NLDS Game 5 Preview: Brewers vs Cubs Battle to Face Dodgers in the NLCS

NLDS Game 5 Preview: Brewers vs Cubs Battle to Face Dodgers in the NLCS

Game five. Here we go, baby. Maybe home field advantage is a thing in some scenarios. Brewers take the first two. Cubs take the next two. What’s next? What’s next? Game five. That’s what’s next. You’re making me choose. You’re making me choose already the one game. No, I’m not making you choose who wins. I’m just saying like what are we expecting in this game? Are the Cubs going to show up with some pop? Are they going to keep blitzing the Brewers early on? Tell me, what are you expecting here? How are the Brewers going to map and craft the perfect, you know, bullpen strategy here? Because it’s going to be all bullpen. It’s going to be all bullpen strategy. Is the Miz going to show up? I don’t know. I’m not fully confident in The Miz yet. But kind of like Roki we saw in the other series. Like when you have elite stuff, you have a chance to be elite. So, do they need to give Miz a lead before they bring him in because maybe they’re a little not confident in it. To me, yeah. The Cubs are going to come out swinging in the first inning. They’ve scored a billion runs in the first inning. And to me, if the Brewers want to win this one, I think it comes down to them playing their game, which is defense, bullpen, and the thing that has been missing, missing, missing, missing this whole series, their base running. I need to see them steal some bases. I think we if you go back to when the Diamondbacks made their run in 23, they had a team that was fast and it was like, man, the Phillies just were keeping them down, keeping them down. All of a sudden, in game four, they started running. They didn’t win or in game five, they started running, didn’t win. Game six, they started running again. Seven, putting pressure on them. To me, I see the Brewers getting stuff going. I’m not saying you have to steal all the bases, but you have to put pressure on a really good Cubs defense that doesn’t give you extra outs. So, you’re getting extra 90 feet with your legs, which which the Brewers did really well all season. Yeah. I think about how these short seasons or these short series work. We talk about homefield advantage. I think home field advantage for those first two games is real, but when you go down 02 and you go home, yeah, you want to play great in front of your fans, but kind of everyone is counting you out. Then you win that first game and then there’s a little bit of pressure on the Brewers like, oh, we don’t want this to get back home because then homefield advantage is a thing. So the Cubs are able to win the second game. And I think all the pressure is back on the Brewers now because you’re up 02. You had a chance to go into Chicago and sweep them. You lose that first game. You start to feel that little bit of pressure like, “Oh no, if we don’t win this game, it’s coming back home.” And then the real pressure amounts. So, I think the Cubs have a lot of momentum going into this. That game three was tight. Brewers had a ton of chances and they did not come through, right? They had bases loaded. Keller came through in the eighth inning when they brought him in. That was a perfect button pressed by Craig Council in that moment. But that’s a 4-3 game. Game four, KP was not close, right? They blitz him early as they’ve been doing. It was Ian Hap this time with a three-run shot off a fast ball over the plate and he’d been cold. So maybe he’s woken up. Aside from that, there were threats from the Brewers, but I don’t know, man. It it never felt close when you watched that one from front to back. And then of course the Cubs added insurance runs, you know, one per inning in the late stages. Yeah. Yeah, I mean I’m speaking from a little bit of experience as someone who was down 02 in a uh series. Slightly different because we lost those first two games at home, but that was kind of always the mindset was you better. The only way we’re losing this series is you had to beat us in game three. Because if we went in and didn’t get swept, we could feel kind of that momentum, that pressure starting to turn to the team that was up 2 cuz everyone says you’re up 2, you’re supposed to win. But when you don’t win that third game, that fourth game feels oh very, very, very critical. And the Cubs went out and won very deciding. Now you go back on this flight and you know what you’re up against. not only a game five, but you’re also staring down the fact that you might be, you know, a team that loses. Teams that are up 20 win like almost 90% of the time. So, that kind of little voice and that little pressure kind of adds up a little bit too. Yeah. 50/50 if they win. To me, the Cubs the Cubs big sticking point here who had a good game last night. Two of their big guys. Tucker, what was he? Two for I was just looking it up. two for three, two walks, a stake, a dinger. Like that’s scary if you’re the Brewers because how did the Brewers get knocked out last year? By a dinger to end the game or in the end of the game by Pete Alonzo at home. Brewers fans need to come to the park with a positive attitude because that negativity of, oh, are we gonna get are we gonna get bounced again in backto backto back years? Like, is this how it’s going