MILWAUKEE BREWERS LOOK TO MAKE IT 2-0 AGAINST CHICAGO CUBS

MILWAUKEE BREWERS LOOK TO MAKE IT 2-0 AGAINST CHICAGO CUBS

uh help me understand the Brewers pitching approach tonight. Uh our resident baseball expert, Toush, uh who’s an expert, were you surprised? I also Yeah, help us explain it. But also, I think most of us thought, “Yeah, it’s easy. Quinn, go win all these games. Can you take us inside what they’re doing and why they’re doing it?” Well, I I kind of called my shot. I had the wrong opener when the roster came out and I saw that Robert Gasser was on the roster. That was my smoke signal to say they’re doing an opener. I thought it would be Gasser because I don’t know if they want to throw him into a postseason bullpen scenario. And even yet, he still could start game three. Now, all of this is to say, why not start Quinn Prester given the start he’s in the year and everything. The reason is with the Cubs lineup, they are an everyday lineup that Michael Bush plays every day and if you can get him to face a lefty as often as you can or get an extra at bat against a lefty, do it. If you can get PCA to see another lefty, do it. If you can get Kyle Tucker to see another lefty, do it. Ian Hap, switch hitter but worse from the right side, do it. So, the point being, the Brewers are trying to do this the first time through the order. I don’t think Ashley was just going to go one inning. I think he could go all the way through. I imagine PCA will probably hit seventh or eighth and then get through PCA and then Pster would probably enter to follow there because then if things go according to plan, let’s say you’re in the you’re through three innings with Aaron Ashby. Then if things go according to plan, Prister can take it to the seventh or eighth inning easily and then you hand it to Aribe and McIll and Kanig and all those guys are ready to go. So, uh, the great Pat Tousher years and years ago on the farm suggested that teams should do this and now it has become a thing, you know, and now I think his theory was nine different pitchers, nine different innings. Is that right? I don’t want to miss the thought process. Yeah. rather than paying one starter 45 million a year, you get, you know, flamethrowers that’ll give you one or two innings. And you obviously you saw Freddy on Saturday. There’s a balance to this. I think the nine innings now that’s that’s cute. I don’t know if that’s sustainable over the long term, but it definitely is trended that way. You just brought up, you know, with the fact will the Cubs do any tinkering because of what the Brewers are doing? or they’re just they’re setting their ways. They’re doing what they do. So, the the conflict becomes, do you start Justin Turner at first knowing he’s going to get one at bat against a lefty and then immediately pull him as soon as Preacher comes in, you put Bush back in. But now you lose roster flexibility. BCH has to play the rest of the game. And now the Brewers have their hand played where you can bring in DL Hall, you can bring in Robert Gasser, you can bring in Jared Kanig against a lefty that can’t come out of the game. So, this is the mind inside the manager. But to Pat Toush’s uh thought, the nine innings, nine pitchers, the nerds want that like that that’s a baseball frontier that has been explored. And we all reacted and overreacted to the whole the starter must go six innings, you know, like the the report that was put out by Major League Baseball and people freaked out. It’s like, no, baseball’s very aware of the death of the starting pitcher and how important it is to keep this going. I I’m in favor of Jason Stark, fantastic writer here in Philadelphia, now does it at large for the athletic, the double hook rule where if your starter like their parameters, right? Let’s say baseline starter needs to go five innings or if you’re down by more than four runs. Um, you know, there are baselines, but basically if the starter doesn’t go five innings and you pull the starter, you lose the designated hitter and you have to pinch hit the DH the rest of the game. I’d be all in on that, but I I think that’s never going to happen. So, Dom, what do you think happens? I know you’re out in Philly, but what do you think happens here if Milwaukee this works tonight? What happens next? How do you think Pat Murphy already knows or is it contingent on how tonight’s game turns out? Winning, winning or losing? Yeah, I think it’s contingent on tonight. I really do. I think they’re keeping José Kintana holstered for a couple of reasons. Number one, he’s obviously pitched at Wrigley, and I think they always knew all along they want him to pitch a road game. Uh, and we talk about the lefty being a