the lineup looks like it could use it.

For the second night in a row Wednesday, a member of the worst starting rotation in the majors stymied the highest-scoring team in the National League into the eighth inning.

This time it was Jimmy Nelson pitching one out deep into the eighth inning before the Cubs got off the mat in the ninth again for a mini-rally that tied the game.

Granted, Nelson is the Brewers’ best starter. “He’s one of the better pitchers that we’ve faced,” Bryant said of a right-hander the Cubs nonetheless beat last month at Wrigley Field with damage the second time through the order.

But the Cubs were no-hit through seven – and shut out through 8 2/3 innings – the night before by a pitcher, Chase Anderson, who entered with an ERA over 6.00. And six days before that, Drew Pomeranz and a suspect Padres bullpen beat the Cubs 1-0.

Panic time in May?

To each his own.

It’s at least a reminder of the way the longest season in major league sports provides its own gravitational force against small-sample extremes – such as the Cubs’ gaudy start.

“We kind of hit a little lull, kind of dragging,” Wood said. “Just the last couple days.

“But I think this’ll be what it takes [to reverse that].”

The Cubs averaged 6.1 runs per game through Saturday but have scored just six in three games (spanning 31 innings) since then – all in ninth inning or later Sunday (one), Tuesday (two) and Wednesday (two).

“We hit the ball well all night long,” Maddon said after Wednesday’s loss, repeating a similar line from Tuesday’s game. “To say we hit the ball well in a 2-1 victory in 13 innings is kind of like, `I’m an idiot.’ But I’m not. We actually swung the bat really well.”

They’re just 17-for-104 (.163) in their last three games. Their only two runs against the Brewers Tuesday came on back-to-back homers with two out in the ninth inning of a 4-2 loss.

Two big differences between the juggernaut lineup of the first 35 games and the last three:

–They’ve drawn only eight unintentional walks in the three games after averaging 5.2 walks per game before that (six of those came in Wednesday’s marathon, half in the extra innings).

–And the Brewers’ defensive shifts have been almost perfect through the first two games of this three-game series – with rare exception such as Ben Zobrist’s second-inning single slapped through the vacated left side Wednesday.

“That’s part of the game today,” Maddon said. “And that’s why when you look at numbers, they can be skewed sometimes, based on what it looked like years ago. They were hits; now they’re outs.”

Wednesday’s offensive frustration left John Lackey empty-handed after another strong start.

Lackey, who is putting together an impressive May after an up-and-down April, gave up just one hit and a walk before Kirk Nieuwenhuis’ double to the wall in left leading off the fifth led to the only run against him.

Domingo Santana followed with a single to put runners at the corners, and a grounder by Alex Presley drove home the run before Lackey pitched out of the jam.

Lackey went on to pitch six innings but got no run support while on the mound for the second consecutive start.

He has just one win to show for four May starts despite allowing no more than two earned runs in any of them, with a 2.00 ERA in 27 innings this month.