Cubs instant reaction: Analysis of 3-1 loss to Brewers in NLDS Game 5 | Marquee Sports Network

Cubs instant reaction: Analysis of 3-1 loss to Brewers in NLDS Game 5 | Marquee Sports Network

[Music] Well, you know what they say, all good things, they must come to an end. And this season for these Chicago Cubs, you can file that in the good to very good category. But greatness can only be achieved when you hoist that commissioner’s trophy. And all hopes of doing that, they have been dashed. Abner Urebe unfortunately slamming down the phone on these Chicago Cubs. A two-run victory, three to one in game five. It was a win or go home. in the Cubs and they will be coming back to the house. Yep, you see it right there. The Brewers, they will be flying that banner. There’s a lot of happy beer maker fans up there in Milwaukee right now. However, be careful what you wish for because of Milwaukee, they have to deal with those Los Angeles Dodgers. They’ll be hosting the championship series. But nevertheless, that squad full of juggernauts, multiple MVPs, and they are on a surefire mission. And and you know these Cubs when they let everything digest and all that confetti settles, you know that they will be ready for that 2026 mission. And with that said, pull up a chair. This is Cubs Postgame Live postseason edition. I’m Cole Wright. That’s the 17-year big leaguer Cliff Lloyd and Cliff. Like we always say, this was a tough pill to swallow. Yeah, I don’t even know where to start other than you just didn’t hit enough. You have to four hits for the Cubs, six hits for the Brewers. But you only had one You only had one walk and you get that to the eighth. Listen, it’s not about like, you know, dousing the season. It It was a hell of a season based on the fact that you lost a ton, you know, of guys that you counted on. I I thought Craig did a terrific job as far as just makeshifting this this this roster and and getting guys in position to be successful. Um, and they fought. When you think about this series, it could have been over the first game back here in Wrigley. Um, when I say back here, we here in Chicago and they in Milwaukee, of course. They could have been over in the first two, but you fought to get back to Milwaukee. So, I’m not gonna sit here and be Debbie Downer and destroy the season. I mean, if you watch the game, you know exactly what happened. You had opportunities. You didn’t get a walk into the eighth inning. Little things that that actually didn’t really throw you off or derail you because the two errors that you did made didn’t didn’t come out to haunt you. You made a couple pitches uh that you you know that you probably wish you got back. You made three three sliders to Andrew Vaughn who’s who who end up being Babe Ruth. uh this season when he got called up to replace Reese Hoskin at first base. But that that that’s not what I’m here to talk about. What I’m here to talk about is when you get to this point, you have to have better at bats in some of the situations that you had tonight that didn’t come through. And when you score a one run, again, I’ve said it numerous times, you ain’t winning against this Brewers team. You had opportunities to go out there and win a ball game or at least put yourself in position to go ahead and your big guys not not the bottom of the order. Your big guys had opportunities and then come to fruition and you you you going home. Yeah, we saw some of those opportunities go by the wayside specifically in the sixth inning. The Cubs, they had an opportunity to strike right there, but they just weren’t able to run through the tape. Cliff, what did you see, man? Well, I think in the sixth inning, I think when when you look at having first and second and and you have these guys, for me, it’s all about in inbat situations. It’s not about the strikeouts or not coming through, right? So, you start off with a knock with Bushy who for me, he has to play every day next year against lefties. I don’t care. He’s every day. That ball hits Nico. You got first and second, you’re in business. You you you ready to go. You got a guy who’s going to expect in my opinion a lot of money, one of the prize free agents of the offseason and tuck up and you’re like, “Okay, he’s in the bat right now. He’s winning.” You got 2-1 count against a who’s tired, whose stuff is not as crisp as we’ve seen. And now you have your pitch and you miss it. That’s the 3-1 pitch you have to do damage on. When you don’t do that, you get a nasty one. Next pitch, 99 on the black. Whether he swung at it or not, we’ll give it to you again. Pretty much unhitable even though Contra caught it and then this dude comes in Patrick and I’m saying to myself, man, he’s just is probably as dirty as any reliever in the game when his stuff is on, but he couldn’t throw strikes either. He couldn’t throw strikes either because