neutralizer for the Cubs lineup. Uh, number two, let’s I mean, let’s do the worst case scenario. Let’s do Murphy’s law. Let’s say Ashby gives it up. Gives up three runs in the first and the Brewers don’t come back. Who’s to say Quinn Prester has to pitch in this game? You, right? What if you just go full bullpin game and then you save Quinn Pier for game three? I mean, this is total galaxy brain theory here, but the thought being is there’s no reason to show your cards in the postseason. There’s literally no reason. So, I I I love the gamesmanship. I love the idea of, well, it could be Quinn. It could be Kintana. It could be Gasser. It could like, yes, I I love this. Bring us mystery. Bring us a little bit of secondguing and all this stuff. But the way I see it is that, you know, probably Cooler Heads will prevail. Well, Kintana will probably start game three and then they’ll have a lineup of lefties to follow him, too. But, uh, I I think you don’t want to get too cute, but the series never really begins until a road team wins a game. So, let’s let’s make sure that it’s two and the old George Carl rule. The old George Carl rule. Uh, Jackson Cho, obviously there’s a lot of concern. uh be very skeptical. What What What’s your hunch on that? And then who needs to elevate their game if he can’t go? Hunch is he sits out tonight? That’s I mean that’s just what I would do. Um yep. Because off day yesterday, you get three straight days off. You you take the step back today to make sure you’re not taking another step back later in October. That’s what I would do. Now Jackson is 21 years young and 21 year olds heal fast and he’s going to do everything in his power to walk into Murf’s office today and be like, “Put me in there. Put me in there. Put me in there.” And you know, you kind of got to save him from himself sort of thing. I would I would rest him. As far as who’s going to step up behind him, it’s I’d expect Isaac Collins to start. I’d be shocked if it’s Brandon Lockage. Um, the way Isaac finished the year was disappointing in his standards given rookie of the year candidate for four months out of the six this year. It really faltered late. Defense wasn’t as good as it was earlier in the season. But, you know, legends are made in October. Nobody cares what he did in the regular season anymore. And look at Blake Perkins, man. I mean, one at bat yesterday. You just never Joey Ortiz drawing two four pitch walks. Like, you just never know what’s going to happen in October. Maybe Isaac can get things going in the right direction tonight if he starts in left field. Uh that’s someone’s uh Steinhoff sleeper of the week in our little competition for this series. So hopefully he has a huge game on my behalf. Uh Dom, who what what are the make us smarter like you usually do. What are the other pieces of game this game two matchup that you as a baseball guy will have your eye on that me as a football guy wouldn’t be smart enough to have my eye on and will because you told me to. Shota gives up bombs. I I I know you see, you know, the the numbers head-to-head against the Brewers that he’s been better this year than he was last year, but he’s still given I want to say like the third most homers in all of baseball. And that’s hard to do at Wrigley given the winds blowing in half the year. So, the way I see it is all this talk about the home runs and oh, you got to out homer your opponent. You got to do Okay, the Cubs out homerred the Brewers yesterday three nothing. They were all solo shots. The Brewers out homerred the Mets in the wildard series last year 5 to1. Look how that turned out. Home runs are important. I’m never going to turn down home runs. But if you suddenly throw in this offense hitting homers on top of what they did in game one, that’s what makes this team not only a pennant contender, but a World Series contender. Look what the Blue Jays have done. Yes, they hit a grand slam with Vlad Jr., but they were kept on hitting. like these two offenses are on a crash course of how to do it in the postseason. Um, what did you think of like look, I still Jesse has very strong feelings about Craig Council. I I can’t feel as strongly as he does, but he seemed rattled and um I everyone in the entire organization was okay with the pitching decision. Um, what do you what do you kind of make of if if you if if there was a Dom for the Cubs, what is he trying to tell Cubs fans? Because I watched that and thought this team looks these guys look shook after what happened in game one. Am I wrong to think that way? No, you’re not wrong at all. The way I saw it was I when I saw that Matthew Boyd was going to start game one, I thought this was going to be Council Allah 