CHICAGO (Interstat) — Jake Bauers homered and drove in four runs, and the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Chicago Cubs 9-3 on Monday night at Wrigley Field in the first meeting this season between the longtime NL Central rivals.

Christian Yelich also homered for the Brewers, who collected 13 hits and improved to 9-2 in their last 11 games. Milwaukee pulled within a half-game of Chicago for the division lead. The Brewers won the Central in 2025 for the third consecutive year and then eliminated the Cubs in a five-game NL Division Series.

Milwaukee struck first in the second inning when Yelich led off with a solo homer to right field, his third of the season. The Brewers broke the game open in the fourth, sending nine batters to the plate and scoring four runs. William Contreras singled, Christian Yelich grounded out to move Contreras to second, and Andrew Vaughn singled to put runners at the corners. Bauers then singled to center, scoring Contreras and advancing Vaughn to third. After Luis Rengifo struck out, Sal Frelick doubled down the left-field line, driving in Vaughn and Bauers. Joey Ortiz walked and Jackson Chourio delivered a sharp single to center that brought home Frelick for a 5-0 lead.

Milwaukee added three more in the fifth. Yelich walked, Vaughn doubled to left, and Bauers crushed a three-run homer to right, his seventh of the year, extending the advantage to 8-0.

Chicago finally got on the board in the bottom of the fifth. Carson Kelly singled, and after Pete Crow-Armstrong struck out, Dansby Swanson hit a two-run homer to left, his seventh. Nico Hoerner walked and Michael Busch doubled to center, scoring Hoerner and cutting the deficit to 8-3. The Cubs could not push across any more runs as Milwaukee’s bullpen locked down.

The Brewers added an insurance run in the sixth. Brice Turang walked, Contreras singled, and Yelich doubled to left, scoring Turang to make it 9-3.

Shane Drohan earned the win in relief, pitching 4 1/3 scoreless innings while allowing four hits and striking out five. Drohan, now 2-1 on the season, entered after starter Brandon Sproat worked 4 2/3 innings, giving up three earned runs on three hits with five strikeouts. Ty Blach tossed three scoreless innings of one-hit relief for Chicago.

Shota Imanaga took the loss, dropping to 4-4. Imanaga allowed eight runs on eight hits over 4 1/3 innings, walking two and striking out three. Ethan Roberts gave up one run in 1 2/3 innings of relief.

Bauers finished 2 for 4 with the homer and four RBIs. Yelich was 2 for 4 with a homer, a double and two RBIs. Frelick had a double and two RBIs, and Vaughn had two hits and scored twice for Milwaukee.

For Chicago, Busch went 2 for 2 with a double and an RBI, and Swanson drove in two runs with his homer. The Cubs managed only seven hits against Milwaukee pitching.

The attendance was 37,647, and the game lasted 2 hours, 31 minutes.

Milwaukee’s season record is 27-18, while Chicago fell to 29-19.

The teams meet again Tuesday night at Wrigley Field in the second game of the three-game series. The Brewers then return home for three against the Los Angeles Dodgers starting Friday, while the Cubs host the Houston Astros for a three-game set beginning Friday.

Interstat’s game simulator projected a final score of Milwaukee 7, Chicago 5. Interstat’s ELO system gave the Cubs a 51.70 percent probability to win. Chicago was installed as a pregame favorite with a spread of -1.5. The total of 12 runs went under the over/under line of 10.5.