The Brewers made the plays on the bases, Chase Anderson made a strong start and Travis Shaw knocked in four runs to beat the Cubs at last.
When Lorenzo Cain retires from baseball, he might have a second career as a traffic cop.
Directing teammate Christian Yelich to survive a seemingly hopeless rundown play in the third inning, Cain set the tone on Tuesday night when the Milwaukee Brewers finally did enough things right to beat the Chicago Cubs.
Chase Anderson was the pitching hero and Travis Shaw knocked in every run in the 4-0 victory at Miller Park but afterward everyone was talking about Cain's stunning instincts on the bases.
"That base-running play by Cain was flat-out brilliant," Brewers manager Craig Counsell said after his club finally ended its seven-game losing streak against the Cubs. "I've never seen anything like that. He knew exactly what he was doing.
Cain and Yelich pulled off the great escape after Yelich led off the bottom of the third with a walk off Tyler Chatwood and moved up on Chatwood's errant pickoff attempt. Cain followed with a bouncer up the middle that second baseman Javier Báez fielded, catching Yelich too far off the base.
Yelich got into a rundown long enough for Cain to advance to second but his teammate had other ideas. Realizing first baseman Anthony Rizzo had gone to cover home with catcher Willson Contreras moving to third for the rundown, Cain stopped just short of second, directed Yelich back to that base, then retreated safely to first as the Cubs' infielders watched dumbfounded.
The play paid immediate dividends when Shaw followed with his second two-run double of the game, accounting for all of the scoring.
Amazingly, Cain said Kansas City had worked on just that play when he was with the Royals.
"I peeked back," Cain said. "I want to credit that play to (Royals coach) Rusty Kuntz. We used to practice that play when I was in KC. It never actually happened. For it to happen tonight was nice.
"As long as the guy in front of you is hustling, I peeked back and saw Rizzo wasn't covering first. I told 'Yelly' to get on the bag. I credit him for hustling all the way. If he slows down, he's out. That's normally what guys do. Once I'm on the bag, they usually shut it down. He kept hustling.
Yelich said he was "caught in no-man's land" and wanted to stay alive just long enough for Cain to get to second. Then, he saw Cain had bigger things in mind.
"I heard him the whole time, saying, 'All the way back! All the way back!' He was yelling at me and pointing to the bag," Yelich said. "I just kept running hard and as soon as I got there, he took off running back to first. That's a really smart play.
Shaw, who watched the play from the on-deck circle, marveled at what Cain was able to see, in front and behind him.
So, after watching the Cubs do the little things game after game in building an 8-1 record against the Brewers, including five shutouts, the Brewers were able to flip the script.
The players knew there was widespread panic outside of the clubhouse about the Chicago's dominance in the won-loss column in play against the Brewers. But, because so many of the games were close, including all four losses in a late-April sweep at Wrigley, they knew they could compete with the team that has ruled the division for three years.
You could tell it meant something to Anderson, who pitched the extra inning the Brewers needed in the seventh, throwing a season-high 107 pitches, and showed great emotion after recording three hard-hit outs.
"That's probably the most excited I've been in a long time," he said. "I yelled, 'Let's go!' really loud.