CHICAGO _ Yu Darvish avoided the fifth-inning blues on a cool Friday afternoon at Wrigley Field, leaving the mound to chants of "Yuuuu" after throwing six strong innings against Milwaukee.
Darvish's performance ultimately went to waste as the bullpen blew a seventh inning lead, but the Cubs still wound up with a 3-2 win, improving to 5-1 this month against the Brewers.
With the game tied 2-2 and runners on the corners with two outs in the seventh, Javier Baez hit a grounder towards short that Eric Sogard booted for an error, allowing the go-ahead run to score.
Carl Edwards Jr. pitched a perfect eighth, and Brandon Morrow finished it off with a perfect ninth, striking out Ryan Braun for his sixth save.
In his best outing as a Cub, Darvish allowed one unearned run over six innings, striking out eight and allowing three hits, leaving with a 2-1 lead.
But the Brewers loaded the bases against Steve Cishek in the seventh, and tied it on Christian Yelich's sacrifice fly off Brian Duensing.
Like Thursday night's duel between Kyle Hendricks and Chase Anderson, Cubs fans were treated to another tense matchup Friday between Darvish and Brewers left-hander Brent Suter.
The Brewers scored an unearned run in the first on a two-base error by Jason Heyward on a wind-blown Lorenzo Cain fly, a stolen base and a sacrifice fly by Jesus Aguilar.
But the Cubs answered back quickly in the bottom of the inning. Albert Almora Jr. led off with a double, extending his hitting streak to a career-high 10 games, before Baez singled him home, also extending his hitting streak to a career-high 10 games. After Baez stole second, Anthony Rizzo singled him in to give the Cubs a 2-1 lead.
Darvish cruised into the fifth, the inning which had been his Achilles heel in three of his first four starts as a Cub. Once again after retiring the first two hitters he got into trouble, giving up a single to Suter and walking Cain.
But after a mound visit by catcher Willson Contreras, Darvish induced Yelich to hit a grounder back to the mound, and he made the short toss to first to get out of the inning.
After issuing a two-out double to Domingo Santana in the sixth, Darvish struck out Hernan Perez on a slider to end his afternoon. The Cubs hope it's the return of the old Darvish.