to go down? Like, oh no, what’s going to happen next? And I think if the if they can get rolling, they’ll take the momentum and they’ll push it through the end of the game. If it’s a close game throughout, I think the Cubs ultimately prevail. Yeah. And the greatest thing you could do as a road team and which I experienced uh being in Yankee Stadium during the the Toronto series is you can go in with a plan as a fan base, but baseball is a very reactionary sport. You can only be excited about things that kind of happen on the field. You can motivate your team, but you’re also very reactionary. And what the Blue Jays did a great job in Yankee Stadium, they scored first. They shut up the crowd. And then it took the Yankees some things to get him back into the game to get the crowd back into the game. What the Cubs have done really good in this series is scoring early. So, if you’re a Brewers fan and you want to create this home field environment, even if the Cubs score early, you have to find a way to just continue to be loud and motivate your team and not be very reactionary and not allow things that happened in the past to kind of dictate what’s happening right now in the during this series. And we’ve seen this from the Brewers all season long. I mean, falling behind early on in games and then unfased. It’s not even late catch-ups. It’s awesome often early catch-ups. I mean, I’ve seen plenty of Brewers games where this happens. And we saw them in both games that they played at home falling behind early, especially in game two, right? Game two was the Suzuki home run from Sey and then 5 seconds later, I mean, we’re tied. So, they are certainly capable of doing this, but can they outslug the Cubs in a winner take all game? And do they have the pitching plan in place? I’ll tell you one thing, guys. I am certainly concerned if I’m a Brewers fan regardless of what happens in this game five because I’m looking at a Dodger team that’s got the traditional starting pitching setup. They’ve got it all. They’ve got the experience. They’re clicking at the right moment. And for Milwaukee, it’s still difficult for me KP to look at this team and how successful they’ve been in regular seasons, but not able to get over the hump in the postseason and wonder just like we talked a little bit about with the Phillies if they don’t have the right potion to go the distance. I do think you need to build a regular season winner and have other things in mind for the postseason. Of course, traditional starter horses can help carry you. Brandon Woodriuff loss was huge for them. Imagine if you had the woodif that we were seeing when he came back. That would be a huge difference maker because it eventually tax your pen and their pen didn’t have a good game just now against the Cubs. That was the exact name that came to mind is when you were talking about having the right pieces, the right potion. I think they were counting on him pitching in the postseason this year. Obviously, he has some injury history. He got injured this year, but you can get away with these kind of bullpin kind of scramble mode kind of games in a fivegame series, but you will get exposed in a seven game series. And that was always the question with like a Dodger team if they can get to these seven game series. That’s what they’re really built for because they do have your traditional four starters. You know, they even have a fifth starter in Kershaw if you really wanted to use him, who’s now in the bullpen. But it’s going to be tough. It’s going to be tough if either of these teams move on because I don’t think the Cubs really have that kind of starting pitching depth too that you know, maybe like a Dodger team has where you’re rolling out four guys that you’re very comfortable with every time they take the ball. Kratz, do you feel this at all? What are you seeing postseason version of Milwaukee? I know it’s only been four games, but you made a face when I said, “Hey, if you get through this game five, you’re running into the Dodgers.” I think they’re built to give the Dodgers a tougher time than the Cubs. I think the Cubs can be pitched to. And, you know, I think they’re And look, people are going to say I’m a homer. I’m not a homer for the team of the Brewers. I’m a homer for the fans of the Brewers. I I almost want this more for the fans than I do individual friends that I have on a team or coaches who are on the team that I really like. To me, it’s about like this this fan base getting the ultimate prize. And in the way is the Cubs right now. In the way is the fact that they don’t have a starting pitcher. But over these years, look at what the Brewers have had in starting pitching. They have had Corbin Burns mega free agent. Big Woo was going to be a mega free agent before the before the shoulder derailed him and he missed almost two seasons. Freddy Peralta is a bonafide ace now. He is he’s taken that next step and you continually add guys in. So to me, I think they were built they were built for the postseason, but there’s so many they don’t have enough depth overall. And that’s where I think it’s tough when you don’t have the money. You can’t go out and keep one of these guys. So they have to do things differently. And now their back’s up against the wall. They have to go and push allin. Whatever