these that like I I’ll say it again, they’re tired. So, they’re just getting everything and they possibly can’t out. Sey goes up in the zone on the fast ball and then he just misses a pitch off the end of the bat, right? And just missed it. you you’re saying to yourself, well, you still got one more shot because say I almost clicked him. You got one more shot with Happer and a one pitch down and in this the pitch right here. I that that’s just the pitch. But now everything else is going to be where you have to battle. When you have a chance 1, you got to get guys because now they’re going to go to the kitchen sink on you and make nasty pitch and you see him walking off the mound and you just saying, “You know what? You had your chance.” And I’m going to show I’m going to show Tuck one more time. This is the 3-1 pitch of the of the game. I always say there’s a moment in the game where you get a chance to win. And for me, that was it. You had your star player who came back who’ve been having some really good at bats, had a homer to to left field the other day here in Wrigley, and you’re saying, you know what, this pitch is is a pitcher’s pitch. This pitch right here was where he makes his money. When you talk about again a 10 pitch to Ian Hap, another guy who just clicked the clicked Freddy Path the other day. You had your pitch 10 to come through. That was it on the left side with Tuck and then your other guy who’s been hot of late and in Hap. And these two pitches right here pretty much end your season because you don’t come through when all when for me when all you had to do was get a little you didn’t even have to go deep. This was more about just just an easy base hit, but just putting bat on the baseball. And the third strike to Ean Half, that was 91. It was on the black. It was a tough pitch. But if he just flips that thing the other way, the Cubs, they still could have been in business. Now, I know hindsight always 2020, but you just look at the production with runners in scoring position, the batting average, runners in scoring position, percentage of runs via the home run. If you want to live and die by the long ball, you’re going to live and die by the long ball. And that’s exactly what happened. Just four hits in situations where a base hit, just a little something just sprayed the other way would have gotten the job done. Cliff. Yeah. Well, I mean, nothing’s easy. This game is not, you know, it’s not easy to do. It’s not easy. I’m not sitting there going like, you know what, give me a bat right now. No, I got on makeup and, you know, earpiece in my ear. So, I I know it’s not easy, but I’ve done it. And I understand situations. I understand, you know, moments of the game, they don’t get too big, especially for your stars. for some guys, for the rookies, for Big Mo in the eighth inning where you’re hoping that on a two- pitch, somebody is telling him to take a pitch with Yuri Rebe on the mound. Those moments for me is more on the coaching side. Like those little moments for me, the eighth inning when you got Big Mo, who haven’t had a bat in a minute, that seed should have been planted. Listen, you have to take a pitch here. It’s 200. I’m screaming. I don’t care who it is from the dugout, somebody some at third base, whoever it may be, you have to take a pitch there. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about your big boys in big situations. When you don’t win when you don’t win a game, you can look back on certain certain scenarios and that will be what takes you home. Bottom line. And scoring runs with two outs via the solo home run. That’s what the Milwaukee Brewers were unbelievable at today. And that’s one thing that you cannot have happen if you want to continue your postseason run. Right, Cliff? Right. Well, this this team and the Brewers, man, if you watch them, they don’t chase. They don’t chase. They they pesky. They they you know they they foul off pitches that are tough pitches. They foul off the elevated fast balls. When you flip it on other side, there’s too many swing and misses and strikeouts on the Cub side. Just it’s just what it is when you’re watching their at bats at moments in moments and certain moments especially on the road because it’s super tough to win on the road. It’s always super tough. You have to put the fans in their seats by doing something small. And for me, it’s more of the the swing and miss from the Cubs where you’re saying that that that’s a non-competitive bat when when you look at the Brewer side. So this game very fickle at times when you look at the the losing streak of this Cubs team, they haven’t won away from Wrigley in seven games. When you think when you go back to the Red Series, when you look at them them losing two in Milwaukee and then the third one tonight. So I I I just look at, you know, pitch right here from