Cubs extend National League Division Series with 4-3 win against Brewers in Game 3

Cubs reliever Brad Keller cupped his hand around his ear and strained to make out the pitch call coming from the speaker in his cap.

He had just struck out Blake Perkins to come one out away from sending his team to Game 4 of the National League Division Series. The roar from the crowd was drowning out his PitchCom device, even though the volume was dialed all the way up to 20.

“It’s such a cool moment,” Keller said after the Cubs’ 4-3 victory against the Brewers. “Obviously, that’s a good thing that I can’t hear PitchCom, just credits the crowd.”

The crowd, seemingly at a crescendo, somehow dialed it up another notch the next pitch.

Keller threw a slider to Brewers star Christian Yelich, who pulled it on the ground to second baseman Nico Hoerner. Darting to his left, Hoerner tackled the ball and made an easy throw to first for the last out.

The Cubs returned to Wrigley Field on Wednesday for their first home game of the NLDS after dropping two in Milwaukee. They still would have to win the next two to advance, but they’ll walk back into Wrigley on Thursday with the chance to even the series.

“It’s hard to really explain,” shortstop Dansby Swanson said of the effect of the home crowd. “When you have extra people in your corner going for you, there’s just, there’s something to it.”

The Cubs were expecting an advantage under volatile Wrigley Field elements. But the shadows and wind betrayed the home team in the first inning.

Cubs right-hander Jameson Taillon had already gotten himself into a bind. One out into the inning, he had runners on first and second, courtesy of a double and a walk, with William Contreras up to bat.

The wind was blowing in off Lake Michigan, and the early-evening start time made for a unique pattern of shadows slicing across the field.

Taillon located a fastball at the top of the zone, and Contreras popped it up. At another time of day, it might have been a routine play or even called an infield fly. But Michael Busch appeared to lose the ball immediately.

That left Hoerner and catcher Carson Kelly to chase after it as it headed into no-man’s land. It dropped in for a single, loading the bases.

“Four o’clock is a challenging time, visually, for hitters and defenders alike,” Hoerner said. “Busch is a great defender. It’s no lack of preparation or anything like that. I wish I had been able to see that he had lost it a little earlier; maybe I would’ve been able to get there.”

After that, all the Brewers’ next batter, Sal Frelick, needed to do was fly out deep to left field, and that brought in Milwaukee’s first run.

Not to worry, though. Wrigley made up for the lapse in loyalty.

The steep climb the Cubs face after dropping the first two games at American Family Field didn’t seem to dampen the spirits of the fans in the stands.

And even if they were feeling pessimistic, Busch’s history-making leadoff home run in the first inning got them on their feet.

He has been at the top of the order twice this series. Both times, he homered in his first at-bat, making him the first player in postseason history to hit multiple leadoff home runs in the same series.

With the score tied, the Cubs’ offense kept up the pressure. Hoerner singled up the middle; Kyle Tucker drew a walk.

The Wrigley faithful aahed in disappointment as Frelick made a sliding catch in the right-field corner to rob Seiya Suzuki of a run-scoring hit.

Then, after Ian Happ drew a walk to load the bases, and Pete Crow-Armstrong stepped up to the plate with two outs, the crowd broke into “P-C-A” chants.

With the fans behind him, Crow-Armstrong delivered a two-run single with a line drive into right field. He pounded his chest, and the fans roared back.

The Brewers pulled starter Quinn Priester, a Cary-Grove High School graduate. And during the pitching change, the fans put so much gusto into the “YMCA” song and dance, the press box shook.

The Cubs scrapped across one more run, as Happ charged home on a wild pitch, before the inning ended.

The Cubs had forced Brewers pitchers to throw 53 pitches in the first inning — the most by any team in the first inning of a playoff game since pitch-by-pitch data have been tracked (1988), according to ESPN Stats.

“I’m going to tell our guys it’s the first inning every inning tomorrow,” manager Craig Counsell said with a chuckle. “That’s our best formula right now offensively.”

The Cubs’ offense quieted after that initial surge, putting men on base but failing to drive them in. And the Brewers kept chipping away. A fourth-inning RBI single and seventh-inning solo home run from Jake Bauers trimmed the Cubs’ lead to a run.

Then Keller turned in a four-out save to finish it with the fans on their feet.

“It’s a lot of fun to see them, the energy they bring from the first pitch to the last,” Busch said. “Bring it right back. We’re going to need them tomorrow, and we’re excited about it, too.”