Bush took a no-hitter into the sixth inning, lost a shutout on a towering three-run home run, hit two batters, was warned by the home-plate umpire for hitting one batter and, to top it all off, was the first Brewer to reach first base, and it took a passed ball to do it.
Fortunately for the Brewers, Bush's busy night resulted in a 6-3 victory against the Cubs on Wednesday at Miller Park.
Bush (8-8) walked the line between effective and wild throughout his eight innings of work. Despite not pitching sharply, he struck out six and allowed only three hits while walking one.
"I threw a lot of strikes but a lot of my misses, they weren't bad misses, but I was effectively wild at times," Bush said. "Sometimes it works to your advantage. If you can't throw strikes after that, it's no good."
Brewers manager Ned Yost also described his starter as "effectively wild." Adding that his command was off, but it was the effectiveness of his pitches that made the difference between a good night and a bad one.
"He wasn't painting his spots," Yost said. "He was kind of all over the strike zone tonight, but his stuff was so good it allowed him to get away with it."
Bush's stuff was effective enough that he carried a no-hitter into the sixth. After striking out pinch-hitter Ryan Theriot, Juan Pierre stepped to the plate. Pierre hit a ground ball that found the glove of a streaking Bill Hall, but Pierre beat out the throw for the first Cubs hit.
"Anybody else in the league, and they're out," Hall said. "He's been pulling a lot of balls on us, so I was playing him up the middle. Once he got to 3-1, he fouled one off to the [third base] side. I should have moved back. It was just one of those plays; he hit it where I wasn't."
With a 6-0 lead, the no-hitter gone after Pierre reached base and Cesar Izturis struck out, Bush hit Michael Barrett with a pitch to put men on first and second. Aramis Ramirez then hit a three-run home run off the foul pole in left to cut the Brewers' six-run lead in half.
"It was a curveball. A bad one," said Bush of his pitch to Ramirez. "I wish I could have bent the foul pole about six inches. The selection was fine, but the location was obviously pretty poor."
With the exception of the sixth, Bush's stuff was dominant, even if his control wasn't. Inning by inning and batter by batter, his curveball broke when he wanted, if not where he wanted. He mixed his pitches effectively and limited his mistakes when he actually did make them.
Two of those mistakes came in the form of hit batsman. The first came with two outs in the fourth, when Bush hit Ramirez. Home-plate umpire Ed Hickox then walked to the mound and warned a surprised Bush.
But even with the wildness, Bush was one step ahead of the Cubs throughout. Through the first five innings, Bush allowed a grand total of two Cubs to reach base, and only Matt Murton reached second. He didn't compound his mistakes, however, and he left the runners stranded.
At the plate, Bush helped himself with an alert play. After seemingly striking out to end the inning, Bush dashed to first on a passed ball by Barrett. The very next batter, Brady Clark, hit a two-run home run off Carlos Zambrano (12-5) to open up the scoring.
"I'm not a home run hitter, but once in a while I'll get one out," said Clark of his first home run since June 7 against San Diego. "It feels good."
For a team that has had to endure one injury after another and seemingly hasn't seen a break in a long time, it jumped all over one when it presented itself.
"Stuff like that happens, where things are going smooth and then you get just a little break," Yost said. "Michael Barrett doesn't miss the ball very often, and Bush was giving all he had down the line and barely beat it. Then Brady got a hold of one. Sometimes, that's what it takes to get you going a little bit."
The Brewers would add two more runs in each of the next two innings, including a two-run single by David Bell. The two runs marked Bell's first two RBIs in a Brewers uniform since coming over from the Phillies.
Bell and rest of the defense played a solid game behind Bush. With another errorless game, the franchise tied a club record with its 11th straight game without a miscue.
Bush had pitched well against the Cubs this season, but had nothing to show for it with a 0-2 record in three starts. Now he has a win. More importantly, the team can continue to keep itself in the playoff hunt.
"We need wins, pretty much every day now," Bush said. "We're teetering on kind of falling out of it, and we need to kind of pick it up and get wins every day. There's really no more room for error for us." They can and will win this afternoon.