Pomera. I mean, that was a good pitch for me. It really was. Right. I mean, that was a hanger from Colin Ray when when you look at Ray 32, two outs. And I don’t worry about that. But I think he went to the well too many times with the slider, which K Ray, I mean, not his fault, hadn’t pitched a lot. So, I I thought he was going to pitch a lot more in this series. Absolutely. And then Kitri, he had a tremendous season after they acquired him. So, I’m not even going to knock that that that hustle at all. Anyway, you score one run, they they hit three homers. So if you if you can’t manufacture or what what we talked about in in pregame, you know, outbarrow these guys and beat them with the, you know, with with slug, then, you know, I mean, your your season’s comes to a wrap. Yeah. So the team that usually hits more home runs did not hit more home runs. And you always talk about just how tough it is to get hits. Is it tougher to get hits in situations like that or is it tougher to hit the ball out of the ballpark? Because if there’s one philosophy to hang your hat on, if someone gave just a random cat off the street and said, “Hey, here’s a bat. Hit the ball out of the ballpark.” They’d be like, “Well, well, well, I don’t know if I can get all that done.” Then you say, “Hey, just put put the ball into the outfield.” It may be a little bit easier. And I’m not saying it’s easy to hit against these swing and miss merchants who come in throwing 98 to 103 miles an hour. But isn’t it a little easier just to touch something and grab some outfield grass than to try to hit the ball into Souvenir City? Yeah. Well, that part, yes. uh the the the swing and miss as far as balls out the zone is what I’m talking about. Like when you watching the Brewer side of it, they’re fouling balls off consistently. They’re putting balls in play, making you make plays defensively. You saw a couple mishaps uh that didn’t actually hurt the Cubs tonight. But I think when you look at what the Cubs did in the first half of the season, for me, that lets me know that it’s in there, right? When you saw this team, and I’m not saying you had to score nine runs a night. I’m just saying that it it’s in there to what they were able to do offensively and so I think that that’s why you had the short and the stick. You just didn’t continue it. Okay. Brewers with 14 two out runs this series. The Cubs with just seven getting doubled up and not how you win in advance. Here’s the skipper Craig Council with more on the defeat. Congratulations to the Brewers. Um it’s a very good baseball team and and a team that you know deserves and and earned their way. um for the right to play, go to the World Series. So, they that’s a good baseball team. All right, we’ll start with questions. We’ll start Megan down in the front. Craig, uh just how would you describe the feelings, the conversations after the game in the clubhouse and and just the emotions you’re feeling right now? Well, I mean, it’s it’s I think I mean, I’m disappointed. I’m sad. Um, I think, you know, I think this team did a lot to honor the Chicago Cub uniform. Um, and in the big picture, that’s that’s how I feel. But you’re I’m you know, like what did we do wrong tonight? That’s kind of what you guys you’re stuck on. And why didn’t why didn’t we get why couldn’t we get anything going, you know? So, it’s hard to get past that right now. Go up to that third row. Side dev. Craig, in general, it seemed like you guys didn’t put a lot of pressure on there, but then in the sixth inning, it seemed like that seemed like the game you had your key guys up with two men on and no outs and couldn’t get the big hit. It seemed like that was the theme, not getting the big hit in general this series. Um, yeah, I mean, we had we had six base runners tonight. So, you know, if you take say homer and then those two, that’s, you know, that’s half of our base runners. So that was the inning. Um and that was the inning with the middle of the lineup up. Um you know Ashp made a pretty darn good pitch 3-2 to Tucker. Um you know right looked looked like right down and away on the corner was nasty pitch. Um you know Seiya had a good at bat against Patrick for sure. Um had good at bats all night. Sea did. Um and then you know then they’re kind of got a they got they got out of it essentially had a chance to get out of it. But that I agree. I mean that’s really the only inning you could talk about. We didn’t we just didn’t do much. We had you know six base runners. You know you’re going to have to hit homers to to have to have any runs scoring in in scenarios like that. So they pitched very well. I mean they pitched they pitched super well and and we didn’t you know the only the only inning that we really disrupted maybe the plan was was the sixth. Um and and they I think just the rest of the game they they did a heck of a