The Brewers and Cubs, before this series, had never played each other in the postseason — though they did play a notable Game 163 tiebreaker in 2018 — and it sure feels like they’ve packed decades of tension into the first four games of this National League Division Series.
The Brewers jumped out to a 2-0 lead and appeared primed to put this away quickly, but then Wrigley Field worked its magic in Games 3 and 4. And thus, here we are: A manager facing his former team on the Cubs side, and the Brewers, having just had the best season in their history (in the year they lost their signature franchise icon in Bob Uecker), trying to keep this glorious ride going. Everything is on the line. I’m sweating just thinking about it.
Throughout this postseason, I’ll be previewing the next day’s action, game by game. Here are three storylines to watch leading into this sure-to-be-epic Game 5 on Saturday night.
NLDS Game 5: Cubs at Brewers (Series tied 2-2)
8:08 p.m. ET, TBS
SP: TBD (CHC) vs. TBD (MIL)
1. How will the Brewers cobble together their staff?
Game 4 lined up perfectly for the Brewers, with ace Freddy Peralta available on full rest in what could have been a clincher in Chicago. But that plan quickly ran into trouble thanks to Ian Happ’s three-run homer in the first inning, and suddenly, the Brewers find themselves headed back to Milwaukee and scrambling.
It’s going to be another bullpen game for the Brew Crew. That’s a plan that worked well in Game 2 but, in a win-or-go-home scenario, even one pitcher faltering could mean the end of a magical season. Regardless of who starts — and it was Aaron Ashby last time — the key pitcher may be Jacob Misiorowski, the 23-year-old flamethrowing rookie who was sporadically dominant during the regular season (and certainly pitched well in Game 2, tossing three scoreless innings) but was also erratic at times and, most worrisomely, sometimes struggled with his emotions. That’s reasonable, of course, as a rookie, but, well, with an advance-or-go-home game in front of a very stressed-out home crowd on the agenda, the emotions are going to be riding high.
The Brewers’ pitching plan for Saturday is scattered and very much up in the air, but the one thing they’re counting on is Misiorowski to give them some bulk (and hopefully scoreless) innings. It’s as much pressure as you could possibly put on a pitcher. Let’s see if he’s up for it.
2. Will the Cubs power their way to the NLCS?
The Cubs had the best offense in baseball for most of the first half of the season, in large part because of their power. That fell off in the second half, though, as Kyle Tucker struggled with injuries and Pete Crow-Armstrong just struggled, but it has returned in the playoffs, at the best possible time.
The Cubs lead all teams this postseason with 11 homers, and their Game 4 victory was powered by three of them, from Happ, Michael Busch (who has been their best hitter all October) and Tucker, who still isn’t playing the field but is looking healthier by the day. For all the talk of small ball in the postseason, the best way to score runs (which is to say, win games) is by hitting home runs. (Ball go far, team go far, as the baseball writer Joe Sheehan puts it.)
The Cubs’ comeback in this NLDS very much proves that. The question, really, is whether this being a bullpen game makes it easier to hit these homers, or harder. As any television commentator will tell you during a bullpen game, the problem with them is that you only need one guy to have a bad day to blow the whole thing up. Can the Cubs take advantage if that one guy shows up … and put the ball over the wall?
3. How does the Pat Murphy-Craig Counsell matchup play out?
Any time the Cubs play in Milwaukee — let alone when it’s a decisive Game 5 of the NLDS — the fact that Counsell is back in town to face his former team (and close friend) is going to be a major storyline. Counsell is the all-time managerial win leader over there, after all. But Murphy, his successor, has the highest winning percentage in franchise history and just presided over the Brewers’ best season, right after many people thought they were going to fall off.
Watching how these two men match up will be fascinating even outside the personal dynamics: They know each other, and each other’s teams, very well. Murphy has shown a somewhat surprising propensity for small ball this series — it was odd to see him call for a bunt with two on, no outs and down three runs in Game 4 — but it’s difficult to argue with the results up to this point. The Brewers don’t get to where they are without him pulling all the right strings. He’ll have to do that again in this game.
Meanwhile, Counsell sort of treated his move to Chicago as a promotion, with a pay raise, in a way that certainly rankled some Brewers fans, and they remind him of it every time he comes out to make a pitching change. It’s a psychological drama in the dugouts, every pitch. The playoffs are a pressure cooker: How will each manager respond?