2018. Boyd starts for three batters and brings in a righty. I really thought that was going to happen. Like the Wade Miley NLCS against the Dodgers and it didn’t. So, I knew he only threw 60some pitches in game one, but you look at those numbers in the second half for Boyd and the whole organization line, I’m like, I’m really surprised you went there and just didn’t just wear it. Like, I wouldn’t have done it. Like, I I would not have started Matthew Boyd. I would have started Colin Ray and then see where you’re at. But, hey, I’m not the manager. I’m not the second highest paid manager in baseball. So the the point being for if I was the dom of the Cubs is hey you played your most uncharacteristic game. I mean the Nicoer error was the play that lost the game for them. Not the not the big six not the coming back not the like Nicoer your gold glove second baseman. He’s going to steal the gold glove from Bryce Ring this year. He has been phenomenal at second base. That error lost them the game. So you’re like, “Okay, that’s not going to happen again.” You hit three home runs. Cool. That’s not going to happen again. Or it’s like they got to see Jared Kanik. All right. So they they they had some small victories and they only needed to use three non-leveraged relievers, right? Sroka, Savali, who pitched great, and Ben Brown. Those guys are not going to pitch with the lead the rest of this series. So it worked out from the Cubs favor from saving their bullpen. All right. So, last thing for me as a baseball guy, uh, you obviously watch way more than I do, but I have to admit, um, I have pretty much all the playoff games on now when I’m writing my Packers stories or just on in the background and I find myself stopping and watching an inning, which I would have never done in like the middle of June. What is it about October baseball? Like it’s just like every pitch there’s like implications to like I would say and and I cover the NFL for a long time, but the postseason for baseball after 162 games plus all the spring training, it’s a pretty damn good crescendo, I have to admit. What is it about postseason baseball? Yeah, people always ask, why do these guys celebrate so hard between every round? They haven’t won anything yet. These guys have been together since February 14th. Okay, they are sick of each other. And you are in this marathon together. And the reason why October baseball is so intoxicating is that the Brewers are a team that we have seen them kind of touch the sun and live the tailto. And you’re hoping they can do it again. Like, oh, what if they just time it up right? And you know, every pitch to pitch, right? I mean, I’ve said this quote a few times now, and I’ll say it again. A player told me when we were talking about like, “Yeah, in the playoffs, everything matters. A walk is a rally.” And he said, “No, no, no. A walk isn’t a rally. A 2 and 0 count is a rally. It just changes everything. It’s like you’re in a tie game in the fourth quarter and every play is third down and five.” Like, it is just so much fun that there is so much stress and weight on every single pitch. How intoxicating was Tigers Mariners last night? Terrick Scooble, best pitcher on the planet, and then gives up two homers to Palanco. And then they blow it in the eighth, but then they come back in the bottom half. Like, that is baseball. October baseball to yesterday or game one. Tasks Hernandez fails to cut off a ball on right center field. Then he hits the go-ahead three-run bomb. Like, sign me up for all of this injected into my veins. All right, Dom, we appreciate you always making time for us. I can guarantee you we will be bothering you again and again and again. We know you got a lot on your plate. So, thanks for making time for us. We’ll talk to you again soon. The sooner the Brewers can clinch the NLCS, my life gets a lot easier. Thanks, guys.

The Brewers lead the series 1-0 after a strong Game 1 performance, but can they keep the momentum going in Game 2 against the Cubs?

Dom Cotroneo, Mark Tauscher, and Jason Wilde break down everything you need to know ahead of this crucial NLDS matchup, including:

– Aaron Ashby starting for Milwaukee and Shōta Imanaga on the mound for Chicago
– The latest on Jackson Chourio’s injury and his availability for Game 2
– Key players to watch on both sides
– Bullpen depth, matchup strategies, and what to expect from both managers
– Predictions for how Game 2 could play out

This is your complete Game 2 preview from a Wisconsin sports perspective. Subscribe for more Brewers playoff content and leave your predictions in the comments.

#Brewers #Cubs #NLDS #MLBPlayoffs #DomCotroneo #MarkTauscher #JasonWilde #BrewersBaseball #MLB2025