job. John second row Craig kind of on you know going off that like if you look at the guys who produced tonight it was Nico Seiya and Bush and the rest of the lineup struggled. Do you I mean do you put that more on the pitching or do you or is it some of the approaches and some of the just kind of results that happen? Look, I mean, look, we faced, you know, this team is loaded with very good pitching. Um, it’s it’s a it’s certainly a strength of the team and it’s it’s why they won so many games and um you know, the Miserowski, you know, got through his four got four innings and got 12 outs for him and that, you know, put the game in pretty good order for him. I I mean, they pitched well. I mean, they they did they pitched well. Um, we took some good swings off your rebate. Just kind of add them balls. Um, what they they pitch well. Down front. Megan, from the pitching pitching side on your guys’ end, just how did you feel like things unfolded in terms of, you know, laying out how you wanted to use those guys and then conversely just being so close with those two out solo homers? Uh, I mean, in in general, we we pitched well. I think if you’d have told me we gave up three runs going into tonight, you probably have to say, “Yep, that’s we we pitched well with kind of running a full bullpen game.” Um, I I would have been happy with that. Um, you know, when you give up the runs, you know, you’re you can say what if, but um, you know, they they they hit some pitches. Maybe Collins pitched that. Andrew Vaughn probably wanted that one back, but Pomerance’s pitch was pretty darn good pitch. Um, and and the guys did did their job. I mean, it it didn’t really go necessarily the way that I thought it was going to go, but but the guy we did a nice job and the guys pieced it together. Go to Steve in the second round. Thanks, Craig. It might be might be a little hard to consider this question already, but you know, you’re two seasons in, you improved by, I think, nine games, but you haven’t won the division. You haven’t surmounted the Brewers. Is are you uh encouraged by are you pleased with the progress, the trajectory two years in? I mean, you know, we won 92 games this year. That’s you you’ll take that every single year. Um I think every every team would. Um the playoffs are a different animal. It’s it’s it’s a completely different than the season. Um uh totally different. So you know ultimately the reason why you want to win 92 games is because you want to play in a World Series and then win a World Series. Um and we should have those expectations. We should have them every year. Uh that’s that’s why you when you say you win 90 games like because you got a chance to win the World Series if you do that. Um when you don’t do it, it’s disappointing. But 92 games, winning 92 games is not disappointing. Go up to the third row on the aisle. Hey Cart, um obviously both teams well acquainted with each other, both fan bases well acquainted with each other. There’s a lot of momentum in Chicago when you guys were there. A lot of momentum here for games one and two. How important is homefield advantage in this series? And what can you say about both the crowds at Wrigley and the crowds here? Yeah, I mean I think look it’s it’s both both ways are fun really. I mean it’s fun going against a hostile crowd and it’s fun playing on your own own crow in front of your own crowd. Um and you got to kind of embrace both but which are but they’re different. Um, yeah. I mean, I think, you know, you’d rather always have more games at home. It doesn’t, the numbers don’t necessarily say it’s a huge advantage, but but absolutely. I wish, you know, to get home field advantage is always one of the goals you have in a season. Of course, um, skipping the first round is one of the goals you have in the season. Um, you know, we gave ourselves a shot and I think, you know, that that part of it you you’d kind of take every year. Give yourself a shot. Tony Craig, you said early on that you think this team did a lot to um to make the Chicago fan base proud to wear the Chicago Cubs uniform. I’m just curious what kind of stood out to you about this team either in this series or this year in general. Well, I mean, there’s a lot you go into, but I I I think just the the it’s it’s the five games we played at Wrigley Field in the playoffs is kind of tells you what about that means so much to it. And I think it meant so much to the to our players to do that, to provide that for our for our fans. Um, and that’s what you do. You you honor the uniform, you honor the place. um that that’s like not the results goal, but that’s that’s always like what we’re what our job is to do is to do those two things. Um and we did that. Um we we we didn’t get it done today. Um and that and that hurts, man. It it doesn’t feel good. Um, but but I think when you zoom back