Cubs Avoid Elimination & Force Game 4 vs. Brewers in NLDS | MLB on TBS

Cubs Avoid Elimination & Force Game 4 vs. Brewers in NLDS | MLB on TBS

I got Curtis Grannerson to my right. I got Jimmy Rollins and the gnarly Pedro Lefco Martinez all the way down there at the end. Yeah. Uh what a game. Cubs, as they’ve been doing, gets all their work done in the first inning and then holds on white knuckles it to the very end and survives. Milwaukee, they took some hacks at it. They had bases loaded in the eighth, but the Cubs pitchers able to get it done. Wow. I’m Curtis. I’m going to start with you. How confident do you feel right now for the Cubs to not just take it to four, but to take it to five? The confidence is rising. It’s not all the way there yet. We had another start to the game like we’ve done in game one and game two and then everything fell off. No more runs, no more pressure afterwards, but they did enough to hold on to win this game. If they can keep the starts like they’re going, but add now all of a sudden that confidence and pressure continues to build up. It’s there. It’s coming. They just haven’t been able to execute late when they’ve needed to. Let’s put this into perspective. I think we have a way of showing the first inning run output in this series thus far versus the rest of the game. In first innings thus far, we have had what is it? Uh 18 runs, four home runs in the first inning of this series. From innings two through nine, 11 runs and just and five home runs. So everything’s happening in the very beginning of these games. Pedro, but then afterwards, Milwaukee has been able to chip away, just not tonight. Kudos to the bullpens, and today they they did an outstanding job on both sides. Uh for Milwaukee, I I wish I saw a little bit more from the starting pitcher, but he couldn’t stay in there for a little bit longer. But you know what? Milwaukee continues to do the same thing with their boop and with the kind of stuff that they have. The Cubs, they did great today. Yes. But I don’t know that I can say the same thing for tomorrow and the next day. So, they pitched really well out of the bullpen today. But I don’t know that I can trust them to do that again against a Pesky team like the the Milwaukee Brewers. Get this. In this series thus far, Milwaukee relievers 17 and two/3 innings pitched and they’ve allowed only one run. Also a big development for the Brewers. Canana gets his first relief appearance since 2021. Goes three innings pitched, two Ks, two hits, no run. The relief was there. Everything happened in the beginning of the game. Yeah. And and that’s a bad sign from the Cubs. When you have that momentum there, you keep adding, you keep adding, you put them away right away. And and not only that, you were going to tax that bullpen even earlier, but they seem to stop. They seem to settle with just what they got. And that’s scary against a team like Milwaukee. JR Roll PCA said something there to Jabara where he said, “We really had the game plan for Quinn Pster.” And that first inning, boy, did they. They knocked him out after only two outs. But then it seemed like when they had to adjust on the fly. Is that maybe what it is? They have a really good game plan for the starting pitcher. They’re just not facing him for that long in any of these games. Well, whatever they wanted to do, they were able to find a way to get it done. He wasn’t throwing the ball over the plate. They were patient and they got to him. And when you have a guy on the ropes, yes, you focus because you don’t think he’s going to come out in less than four or five innings. So your game plan is about putting pressure on him. We have his number and then it happens so fast. He goes two3 of an inning. You have someone else in. It took a little time to adjust. And they bring in Q who holds him down, does a great job to eat up innings, but you have to find a way to keep applying pressure. We saw it. We’ve seen it all series long. There’s urgency in that first inning. Can we be the first one to score? And guess what? They’re doing that. Both sides are finding ways to put up runs in the first inning, but the Cubs fall off and that’s where Milwaukee gets stronger. Look, we may chip away, add one here, add one there. As Pedro said, if they add some runs, not that Milwaukee folds, but you put a delta between yourself and them and it’s like we’re we’re on the road. And sometimes you do concede as a team, it’s hard to say, but it’s like, you know what, maybe it’s their night. And you go, all right, they’re going to get their win. We’ll save our bullets for tomorrow. But they weren’t able to do that. And Milwaukee had chances. There was a play that happened that I was kind of questionable in my opinion that made them seem a little desperate, but that’s baseball. Milwaukee was playing their brand of baseball, but the urgency to score early happens, but Chicago has to do more than after