CHGO Cubs Related: Chicago Cubs vs Milwaukee Brewers NLDS Game 5 Preview

CHGO Cubs Related: Chicago Cubs vs Milwaukee Brewers NLDS Game 5 Preview

On tonight’s edition of the CHGO Cubs related podcast, the Chicago Cubs, the Milwaukee Brewers for all the marbles. A decisive game five on Saturday night. We’ll preview it all and break it all down on tonight’s edition of the CHGO Cubs related podcast. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] This is the CHGO Cubs related podcast driven by Toyota. Let’s go places and bet 365. Whatever the moment, it’s never ordinary. Use code CHGO365 at sign up. Hello everyone. My name is Corey. I am joined as always by Brendan. We are coming to you on Friday, October 10th. and Brendan to quote the modern great poet 1 CM Punk. Ain’t it great to be alive on a Friday night in Chicago? This is such a privilege to do the show with you to talk about this game, all the stories we’ve covered over this year, years back, you know, going into the weeds about Brad Keller in February, talking about Daniel Palencia’s trade years ago, talking about all the different nuance and the minutia and the eye rolls that you have given me over the years and the ignorance of my late morning or late uh night text. It’s for moments like these, for games like these. Every single reason we do a show, we talk with you guys, listeners, is to have exactly what we saw at Wrigley last night and to prepare and wake up on a Saturday to watch one of the most critical games we have experienced this decade. It is an absolute privilege to do this 100%. And it’s uh you know, you get that feeling too. We have a lot to talk about. I’ll give you an outline in a minute, but you know, you get that sense, too. There’s so much minutia throughout the season. We go through every little thing. We’re yelling at Jed for this or council for this or this player. When they are in the middle of the NLDS, it is ride for the boys and nothing else. That is all that matters. The the ricketetts talk, the off season another time. All that matters is supporting the boys in the correct shade of blue. In this case, in this series, uh the outline for you is that there is a decisive game five on Saturday night, a little less than 24 hours, uh as we start this broadcast here, and we are going to break it down. Obviously, that’ll include some discussion of the first four games in this series, but we will look ahead to a decisive game five. Uh Brendan, as we are recording this live here on Friday night, uh as you might expect, both managers doing uh you know, their gamesmanship, their chess match stuff. So, we have not a specific preview for we don’t know who’s going to be pitching. Uh we’re not positive what the I I imagine Craig Council’s lineup continues to look the same, but I think Pat Murphy maybe flirting with changing things up a little bit. Uh, but we’ll talk about what they might do or what we might see in this final game. Um, but Brendan, I I I think you and I have talked a lot over this past series. Um, to me, pretty simple, right? Like at this point, you have so many goals when you come into the season. Um, and boxes you want to check and things you want this team to accomplish. And while they didn’t win the division, this team makes the playoffs. They knock out a very expensive and game San Diego Padres’s team and now they have taken the number one seed to the brink. They have pushed it back on the Milwaukee Brewers. They are going back to Milwaukee and leave it all on the table Saturday. So that’s not me at all saying like, hey, we’re just happy to be here. Whatever happens, oh shucks, I’ll be happy. But it is to say like I am very proud of this team as a fan. Um and they have they have pushed this not as far as they can go. Uh you know obviously there’s more work to be done. Uh but they have done uh a lot of great work and now you leave it all on the table in a game five. It’s going to be uh a tough environment on the road, but this this is this is what you play for. And I think thus far, this is absolutely all you can ask of the 2025 Chicago Cubs. This is what you play for. This is what we as fans hope for. If you were to tell me back in 2017 that, hey, you will not have a similar experience like that year until eight years later, I would have been no way. Not not with this core. I’m reminded about Theo Epstein’s famous quotes. Every season is sacred. So the fact that you and I, which we will, you know, years from now, reminisce about this season, about Ian Hav’s three-run home run, about PCA’s go-ahhead based hits his in the wild card and in this series as well, about Brad Keller coming out of nowhere, about all of these different storylines. To me, that’s what’s going to stand out. And you’re right, this is not us going, “Oh, shucks.” You know, if they lose tomorrow, it’s no big deal. Of course not. But marking these moments is something that I wish I did more back then. And this goround, I’m watching those games dialed in. I’m re I’m I’m burning those memories in my brain because I know every one of these is sacred. Yeah. And it’s uh it’s interesting like obviously the first two games of the series uh I think a lot of us would be lying if we said we felt pretty confident after those first two games in Milwaukee. But what a response. Oh, I was dead. I was dead. I absolutely getting your bell rung in Milwaukee. Their crowd, you know, going wild from the basically the minute all those games started. um and to show up serve court at