a little bit, we’ll, you know, we did some good things as well. All right, Craig, we appreciate your time, not only tonight, all week long. Thanks. So, you heard the skipper Craig Council. He said that this team, they did a lot to honor the Cubs uniform this season, but they just didn’t get it done today. Both factual statements right there. and Cliff, this one stings just that much more knowing that it’s a two-run loss, three to one to these Milwaukee Brewers. Well, I don’t know if you want to get blown out either, right? So, I mean, I guess this a tough one. Um, you know, and you can go in on the hitting, you can go in on certain scenarios as we alluded to in in the sixth inning when we first came on, but you know, bottom line is you don’t go out there to lose. I know somebody had to lose when you look at how the postseason works. True. um you know, you just want to battle and lead on the line and I thought, you know, Craig came prepared with what he wanted to do from a pitching standpoint. Um and and you just didn’t get enough hitting. I mean, it’s just B that’s that’s the game. And when you don’t do that and you look at how the how the series unfold, I mean, this is runners in scoring position, Cliff on what even even without even without, right? You won the home run battle. Now, you can say with runners in scoring position, you have to figure out a way to do the little things right to win your ball games and it just flips. And in the first two games of the series, I don’t think anything mattered. You weren’t winning those games, period. You didn’t hit enough, right? And and you know, they came out and did some things against your starting pitching that um you hadn’t seen, but you you kind of thought, whoa, maybe you’re just not as good as the best team in baseball this season is. And then you came home to Chicago and everything changed with how the fans came out and responded and showed love and you use the 277th man to your advantage and went out there and balled out for two games. It’s like wait everybody got back in energy was different. But when you go back on the road there’s just moments where even even when you responded even when even when you responded to Seiya you know it hitting the home and you’re thinking okay and then everything settled down for a little bit even with the errors. That’s what I was going to say. It’s just for me it’s just more of, you know, just not getting it done and it stinks to go home knowing that the offense is better than what they showed in game five of this series. Yeah. It’s almost as if the Milwaukee Brewers were like, “Hey, we we would love to win this game, but we don’t wholeheartedly want this game here. You’re going to make some errors. We’re going to give it right back to you and give you more and more opportunities to go out there and score some runs.” But the Cubs, they just didn’t take that bull by the horns. No. But I think the one thing with the Brewers is they count on even though they didn’t win the home run, you know, battle. They lost nine to seven. They they just, you know, they they they got guys to respond and it’s baseball is a funny sport. I mean, that’s that’s why I love it so much. On any given night, you’re going to get something that happens. And this season for the Milwaukee Brewers, what would they be without Andrew Vaughn? What would they be? Huge, right? So, you you look at certain scenarios and I always call these players. I’ve been calling them since my coach told me a long time ago. If you find a diamond in the rough late late time of the season, they can take you over the hump and help you. Whether it might be the upper echelon of players like the Astros had with Justin Berlin when they took him to the World Series or it might be this guy. It just might be Andrew Vaughn. It might be a guy Peterson found himself in the miners and sat there and did not I mean didn’t fret, didn’t have didn’t hear nothing from him. Just went down there and worked. found something that put him in the conversation to say, “Hey, you know what, Reese Hoskins, you’re a good player, but you’re not going to be on the roster.” We we we found a guy that replaced you. I would dare say Wally Pip, but this it felt like that when you when you when you heard the story about Andrew Vaughn, you going to let him come in and just take over first base and just let him be that guy. And he went on a tear and you just can’t There’s certain times where a player will find something and it puts so much pressure on that organization. Well, you just can’t take him out. And he is the guy that essentially not say sent you home, but put you in a position where you know he I mean he he he won won a lot of games for the Brewers and he won a big battle tonight to put him in a position to win the game. He had three homers. Yeah. I mean I I wouldn’t I wouldn’t sit