Brandon Woodruff dominant as Brewers get walk-off win over Chicago

A dominant pitching effort from Brandon Woodruff was backed up by a couple key offensive moments to help Milwaukee to a walk-off 1-0 win over Chicago on Friday night.

After a Christian Yelich walk to open the ninth inning, and a single by Jedd Gyorko that gave the Brewers runners at the corners with no outs, Ryan Braun stepped to the plate and delivered a game-winning sacrifice fly off of Jeremy Jeffress to hand Milwaukee back-to-back shutout victories.

The sac fly from Braun is all the Brewers needed because of what Woodruff gave them over seven innings. The big righty allowed just an infield single while striking out 12 on exactly 100 pitches. He took a no-decision, but it was the second-straight overwhelming effort from a Brewers pitcher. Corbin Burnes gave up just one hit and struck out 11 in Milwaukee’s 19-0 win over Detroit on Wednesday.

Devin Williams gave up a hit for the first time since Aug. 14 — a triple with two outs — but he calmly struck out Anthony Rizzo to end the Cubs chance to get on the board in the eighth inning. Josh Hader got the win by throwing a scoreless top of the ninth while striking out a pair.

Neither offense did much of anything. The Cubs had just two hits the entire night, while the Brewers had four. The two teams combined to strike out 27 times. Jon Lester pitched well for Chicago, giving up three hits over six innings.

The win moved Milwaukee within a game of St. Louis for the second playoff spot in the NL Central and four games back of the first-place Cubs with 18 games to play.

The Brewers and Cubs will meet again Saturday night at Miller Park.