home. Uh it’s it’s a very impressive effort from this team. And I’m not a big fan necessarily of saying like, well, now all the pressurees on Milwaukee, right? Because the Cubs still want to win. Like the pressure is on them as well. They’ve just already been dealing with it. But now is the point when you push it back to them. Like we talked, we all watched it. We all suffered through it throughout the regular season watching the Brewers on you know a 13game winning streak or going 20 and four over the course of a period of time just basically being unbeatable except by the Chicago Cubs mind you over like multiple months at a time and this is going to be the first time for that team where now they are facing like hey 27 outs if you don’t show up all of that doesn’t mean a thing because you didn’t beat the Chicago Cubs in the National League Division Series. So, how teams respond to that, some teams meet that moment when their back gets against the wall for the first time, some teams fold. Uh, we’ll see what the Brewers have in store for us. Uh, so the pressure isn’t all on them, but you have now put pressure on them that they have not felt in a while. They had a big lead in the division once they took it over. They held that for a couple months and they probably felt real good after those first two games feeling like, “Okay, we got this.” Like, we’re blowing them out. We’re feeling good. They’re running on fumes because they had to get past the Padres’s. Now, these last, you know, 48 hours is probably the first time in a while that this Brewers team is like, “Oh, shoot.” Like, this is do or die now. Like, we better show up. there is there is going to be a significant amount of pressure on them and it’ll be up to the Cubs to capitalize on that. They also have a benchmark too. So the first two games you miss pitch a few innings, you had the bullpen date in game two. You saw what happened to Freddy Peralta from game one to yesterday. Just having that little bit of slight precedence, seeing the same pitchers over and over and over again, it does give you a benchmark. It gives you a reference point to change. Well, Milwaukee may not have going into game five. We’ll see what they do with Shoda, but Sha didn’t pitch many innings. Matthew Boyd did not pitch many innings in the first game for obvious reasons, right? Did not look good, but it allowed them to make the change. And of course, Milwaukee will be making changes, too. But just the exposure Milwaukee’s pitchers have faced the Cubs right now seems to be a little bit more lopsided at least up front. And so I believe going into game five I’m dialed in on okay well if they do go with a bullpen game which they’re probably going to do Milwaukee what does Misowski look like? Is he going to have the same type of repertoire? Is he going to be throwing 102? How do the other pitchers from that bullpen change how they’ve attacked Cubs hitters? Because we’ve already seen Shota, which we’ll talk about later this episode. Shota tried to change his attack strategy in the second game. It did not work. Boyd changed yesterday after that brutal outing. It worked. Which begs the question, okay, if we see Boyd making this change, then how do we infer what Sha is going to do next? Yeah. Uh, we will see. A lot to think about, you know, and that’s one of those things like if the Brewers do end up putting Miserowski out there, like that’s sort of what I mean about do you meet the moment? Do you fold a little bit? We’ve seen him have control problems, especially in that second half. And that’s where you really need that kind of April May Cubs offense. Like dial in, be patient, and let the moment get to him, not to you, right? And you saw those at bats yesterday, right? You saw Kyle Tucker extend at bats, Nicoer extend at bats. They’ve shown the ability recently to do what you’re talking about. Yeah. So, uh, we have a lot to cover in this episode. We’re going to, you know, dive in and continue on like a full preview, who we expect to pitch, who we expect to see maybe from Milwaukee, the keys. Uh, I do want to talk a little bit before we hit our first ad break, Brendan, just about like what an incredible couple nights at Wrigleyfield. I bet. Uh, and you know, this is one of those things where like I feel like a lot of fan bases are going to feel this way. What a and at time plenty of my life somewhat insane to say this because it felt like a a curse, but like what a privilege to have been born a Cubs fan and to be a Cubs fan. There is nothing like that environment. It is one of It is the most addicting thing I have experienced in my life. Uh the crowd absolutely electric. We’ve got our guy the Jedi of Chicago in the YouTube chat saying he was the one gearing up those Freddy chants in the bleachers yesterday. The crowd up down with every two strike pitch, every 3-2 pitch. Cubs player on offense goes 3 0. Crowds up. You can see Tom Ricketts even in the front row. He’s up, you know, getting ready, getting the the fans involved. An electric atmosphere. It is absolutely unbelievable to be at those crowds. I know it comes through on TV. I know it comes through when Pat Hughes is explaining it and so eloquently describing it. Um but just an absolute unbelievable set of games so far in these first two series at Wrigley Field. And you saw it, the Brewers players talking about it, Freddy Peralta was talking about it, Pat Murphy talked about it of Cubs, of course the Cubs players talking about it. It it plays an effort