Can the Milwaukee Brewers CLOSE OUT the Chicago Cubs? | Mr. Irrelevant’s Spirited Debate

Can the Milwaukee Brewers CLOSE OUT the Chicago Cubs? | Mr. Irrelevant’s Spirited Debate

That’s how you That’s how you roll. I mean, look, we’ve we’ve I feel like especially in in in high leverage situations like the postseason for example. We explain it on every show I do, whether it’s this one or KBN or watch alongs or if I’m filling in on Jen Gabe and Chewy, I’m filling in on the Homer Hour tonight, I’ll probably mention this. I I I just if anybody’s new to Alex Stro, if anybody has never listened to me before, I feel like it’s important for me to explain how I’m wired. I am a roller coaster of a sports fan. A bleeping roller coaster, emotional roller coaster, mental roller coaster. Um Joshy got to see it up close and personal and and game three when we did the watch along of Pawatam. First inning I felt awful. Second inning I was better. Third inning I was great. Despite nothing changing in terms of the score, it’s like yeah, I’m along for the ride. So yeah, I’m an emotional dude, but like I live and die by my sports fan fandom. I live and die by my sports teams. That’s the beauty of sports fandom. I I love the fact that I get to have my heart broken over and over and over again, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt any less. But it does hurt any less. It hurts still. Losing two in a row to the Cubs to even the series up hurts. I’m in pain. I had trouble sleeping last night. It’s why I didn’t come into work until 11:00 this morning. I didn’t fall asleep until like 4. I was upset. And maybe it’s an indication of the human being I am. And maybe it’s a it’s a problem how just how much I bleep and care, but I care a lot about my sports teams. And unfortunately, what comes along with that territory is they play way too big of a role on my emotions and and my mental wherewithal. So, yeah, today I’m a little bit in the dump. So, we’re going to flip that at some point because I do have something on the rundown today that says positivity. When we wrap up our uh our Brewers conversation today, we’re going to end on a high note, but right now I’m low as we go into game five. There’s a couple reasons for that. Number one is the bats just aren’t batting. Three hits in game four is not going to win you baseball games. It’s just not. You can’t only get three hits and expect to win. That’s problematic. The other part that’s keeping me up. I thought about this all night. Who the hell’s pitching tomorrow? I know we’re going to see Mures at some point. I I I in fact when I say no, I I feel very confident that we’re going to see Miz at some point. But is it going to be Priest to open? Is it going to be Canana to open? Is there a possibility of another Aaron Ashby appearance? Is there a possibility of Chad Patrick? Obviously, he pitched last night and ate some innings last night. So, I I don’t know that we see him in game five. But I I truly don’t know what direction Pat Murphy’s going to go, but but I think the part that kept me away is I don’t know that Pat Murphy knows what direction Pat Murphy is going to go. And that’s where I go, h I’m I’m feeling a little dumpy here on a on a Friday early afternoon. I’ll be back up by Saturday night. I’ll be back up by the end of this program. But right now, as it stands, I’m down in the dumps. Go ahead, Joshy. I mean, I don’t have anything to add. you are on the precipice of blowing a two- lead, of being one game away from advancing and having the opportunity in front of you now where it’s do or die, win or go home. Um, this is makes me feel nervous. It makes me feel anxious. It doesn’t make me feel comfortable, but I’m not reserved to feeling bad about it or myself or my fandom. I think there can be time for that and that’s depending on the result of what happens. But um you believe in Pat Murphy as we have for the past two seasons. You believe in the talent of the guys there. Um the playoffs are the playoffs. This is what happens. I believe Christian Yellish himself has said you’re going to go through some adversity in the playoffs. You are. uh you’re going to have some situations where you feel the pressure and the moment gets really big and you have to battle back and be the best you there. I’ve seen no indication, no reason why I would think the Brew How many times did the Brewers lose three games this season? Not a lot in a row. Not many. Not many. Yeah. Um if at all. That’s how that’s how good they were. Um was it I can think of a sweep that happened against the Yankees at the beginning of the season. They lost four in a row. They lost three in a row uh in midappril to Arizona and Detroit. They lost four in a row, two to San Francisco, two to St. Louis at the end of April. Uh they lost three in a row to Chicago teams. One against the White Socks, two against the Cubs to begin the month of May. So three in a row against the same team. Very seldom. Yes. Um and then you’re going to see a streak there where there’s not going to be very many. One to Houston, two to Tampa Bay. This is all first half still then. That’s the That’s it for the first half. It seems like what the So since May, I don’t know that it’s happened. Correct. So, um, they’re they’re a type of team that should be able to deal with this. Cubs, they lost that in that four game stretch, right? The Yeah, the five game stretch. Yeah, they lost both of the double header on Wednesday. Um, and that was the last. I do love what Pat Murphy said in his postgame press conference. He said he thinks that this is good for this team going forward. He has the full confidence that they’re going to take game five and he thinks that this test of playing in a tough road environment is only going to make them stronger to his belief throughout the NLCS in the World Series. So, do I agree with a lot of the pitching decisions he’s made? I don’t. But if there’s any team that can do it with their backs, I don’t even know. I don’t even want to say if their backs are against the wall because I think that’s where they’re the most comfortable at this point in the year, it’s them. All right, I got it out. You got your little poopy pants off. Yeah. I look I I don’t want to reflect too much because as I said, the thing is yesterday’s game there’s not much to reflect on. Three hits isn’t good enough. That’s my reflection. Well, right. And Freddy Peralta misses one pitch and that’s the biggest difference Miss Maker of the It wasn’t even a bad pitch. It was he said after the game that’s where he wanted that pitch and Hap just went and got it. Interestingly enough, William Contrarus said it could have been better. I thought that was interesting. Little mixed messaging from the pitcher and the catcher. It wasn’t a bad pitch. It was just probably could have been in a spot where you don’t typically see. All right, hold on. I I I can’t let this comment