No, it was Yelich, the Brewers’ designated hitter, encountering a bucket of bubble gum while he was killing time in the tunnel off the dugout between at-bats.\n\n“I was so terrible up there tonight,” Yelich said. “I was down there in the tunnel getting loose and was like, ‘I’m going to put gum in my mouth and chew that and not think about how \\[lousy\\] my at-bats have been.’\n\n“So I stopped thinking about it, and I just swung. I was like, ‘I’m going to swing because I haven’t swung all night and I should probably swing.’ So I swung at a changeup. Homer.”
\n\nYelich wasn’t expecting a first-pitch changeup from Cubs starter Alec Mills -- “I didn’t have much of an idea up there tonight,” Yelich said -- but he got one up in the strike zone where he could drive it.\n\nIt represented a quick answer to the Cubs’ own three-run rally moments earlier. Woodruff’s bid for a no-hitter dissolved during a maddening fifth inning that saw the Brewers right-hander throw 32 pitches, record one out, and yield three runs while six consecutive batters reached safely before Peralta took over with the bases loaded.\n\nPeralta got out of that jam with no further damage. Then Yelich stepped to the plate with a sugar rush.
“Gum?” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “Well, this is a high-tech organization, guys. We’re coming up with some new and innovative methods.”\n\nFor Yelich, it marked another modest step -- he also struck out three times on a 1-for-4 night -- in his return to form following a confounding 1-for-27, 12-strikeout start to his regular season. That was in July. Since the calendar flipped to August, Yelich is a more representative 10-for-37 (.270) with four home runs.\n\nAnd, yes, a dozen more strikeouts. Friday was his fourth three-strikeout showing in 17 games this season. He had six three-strikeout games all of last season in 130 games.
\n\nBut Yelich still has his sense of humor.\n\n“What I like about it is he’s being himself,” Counsell said. “You have to be yourself no matter what’s going on. There’s no reason to change who we are. We all deal with adversity and struggles differently. This is Christian just being himself. At the core, he’s a very humble guy who is frustrated by this, but he is still able to poke fun at himself.”\n\n“That’s why he’s the superstar,” Woodruff said. “It’s always one swing away.”\n\nThat one swing allowed Woodruff to breathe a sigh of relief. He didn’t allow a Cubs hit until Jason Heyward hit a low and away four-seam fastball for a single with one out in the fifth that Woodruff lamented as poor pitch selection.
\n\n \n\nDavid Bote and Jason Kipnis also singled -- Kipnis after a nine-pitch battle -- as the Cubs kept pushing Woodruff’s pitch count higher and higher. Woodruff walked in the go-ahead run, and when Anthony Rizzo hit yet another single for another Cubs run and a 3-1 lead, Counsell went to the bullpen.\n\n“I’m honestly kind of shocked, in a way,” Woodruff said. “How do you go 4 1/3 innings and then get chased in the fifth? It makes no sense.”
\n\nPeralta,