Cubs return to Milwaukee with momentum on their side in Game 5 of the NLDS: 'Go close the door'
Just a few days ago, the Cubs made the long bus ride home from Milwaukee after dropping the first two games of the National League Division Series to the Brewers. Already it’s a distant memory.
;)
Friday evening, the Cubs will drive back up with the series tied, one win away from a ticket to the NL Championship Series against the Dodgers.
“We had our eyes set on [returning to] Milwaukee as soon as those two games were done the other day,” center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong said Thursday after the Cubs’ 6-0 win against the Brewers. “Everybody’s head was in the right place in terms of what we wanted out of these next three ball games. And we got to Game 5, and now it’s our job to go close the door.”
The Cubs faced elimination in two straight games and held it at bay. Now, for the first time in the series, the Brewers are in the same boat. And even though the home team won each of the first four games, the Cubs appear to have all the momentum going into Game 5 at American Family Field on Saturday.
“That’s something that you can’t force,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “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.”
While the Cubs can draw confidence on recent history – they’ve won three elimination games already this postseason – the Brewers have the opposite trend to contend with.
The last eight seasons, the Brewers have only missed the playoffs once. But despite all those chances, they haven’t won a postseason series since the 2018 NLDS.
“There’s really not too many of us that have been around or been on teams that have been eliminated from the postseason still,” outfielder Christian Yelich said Thursday before Game 4, “because we have so much turnover every year, it feels like, on our roster,”
Yelich, however, has been there for the whole ride, traded from the Marlins to the Brewers going into 2018. He knows what it took for Milwaukee to advance. But maybe there’s also benefits to not knowing.
“I don’t think anybody feels the pressure of, we need to win, we need to win,” Yelich said. “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.”
To zoom out a little, however, the Brewers would have benefited from avoiding a Game 5.
In the first two games of the series, their fresh pitching staff, in tandem with an early offensive push, overpowered the Cubs. But over the next couple days, their lack of starting pitching depth, with Brandon Woodruff sidelined by a stranded lat and Jacob Misiorowski siloed to the bullpen, began to show.
When the Cubs knocked Brewers right-hander Quinn Priester out of Game 3 with two outs in the first inning, the Brewers were forced to essentially throw two bullpen games in a row.
So, Freddy Peralta, who also started Game 1 for the Brewers, was back on the mound Thursday in Game 4.
“You just want to win,” Murphy said Thursday afternoon of the decision. “With our starting pitching the way it is right now – we’re limping in with the starting pitching. It hasn’t been our strong point. But also we’re playing to win it all. We’re all in to win it all. In order to have Freddy for sure for two times in the next series, it was imperative, best available pitcher, let’s go.”
But the Brewers didn’t win. And though Peralta gave his team four innings, Cubs mainstay Ian Happ launched a three-run homer off him in the first, making sure the Brewers’ best pitcher felt the pressure from the beginning.
What was manager Craig Counsell’s message after the game?
“Pack your bags,” Counsell said. “That’s all we wanted to do [Thursday] was pack our bags. We get to pack our bags.”
So much about this series has turned on its head over the past days in Chicago — from momentum, to the pressure, to the pitching advantage. And now the Cubs are in the driver’s seat heading back to Milwaukee.
“That’s what we love about this game,” catcher Carson Kelly said. “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.”
Dodgers Player Avoided Disastrous Mistake on Game-Winning Run Off of Phillies Error
The bottom of the 11th inning of Game 4 of the National League Division Series between the Phillies and Dodgers will be remembered largely for one reason: Phillies relief pitcher Orion Kerkering's throwing error that led to the winning run scoring in the form of Hyeseong Kim, ending Philadelphia's season and sending Los Angeles to the National League Championship Series for the second straight year.
But it very nearly could have been remembered for a different sort of mistake, one that was quickly remediated despite being missed in all of the end-of-game chaos.
In his haste to hurry home and score the winning run, Kim seemingly failed to touch home plate.
Fortunately for the Dodgers, Kim quickly realized what had occurred and, after Kerkering's throw sailed past catcher J.T. Realmuto's head to the backstop, doubled back to touch home plate.
It was another what-if moment in an eventful inning filled with them.
