AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh

The Rundown: Cubs Fans Flooding Milwaukee for Game 5 Showdown, Counsell Packed for LA, Mariners Advance

Photo of Michael Canter Michael CanterOctober 11, 2025

“Wait a minute, something’s wrong here. The key won’t unlock this door. I have a bad, bad feeling that my baby don’t live here no more.” – Red House by Jimi Hendrix

Hey Cub fans, are you making the trek up to Cream City to watch the Cubs and Brewers play in the event of the century, a winner-take-all affair in the retractable dome just off of I-94 that many like to playfully call Wrigley North? Let me tell you, the Windy City’s red-headed stepchild is pulling out all the stops to keep you from invading their turf.

In fairness to the Brewers organization, this is a season-long policy that is getting amplified because AmFam Field is hosting tonight’s win-or-walk contest. Craig Counsell isn’t very concerned about the policy. Heck, he’s got his mind set on a trip to Los Angeles to play the Dodgers. That organization is much more liberal when it comes to peddling its seats to fans of its opponents. That’s one of the many reasons why the Dodgers’ front office prints enough money to shop at the top of the market every winter.

That’s all unnecessary noise, however. The task at hand is beating the Brewers, and though many expect tonight’s game to be of the low-scoring variety, I’m expecting the opposite. A slugfest probably favors the Cubs, and let’s face it, both teams have seen everything the other is capable of throwing at them. Counsell and Pat Murphy are also intimately familiar with each other’s tendencies. Removing any and all elements of surprise usually favors the offense.

This is a big game for the Brewers, their fans and friends, and their families. Eliminating the Cubs from the playoffs will give the city of Milwaukee a generation’s worth of bragging rights. Losing will take away any hope that a postseason series win is something worth hoping for ever again. Repeatedly securing a division title gets a little old when you can’t win three of five when it really matters.

The Cubs will open with Drew Pomeranz, but just about everything is up in the air after that. We do know that Cade Horton will not be a factor, and that Matthew Boyd and Freddy Peralta are not options to take the bump, even in relief. Shōta Imanaga is an option, though admittedly, not a good one. I’d bet on Colin Rea being Chicago’s innings eater, provided he stacks outs. On the flip side, Jacob Misiorowski seems like a good option to start just because Cubs hitters tend to make the 1st inning a chaotic mess. Attrition will rule the day beyond that as each team navigates its way through 27 outs.

“It’s cliché here, but we’ve got 11 pitchers to figure out how to get 27 outs,” Counsell said. “And that’s how we’re treating it. We’re certainly going to need the bullpen formula that we’ve used.

“We’re going to get half the outs from not those five guys, right? That’s how we’re looking at it, and that’s what we’re going to have to get.”

Hitters from both teams should be licking their chops as each staff enters today’s game with more question marks than answers. Arms are tired, fatigue is real, and the battle wounds from the first four games are still raw enough to let each pitcher know they’re there. It’s going to be a long day for Brewers fans if the Cubs jump out to an early lead. If Milwaukee strikes first, Chicago’s sails will rapidly lose any semblance of the warm breeze needed to get to Los Angeles for Monday night.

Despite winning more games than any other team this season, the Brewers continue to play the role of baseball’s underdogs. The Cubs are just another legacy behemoth standing in their way, a Goliath invading a city most up here refer to as Smallwaukee. Let’s hope Brewers fans retire to their homes tonight trying to figure out just what went wrong.

Cubs/Brewers News & Notes

 Ball Four

More games at Wrigley Field, please and thank you.

Central Intelligence

Postseason News & Notes

The Mariners outlasted the Tigers in an epic 15-inning thriller to advance to the ALCS, where they’ll play the Blue Jays. The game was the longest winner-take-all game in postseason history.

The game was not without some of the wildest stats in MLB postseason history. Cal Raleigh, Julio Rodríguez, Randy Arozarena, and Eugenio Suárez were a combined 1-for-21 from the plate in the pitcher’s duel. Tarik Skubal became the only pitcher in playoff history to record two games with 13 strikeouts in the same series.

Tigers manager A.J. Hinch was criticized for removing Skubal with the game’s outcome still in question.

Saturday Stove

The Phillies are getting old fast, and may have to get creative to field a playoff-caliber team in 2026.

The Dodgers honored Schwarber’s 455-foot Game 3 blast off of Yoshinobu Yamamoto with a plaque in right field.

Xander Bogaerts and Jose Iglesias were suspended for arguing with the umpires after the Padres’ Game 3 loss to the Cubs in their Wild Card series.

It looks like Albert Pujols will be managing the Angels next season. The future Hall of Famer is currently negotiating a managerial contract with the team.

Japanese slugger Munetaka Murakami will reportedly be posted this winter.

Extra Innings

Cubs fans deserve more baseball this season at Clark & Addison.

Apropos of Nothing

Expect a quick start tonight. Twenty-one of the 35 runs scored in this series have come in the 1st inning. Both the Cubs (2017) and Brewers (2018) were eliminated by the Dodgers in their last NLCS appearances.

Son of Apropos

Busch has seven hits this series, including an MLB-leading four home runs.

They Said It

  • “We had our eyes set on [returning to] Milwaukee as soon as those [first] two games were done the other day. Everybody’s head was in the right place in terms of what we wanted out of these next three ballgames. And we got to Game 5, and now it’s our job to go close the door.” – Crow-Armstrong
  • “Momentum in baseball happens based on what’s on the field. The Cubs earned it. They had their backs against the wall, and they played great these last two games. They pitched great, they played great defense, they hit in the clutch, they hit homers. They’re built to be great, and they played great these two games. Hopefully the tables will turn when we get into Game 5 at our place. But we have to find out how bad we’re going to fight back.” – Murphy
  • “I don’t think anybody feels the pressure of, ‘We need to win, we need to win.’ We’ve done a really good job of just focusing on the daily of, ‘Hey, we need to play well to win.’ We obviously want to advance and keep going in the postseason. We think we have a really good team that can do some things. You start looking at too much of a bigger picture, and your focus starts to drift from the immediate and the right now and what you need to do to be successful. Then you have divided attention, and that never helps you.” – Christian Yelich
  • “Every day is a new day. We got another ticket to the dance. So anything could happen, and we’re going to enjoy every moment of it.” – Carson Kelly
  • “We’re going to L.A. after Milwaukee. That’s the plan.” – Counsell

Saturday Walk-Up Song

Hey, hey Mama can your Daddy come home? Back to Wrigley next week?

Photo of Michael Canter Michael CanterOctober 11, 2025
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