CHICAGO — The record reflects that the Brewers and Cubs had never met in the postseason before this National League Division Series.
“But we kind of have,” said Brewers star Christian Yelich.
“It was stressful,” Cubs pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said.
“I remember a lot, and only remember a little at the same time,” said former Brewers closer Josh Hader. “It was a big deal.”
It was right here at Wrigley Field, where the Brewers will carry a 2-0 series lead into Game 3 on Wednesday with a chance to eliminate their division rival, and the Cubs will try to score some more runs to keep their season going. It will be the biggest game in this ballpark between these teams since Oct. 1, 2018.
Before this week, that was the most charged matchup of this rivalry. Tied atop the NL Central at 95 victories apiece after 162 games in 2018, the Brewers and Cubs met in Chicago at high noon on a Monday to settle things. The winner got the division title and the top seed in the NL. The loser went to the NL Wild Card Game when that was still a one-game crapshoot.
Wrigley Field provided the perfect setting.
“Moments here are remembered. That’s the biggest thing,” said Cubs manager Craig Counsell, who managed against the Cubs that day in his fourth season helming the Brewers. “What I’ve learned is that this place, when you think it can’t provide more, it provides more. I think it did it for us last week.
“I think that [Game 163] is a great example of why you remember it so well. The place has a wonderful way of doing it.”
The Cubs were the class of the NL Central, back-to-back division champs and two years removed from winning the 2016 World Series. The Brewers were in the midst of a mini-rebuild when the Cubs were popping champagne, but by 2018, with the additions of Yelich and Lorenzo Cain, it was a real rivalry.
Especially when they crammed into the pre-renovation visitors’ clubhouse at Wrigley Field.
“It was just such a relic that made it all the more fun,” said Brewers manager Pat Murphy, who was Counsell’s longtime bench coach in Milwaukee. “You took a shower and you’re standing in a foot of water, but somehow it felt good.”
Somehow, that added to the rivalry.
“As a Brewer,” Hader said, “you always want to just demolish the Cubs.”
With its championship core still intact, that year’s Cubs spent 86 days in first place, including every day from July 13 until the final regularly scheduled regular-season game. The Cubs went into a Labor Day matchup with a five-game lead over the Brewers and didn’t play poorly in September, going 16-12. The Brewers, led by Yelich on his way to winning the NL MVP Award, just played better, going 19-7 in September to close the gap, including a pair of head-to-head series victories over Chicago and a seven-game winning streak going into Game 163.
The Cubs had left-hander Jose Quintana on the mound for the tiebreaker game, because of course they did. Manager Joe Maddon sent Quintana to the mound against Milwaukee for seven of the teams’ 20 games that season, and why not? He was 4-1 with a 2.13 ERA in those matchups.
He’d need to lead the way for a Cubs club that was on fumes.
“We had two days off the final [48] days of the regular season,” Maddon said. “We had make-up games, we had one-offs in Atlanta and Washington D.C. This was a tired group. That’s what I remember most. It was probably the most difficult end-of-season schedule I’ve been involved with.”
He had Cain circled on his scorecard that day. And all season.
“He was the socket they screwed into,” Maddon said. “He was a difference-maker with that group.”
In the end, Cain would be a difference-maker that day. Quintana held the Brewers to one run in five innings before Anthony Rizzo’s home run off Brewers starter Jhoulys Chacín in the bottom of the fifth tied the game at 1-1.
“The crowd was electric” Murphy said. “It felt like the ground was moving.”
It was still 1-1 in the eighth when the Brewers struck against Cubs relievers Justin Wilson, Steve Cishek and Brandon Kintzler to take a 3-1 lead. The go-ahead hit came from Cain, a full-count single off Cishek that would prove the division winner when Hader, working overtime because Jeremy Jeffress was down for the day due to medical reasons, finished a two-out save.
Of course, being Brewers vs. Cubs, there was late drama. Javier Báez hit a two-out single in the bottom of the ninth to bring up Rizzo, who’d hit a two-out, two-run, go-ahead homer off Hader on Labor Day in Milwaukee. In the bullpen, Brewers starter Brandon Woodruff was warming up with his heart racing.
“You talk about adrenaline, man,” Woodruff said.
But this matchup belonged to Hader.
“I was remembering that at-bat before, so I was like, ‘I’m going to attack him up and in,’” Hader said. “The wind was blowing straight in that day in Chicago.”
Hader fired. Rizzo swung. He sent a fly ball toward right-center field that brought the crowd to its feet and made Brewers officials’ hearts sink before it settled into the glove of center fielder Keon Broxton.
The division crown belonged to the Brewers.
“They never lost,” said Jed Hoyer, Cubs president of baseball operations. “That was the biggest emotion looking back. We kind of battled through that crazy stretch and I felt like we actually proved to be pretty resilient and won 95 and got to that point. And all you could really do was tip your cap. The team we were playing against, literally, never lost.”
The Brewers bid farewell to the cramped clubhouse by soaking it in champagne, then continued the celebration back in Milwaukee at a steakhouse and a club. Matt Arnold, then Milwaukee’s assistant GM, has a particular memory of Milwaukee broadcaster Bob Uecker being right in the middle of everything, from pregame conversations trying to calm everyone’s nerves, to the postgame celebration.
Brewers owner Mark Attanasio was in the middle of everything, too, despite being just a few weeks removed from surgery for a torn Achilles tendon. He said the Ricketts family, which owns the Cubs, was especially gracious in arranging for parking as close as possible to the stadium gate, and an accessible suite. The famous stairs to the visitors’ clubhouse were a problem, but two members of the staff lifted Attanasio to the party.
“Then, with all the champagne and beer, we were going to take the bus back to Milwaukee and I wanted to take a shower,” Attanasio said. “You know who helped me getting in the shower with my boot on? Keon Broxton.”
Woodruff remembers being proud of himself for making the following day a productive one. With pitchers Wade Miley and Jordan Lyles and coach Jason Lane, he had an 8 a.m. tee time at Erin Hills Golf Course, which had hosted the U.S. Open the previous year.
“I wasn’t missing that for nothing,” Woodruff said.
While Woodruff golfed, the Cubs were back to work the following night against the Rockies, who’d won their own Game 163 out at Dodger Stadium. This time, it was a true must-win game.
“We’re in the postseason. It was just a weird experience,” said Hottovy, who was Chicago’s run prevention coordinator in 2018. “As soon as that game was over, it was like meeting after meeting for the Rockies. We were going over that immediately. There was no stopping. It was just constant stuff going on.”
Finally, the Cubs ran out of gas in the 13th inning against the Rockies, who made it two straight nights of champagne celebrations in the visitors’ clubhouse. Colorado moved on to the NLDS against Milwaukee.
“The truth is, we didn’t play poorly at the end,” Hoyer said. “We were tied for the best record in the National League after 162. I think the other two divisions were around five games behind us. We were resilient. [The Brewers] just caught us and really pitched well in that Game 163.”
“That rivalry is one of the reasons I grew to love Wrigley so much,” Hader said. “The fans always talking [trash] and us trying to fly that “L” flag. It was fun getting to play those guys.”
Count Hader among those happy to see these clubs meeting in the NLDS. He’s in the midst of rehabbing a shoulder injury and will be watching Wednesday.
“I think it’s perfect,” Hader said. “I don’t think it could have matched up any better.”
Jordan Bastian contributed reporting for this story.