the first inning. Second game this series, Michael Bush hit a home run to lead off the at bats for the Chicago Cubs. He joined our Lauren Jabara post game. Michael, you set the tone for your team early in this one. and it ended up being the one that got you guys over the edge to win it. Just tell me what went through your mind when you step into the box here leading off for your team. This is your second lead off home run this series. Uh yeah, just just trying to, you know, have a good at bat. Um not not all of them go my way, but um you know, definitely happy to get one that, you know, got us on the board, tied things up. It’s a full team effort, but that bullpen comes in. Brad Keller closes this thing out. How big were those two innings that you saw from him tonight? Yeah, huge. Um that’s that’s what they’ve been doing all year. They they’ve been big for us. Um coming up in big situation for us against really good teams. Um you know, it’s a reason why we’re here and um you know, it’s been fun to watch it. Fun to play behind. Got great dudes. Uh great on the mound, great in the clubhouse. Um all around great win. Danby told me before the game, hey, we need three, but you’re not going to get three without getting one. What was the mindset like of the team heading into this one? Staving off elimination. Yeah, that was that was an impressive first inning by us. I I thought just up and down the lineup, even our outs, we just had great at bats. Um, you know, we didn’t we didn’t give them much. I thought we were just locked in from the beginning and, you know, it happened to give us four runs to win it, but I thought right off right off the bat, all nine of us, you know, kind of gave really good at bats. What’s it like being back at home, these fans? It’s incredible here. Yeah, it’s amazing. Best fans in baseball. Um, you know, they brought it tonight as they always do. Uh, we’re excited to get another one tomorrow. Congrats on the win. We’ll see you tomorrow. Thank you. Thank you. All the man does is hit leadoff jacks. Michael Bush is the first player to hit multiple leadoff home runs in the same series in a single postseason. And if Sarah Lang’s reporting it, it means it’s fact because she doesn’t miss. Let’s get to these highlights. Pedro, your guy Zbrano. Look at this first pitch. What happened? The linker opening. He used to do that a lot. Uh Chicagoland area native Quinn Prester on the mound. And you think maybe there was some added pressure. There has to be. You’re from there. You grew up a Cubs fan. Your whole family’s there. And you know, they’re asking for tickets. They want to come see a game there cuz there’s some diehard Cubs fans, even in your own family. So, there might have been a little bit there. Well, look, this was a moment that he really wanted, but he had 39 pitches in that first inning, let up four earn runs, only went two outs. We have no doubt he’ll turn it around, but he had to get pulled in this game. And it would just keep going for the for the Cubbies here, JR. But I like the way Murphy grabbed him and gave him some words of encouragement. let them know, hey, we have to make this move cuz we’re we’re we’re going to have games to play, but we’re going to need you. But the Cubs did they were what they were supposed to. They capitalized on his wildness, his mistakes, and fortunately for them, that was all they needed. Fast forward to the seventh inning. Jake Bower is in the lineup instead of Andrew Vaughn, just like Vaughn in game two. He hits a home run and we are within one run. Bottom seven now, two outs. Chad Patrick on for Milwaukee facing Ian Hap. Runners on the corners go back to the dugout. This is where it got real interesting, Pedro. Top eighth, no out, bases loaded. Yeah. And and you know what? Kudos to this kid in for four outs. Yep. And uh he got him. But I tell you what, you’re not going to get away from Milwaukee all the time with just pitching two or three innings. I think the Cubs are going to need to have one of those starters kind of come up and pitch a good game in order for them to re to to recoup and not have to use the bullpen like they used them today. If they don’t do that, if they don’t have one of those starters, right, come up and pitch well, they’re going to tax that bullpen. And and I just can’t see it happening against the the the Brewers. It’s tough, man. Especially cuz you know how much Kate Horton was that plan and for him not even being available in this division series is so big. But I thought Tyion I thought you were impressed cuz he led up that first run in the first inning but he did get settled down and since he’s returned from the IIL, he’s been a steadying force for the Cubs. Well, he did well. I I I was concerned a little bit about, you know, his rust and and also because Tyion is a fly ball pitcher and as we saw from left to to right, the wind was blowing early and and later on it was blowing