that. Listen, Bryce Durant had a great season. When you look at William Contras, he was almost out when you when he when he was when he was hit on the hand and they didn’t know what he was going to beat. He hits a homer. And then look at the bottom of this order. This is what I’m talking about. I know the Dodgers are good, but when you look at the bottom of this order, they’re just pesky enough. They play with a chip on their shoulder and they will give you quality basket. The the the walks tonight, they have four of them. They had stolen bases. They pushed the envelope. They did the things that makes this Brewers team that good. I feel like the Cubs have that notion as well. They didn’t exploit it at times, but I just I just feel like when you don’t walk, you had one walk with Bush in the eighth inning, but other than that, you just wasn’t scoring enough. You just wasn’t doing enough. This lineup is way better than what we saw in game five tonight. Yeah, we’ll get into some of the numbers a little deeper in just a second. But one guy you saw right there, he tried to put his fingerprints on the ball game, but unfortunately didn’t come to fruition. It’s Michael Bush. Here he is after the game. Um, you know, obviously two really good teams. Um, a lot of good arms out there and I thought, you know, I thought we really had good at bats all night. Um, had a couple balls that didn’t go our way, but um, thought we, you know, fought till the end and, um, you know, if a couple balls go our way, maybe different outcome, but, um, got to give a lot of credit to to them. They they pitched really well this series and, um, they got a lot of good arms over there and, you know, they’re they’re a good team. But, um, yeah. What can you take away from the fact you guys were able to fight back in this series and at least force this game to come up short? Yeah, a lot of a lot of resilience. Um, you know, as uh for being my first postseason, you know, kind of leaning on a lot of veterans just um throughout the series and you could just tell the um the way that they weren’t affected by much. um the the willingness to just stick to what they do well and um stick to themselves was um you know it held a little more volume um in the in the series and um something I’ll definitely take away but um yeah Michael the uh suddeness of 200 days working together as a group and you know brotherhood all of a sudden it’s over. How how difficult is it? Yeah, it’s it’s probably one of the worst parts. Um, obviously losing is um, you know, we’re all in a spot where losing is never fun. Um, we’re all super competitive, but at the same time, you spend so much time with these guys, build a lot of relationships over, you know, one, two, three years, and um, they’re some of your best friends are almost, you know, family. You spend um, significant more time with um, some of these guys than you do your own family. So, um, you build a lot of relationships and connections with them. and um that that is in my opinion, you know, very close to the losing part when it comes to, you know, how tough it could be. Michael, what’s something that you saw from your group in this postseason that makes you believe this group had what it takes in the future? Um yeah, just you know, obviously the resilience of, you know, to throughout the season just whether it was going our way, whether it wasn’t, um just to show up and um keep working, keep grinding. Um, you know, I thought we had a great group and, you know, obviously a veteran group who just kind of showed the way. Um, there’s a lot of guys who did a lot of good things in here and um, you know, it’s it’s sucks that it came up short, but um, yeah. Thank you, Michael. Well, that was a tough one. You know, Michael Bush not feeling fantastic about that. had over the last two seasons combined, including the playoffs. 59 home runs for the Chicago Cubs first baseman. How about the Cubs and NLDS appearances 2025 and that is an L to those Milwaukee Brewers. They were able to punch the ticket versus the Nats, the Giants, and the Cardinals. But the luck, it has run out this evening. An unfortunate loss and a tough pill to swallow. And right around the corner, we’re going to hear from a guy who had his fingerprints on the season all year long. PCA 30 home runs, 30 stolen bases, 30 plus doubles. That was a season for the record books. Yep. He’s bottling things up and letting us know how he’s feeling right now. We’re back on Cubs Postgame Live in the Flash. [Music]

Marquee Sports Network’s Cole Wright and Cliff Floyd break down the Chicago Cubs’ 3-1 season-ending loss to the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 5 of the NL Division Series on “Cubs Postgame Live!”

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Cubs instant reaction: Analysis of 3-1 loss to Brewers in NLDS Game 5 | Marquee Sports Network