their feel like their style is, go push all in and leave it out. Leave it all out on the field. run, bunt, hit, whatever it is, your superstars need to step up. Each starting p or each pitcher needs to be ready for tonight and they need to leave it out on the field or the Cubs will take them down in this game. Yeah, I mean I I got the same I I think the Blue Jays team is unbelievable, but that’s really my concern with them going into that longer series is who’s going to pitch the fourth game. And if the Seattle’s able to get there, I think that’s what Seattle is really built for is playing these long playoff series assuming like someone like Brian Woo comes back. But it’s hard. it’s hard to, you know, really have four starting pitchers that you rely on and sometimes it’s really even hard to have three starting pitchers you can rely on. That’s what makes the Dodgers just kind of this unique scenario where they just know that throughout a season you’re going to go through a lot of starting pitching depth, but ultimately when it comes down to these long series that you’re trying to win, you need four guys. Yeah. And during a season, you need like 15. And then you hope that you’ve got five or six towards the end of the year. Then you can pick from that five or six to go with four that you think you can get through October with. And then if it’s a tough decision, great. Emtt Sheen pitches out of the bullpen for the Dodgers. Roki Suzaki is now a bullpen extraordinaire. And we get it, they’ve got the resources. But we mentioned this in the postgame show last night when the Dodgers took down the Phillies. They’re not the only rich team in baseball. They actually made plenty of mistakes, right? Like they they signed up Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates. They’re not a relevant factor for this team in October now. So, it’s not like it was perfection. The Mets spent close to as much money as them and they haven’t figured out even making the playoffs this year. But anyway, we’re excited. Game five is going to be awesome. Can’t wait to see it. My last shout out here from game four is Matt Boyd completely turning it around and showing why he needs a regular rest like any other starter in baseball. I’m sorry. Like that his stuff was so much better, so much more crisp. Command of the curve. CRS like it to look just like at his secondary stuff alone and the difference that you saw in uh the first game versus what you saw in game four. I was like, “Okay, yeah, modern starter needs regular rest.” Especially a guy who’s been through it, pitched a really long year, had some issues down the stretch of this season. It was a no-brainer to see the difference, and they won’t do that again. These are the kind of decisions that I would be more leaning towards like somebody else getting in trouble for. And I’m not saying it’s a council thing. I’m saying for the team to come to him and say, “Hey, will you start?” Maybe he wasn’t reading the room. And if the Cubs lose, if the Cubs lose this series, somebody wasn’t reading the room having Matthew Boyd, all the things you just said, a little bit of injury history has kind of bounced around. Was struggling a little bit at the end of the year and you can’t go to him and say, “Can you get us game one short rest?” Be like, “Yeah, KP, I’m sure you would agree with me. Your legs hanging off.” You’re like, “Am I faster than this person you’re gonna put out there? I’m playing.” But there’s a point where the the team has to say, “No, we’re not going to throw you on short rest. Sorry, we just can’t do that.” And it proved it last night. It’s not always the rest component, too. It’s as a starting pitcher, you get off the mound twice. You throw and then you got your bullpen. But to be sharp, you need to be able to kind of have that bullpen day. you know, unless maybe going into it, you know, you’re going to pitch on short rest and maybe you can get off the mound a little bit and really work on your craft, but you know, it’s much like pinch hitting, like it’s really hard to go out there and be in a rhythm all the time. That’s why playing every day is a little bit easier than coming off the bench. So, when you’re only able to get off the mound and then get off the mound again and you have no ability to kind of work on your mechanics, your feel for your pitches, I think that’s an equally as big factor of why guys typically struggle on short rest is because they just don’t have the feel for their stuff. Yeah, perfectly stated. Uh, we’re excited for this one. Game five, NLDS Brewers Cubs winner takes on the Dodgers. arena.com/val is the spot. 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It’s winner-take-all time in Milwaukee. Kevin Pillar, Erik Kratz, and Scott Braun preview Game 5 of the NLDS between the Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs, breaking down what each team needs to advance and face the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS. The crew discusses how the Brewers can regain their edge with defense, bullpen depth, and base running, while the Cubs look to ride their early-inning momentum and power bats. They also dive into pitching strategy, short-rest decisions, and how pressure shifts in a decisive elimination game.

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