slide from Brett Oclair, who Brett, we love you, man. You’re you’re always you’re always watching. You’re always chiming and we appreciate you. This one, he’s being serious. Uh oh. Brett says, “Joshy, if you watch that game until the end and we’re up for your show, that’s why you are the executive producer and a terrific role model for Will.” I did not stay up until the end. I don’t know how you could have. No. Uh I was trying to and I had it been a game five 100% I’m watching every single pitch. I accidentally fell asleep somewhere in the four or five area. woke up and it was the middle of the ninth and I said, “Well, there’s really no Yeah, they they they missed the the the few opportunities they had. I think it was the top of the fifth inning when they had two runners on, no outs.” Um Yelich is up to up to bat or excuse me, I guess they had no outs. They bunted Joey, got the first out, advanced the runners to second and third, then Yelich was up leading off. That first pitch was not a strike and it was called a strike. could change the entire trajectory that at bad and ultimately the inning and they’re unable to capitalize on it. Um but didn’t have a ton of base runners offensively. It was just a night. Yeah, I’m not I more worried about what’s going to happen with the pitching staff than I am about the offense. I don’t think I don’t think we should make a mountain out of a molehill of a couple guys not having particularly like a two good game stretch. To me, that’s insignificant. It’s not what baseball is. It can certainly continue and Bryce Train might not look particularly good again tomorrow, but Christian Yellowish might have a two home run game. Uh Sal Freelick might have an incredible game. Who you name the person? Contrarus could look like the biggest like everything can change in one single game. I am a little confused and you guys might be able to explain this better than my my brain who which is clearly all over the place today. Um might be able to. Why did Murphy mess with the batting order as much as he did after the first two games? Because the first two games is the same order effectively. Obviously game three you play a couple different guys than you did in the first two games, but then yesterday Churio is not leading off. I don’t know why that is. Terrain batting third the last two games. I don’t really get that. I’m fine with him batting second. I’m fine with him batting fifth. I don’t really understand him in three or four. Um, why is Murphy tweaking the lineup as much as he did after two convincing victories in the first two games? Is there a is there an answer for that? So, I thought it was purely analytical because you’ll see teams do that depending on who’s pitching and especially with an indivision rival. You’ve seen them a bunch of times and have a lot of data for that. But once they went back to Boyd last night and the lineup was the same as it was before and wasn’t as the first two games, I was very confused and don’t know why. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I think there’s a degree of threedimensional chess happening here of we’re not going to show you the exact same lineup. We’re not going to allow you to be comfortable with which relievers you bring in and what in which order. We want you to have to think outside the box and not try and run back. But but aren’t we playing analytical chess then if they’re playing connect four? Like that doesn’t really make sense to me. And what I mean by that to to make that a little bit more Englishy for you is are we overthinking it? I think Pat Murphy has done a lot of overthinking in this series, but I also think he thinks that’s the edge that’s going to get them past the Cubs cuz I think and frankly, who am I to say it might, right? And I think he correctly believes that the Brewers and the Cubs are two very similarly matched teams who have seen each other a whole lot. Um he’s shared the the dugout with the guy on the other side. So there’s a lot of similar thinking and he’s trying to create as many edges as humanly possible. Um not all of them are going to work. I would say the Jake Bowers thing worked. Sure. Until that last at bat, which wasn’t a great at bat, but hey, the guy had drove in a run and then hit a home run. You could even argue the Ashb thing worked. Yes. Putting in Miz after. Yes. I think it’s just a lot of gamles. It just feels like and I think if he played it safe, it might have turned out differently. Obviously, it’s tough to say, and I can’t predict it or tell the future, but I don’t spend a lot of time with the batting order. To me, it’s who’s in and who’s out. Sure. I think the Lockage thing was a massive get way too cute. That guy, that guy’s a fringe MLB player. Blake Perkins is a switch hitter. Like, what are we doing here? Isaac Collins, right? We haven’t seen him like at all. Pinch hit game one and two. I think he struck out game two. Yep. But I think that’s it. Yeah. Um, which again, I know he kind of got cold at the end of the year, but that’s a guy who’s delivered I mean, I I I was making the case in July or August that I think he might be your most clutch player. Yeah. And when matchups play such a big factor in the playoffs to have a switch hitter, too, can do it from both sides. Yeah. Yeah. I I’m uh I’m curious to see what what tomorrow brings, but it’s um it’s going to be an interesting one. I’m excited for it. Obviously, the home team has won all four games in this series. So, if you need a you need a piece of information to make you feel a little bit better, that’ll make you feel a little bit better. Home team has won all four games. Home team has won three games in a row yet in this series. That’s a good point by you in a row. Good point by you. Um it sounds like it’s going to be show managa for the Cubs. Also, the team that wins game five goes on to the NLCS 100% of the time. Very true. People forget that. So, actually, you know what we need to do? You’ve actually just unlocked something in my brain. I’ve got it figured out. Wipe the wipe the first four games from the record. They don’t matter. What matters is tomorrow. What matters is Saturday. I don’t care about game one and two winning. I don’t care about game three and four losing. They don’t matter. The only thing that matters is tomorrow. It’s the first time we’re coming to this realization. Wife them all for the record. This the biggest cliche when other team ties it up. New ball game. This series is 000. Winner take all. One game. Give me your best shot. Cabies.

The 2025 NLDS comes down to a winner-take-all! Game 5 is set, and the Milwaukee Brewers are just one win away from punching their ticket to the next round. Should fans be riding high with optimism against their rival Chicago Cubs, or is it time for caution?

💬 Join the conversation in the comments

Mr. Irrelevant’s Spirted Debate is presented by Door County Distillery