Matt Garza felt a little off during his first two innings on Thursday.After a few quick adjustments on the advice of Ryan Dempster, he was close to unhittable.Garza pitched three-hit ball for 8 2/3 innings, and the Cubs sent Zack Greinke to his worst beating in 1½ years in an 8-0 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday that prevented a four-game sweep.Helping the Cubs improve to 2-5, Garza (1-0) struck out nine and walked two — both in the first two innings. He induced Cesar Izturis to hit into an inning-ending double play in the second, starting a stretch in which he retired 16 of 17 batters.Nori Aoki reached with two outs in the ninth when Garza threw his comebacker over first baseman Bryan LaHair and into the stands for a two-base error. Garza was removed after 119 pitches and Shawn Camp needed just four pitches to end it, retiring pinch-hitter George Kottaras on a game-ending groundout.It would have been Garza’s first shutout since July 26, 2010, when he pitched a no-hitter for Tampa Bay against Detroit.Greinke (1-1) allowed eight earned runs for the first time since Minnesota beat him — coincidentally the same day Garza threw his no-hitter.Greinke gave up nine hits and needed 84 pitches to get through 3 2-/ innings, a sharp contrast to his seven shutout innings against St. Louis last weekend in his season debut.Greinke retired his first six batters, then allowed seven of the first eight batters to reach in a six-run third.Reed Johnson, Darwin Barney and Starlin Castro hit RBI singles, Alfonso Soriano drove in two runs with a broken-bat flare to right field and Ian Stewart beat the infield shift with a run-scoring, opposite-field single to left-center.The Cubs tacked on two runs in the fourth on David DeJesus’ run-scoring infield single and an RBI single by Castro. The Cubs had not scored more than five runs in a game coming in.
“A lot of good approaches,” Dale Sveum said. “Got a lot of good pitches, made Greinke get the ball up, and we took advantage of all the mistakes he made.”
Steve Clevenger had three hits, including leadoff doubles in the third and fourth innings. The rookie backup catcher already had earned Sveum’s praise by going 2 for 2 in pinch-hit situations.
NOTES—Brewers 3B Aramis Ramirez was given the day off….The Cubs open their first trip of the season Friday at St. Louis. Jeff Samardzija (1-0) will face Adam Wainwright (0-1) and the Cardinals….The Brewers head to Atlanta, where Randy Wolf (0-1) starts against Jair Jurrjens (0-1).