even more. But, uh, I think they pulled him off at the right time and the bullpen was able to pick him up. But, uh, I’ I’ve seen Milwaukee doing that all year. It’s not just in the postseason, but I h I don’t know that I can say that the the Cubs are gonna continue to do that, especially the next two games. They need one of those starters to pitch well for them. Cubs, they did break some really unseammly streaks. They had a MLB record 13 postseason games where they had not scored more than three runs. That gets snapped tonight. This was also the first postseason game this year for the Cubs where they didn’t strike out 10 or more. So, it it has been an issue on offense. They said it steadied it tonight. Definitely. And we know they’re a big play team. They’re a big bat team, but they they they concede and say, “We’re going to have to put the ball in play and apply pressure.” You cut down your swing, put together some at bats, which they did in the first inning, and you find yourself in better positions. If they’re up there playing hero ball, which all season long they’ve been able to do, they’ve been able to find that hit. Guys with power, a ballpark that plays for fly ball hitters. Tonight they were trying to press one run, one run, one run. We’ll take the single. Think small and big things will happen. They had a big first and that was all they needed. And PCA said something. It’s great hitting when the guys in front of you go get on base. We talked about it earlier, the runners in scoring position. They only had four attempts going into tonight. You finally get runners in scoring position, you get some runs to come across the board. But as we saw as the game went along, they struggled to start to get them out there. But as you see here, PCA gets in that situation. He talked about the batter pitcher relationship having that those previous at bats in these situations against someone you face when this pitch count gets there. This is what he did in the past. He might do the same thing here and I could take advantage of it with a hit to get some runs across if I have runners and scoring position. I’ll tell you what though, they can save that for today. But remember, we have a few starters that are lurking around for the next two games. Not only that, Pster could be used if not tomorrow, not tomorrow, I would say, but the next day, if you have Kintana who pissed three innings and he’s a veteran, he knows how his body responds. Also, you can use in the bullpen plus the rest of the bullpen plus is fresh. One inning, easy inning yesterday, uh, the day before. They have pretty much the same boop they had all year plus a couple of arms from a few of the starters that they haven’t been using. But if you’re the Cubs, you’re happy we strung together some hits and that’s and I hear what you’re saying to us as a positive. We were able to string together some hits. Yes, we only did it really for one inning. We got four runs, but that’s something that we haven’t done in a while, especially these playoffs. a multiple run inning stringing together hits because as you said they know they have arms out there and if you’re trying to go big against those arms it’s not going to happen but if you can go single get a double get runners on get another single that applies pressures you always have to play defense of course I saw Nico her finish the game on that great play you know why you know why why should be from Oakland dog that’s how we build them out there they stayed away from mistakes if they happen to make that mistake taking that run down where the ball was almost thrown away, right? We will be talking about the Milwaukee Brewers probably popping champagne right now or the runner just turns and hits the guy cuz he was literally standing next to him, right next to him. But at the same time, when you look at the things that went right for the Kobes and the things that that could have happened in that game, you you have to kind of look to the future and the the future looks bright for the Milwaukee Brewers. I’m not saying it’s not bright for the Chicago Cubs, but they’re gonna need those guys to really be at their best defensively in the bullpen. And they need, like I said, one more starter to actually give them a little bit of rest in the bullpen. Yeah, the Cubs won tonight the way we saw them win in the regular season. Score what you need to and then play lock down defense in the field to get home the W. They are flying the W flag in Chicago. I’ll sink with my ship if I have to. Last Jack Cubs in five. Joey, we wish you the luck. PCA, after having a rough postseason, came through in that first inning, gave them what they needed, and Keller shut the door.

MLB on TBS crew Pedro Martinez, Curtis Granderson, Jimmy Rollins, and Adam Lefkoe break down Game 3 between the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers.

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