in the game. It plays a role in the game. You can feel it. The crowd is an extra man on that field. Uh but just absolutely electric atmosphere. And when they needed it the most, Brendan, on uh to force a decisive game five, we saw like a vintage 2025 Cubs performance from this team. Matthew Boyd after a bad start to begin this series goes out there and deals, does his job, eats his innings, covers his outs as Craig Councel might like to say per the game plan. You put up some crooked numbers. You were taking walks. You were put in heavy traffic on the bases. We’ll talk about some of these players, but I don’t even know what you say about Michael Bush at this point. It was a It was a quintessential 2020 early 2025 Cubs effort when they absolutely needed it the most. It was an electric atmosphere. Just unbelievable to be a part of and I I desperately hope that we continue getting to do it. Uh but what an effort from this team, this fan base to to get us here to Saturday. That’s why we do this for those moments, for those crowds, those memories, those salient moments. You’ve been fortunate to have experienced so many playoff runs over the years, mostly bad, although there was one good one, you know, not too long ago. Uh, I want to pose a question to you before the the next ad break. Is it different than 2016 2015 environments? And let me just give my my context. I watched I went to a few playoff games in 2016 and 2015 as well. I’m watching the game on TV and I can’t tell if it’s my own projection, but I feel as if the crowd there’s this like weight that’s not there. And as a result, the the the boom, the roar, it’s greater frequent and the down moments don’t seem to last as long. It feels like when you watch these games, it is noticeably different than what I’ve experienced watching them in years past. It feels different personally, right? I think in 15 and 16, there’s obviously just a heavy burden. They had to win. They had to break the curse. They had to finally win that championship. So, all Thank God they did. See, thank god they did, right? They did. Uh feel that difference. 2016, they won. Oh, 2016. Okay. Just making sure. I I do think it’s like a tangible difference. It It’s certainly not to say that, you know, we don’t care anymore. The pressure’s off, right? Like, of course not. I’m a nervous wreck. I’m a nervous wreck right now, even for tomorrow. But my it does feel different. It does feel different in in a way. Um just because when they went down like in some of those games against the Dodgers or in the World Series to uh Cleveland, you felt that like, oh my god, what if it doesn’t happen? What then? if this team doesn’t do it, then when is it gonna happen? How do we even function like that? And I think that sense is kind of gone. It’s there’s still that pressure, still fans, like the the 2025 team means something in its own sense to everybody, but that big looming cloud just isn’t there where it in 2016, I I went to all those games feeling like they have to win. this is their championship and it it’s it’s just up to the universe or some other team to steal it from them and then I don’t know how we go forward. I don’t really feel that way, right? Um it’s hard to the difference in the crowd, etc. I’ve heard, you know, some like is it the loudest it’s been like I don’t think so. There were some moments in 2016 that like I I can’t even fathom how loud they were uh to be a part of, but it’s it’s electric. It’s different. Uh we’ll keep going on it. We got to hit our first ad break right here. We’ll be back in a second and we’re going to continue diving into game five. Okay, bet 365. Whatever the moment, it is never ordinary at Bet365. New customers now get $200 in bonus bets when you bet just $5. Win or lose, it’s if if football’s your game, the early payout offer has your back. If your team goes up by 17 points, guess what? You’re paid instantly. That’s right. Your bet wins even if your team does not. If you love building parlays, Bet365’s 100% parlay boost lets you double your winnings. And if you’re a baseball fan, guess what? The MLB early payout offer pays out when your team goes five runs ahead. Instant payout, win or lose after that. So download the app, use code CHG365. Deposit $10 and place a $5 bet to get $200 in bonus bets, win or lose. Use your bonus bets on spreads, totals, props, futures, and more because whatever the moment, it’s never ordinary at bet365 must be 21 or over. Gambling prom gambler inapp only. Almost home tavern. All right. If you’re looking for the spots to catch your favorite games this season, we’ve got a place that checks all the boxes. It’s chef driven with elevated bar food that’s locally inspired. They’ve got the best smash burger and the best tavern style pizza, which is amazing. But it’s not just about the food. They also have tons of games, including pool, darts, big buck, hunter, and shuffle board. And they have wall- to-all TVs, which is perfect for watching literally any sport, even game five. Cory, and the owners, CHGO diehard members, and massive Bears fans. So, yes, the Bears are rep there. They’ve even got a covered beer garden with TVs. If you’re missing the thing, you’re never going to miss it. Rain or shine. It’s just a block north of Wrigley Field. So, it’s the ideal pregame, during game, and postgame Cubs spot. They also have daily specials and happy hour. It’s actually worth your time. So, go check them out at Almost Home Tavern. Love Almost Home. About like a five minute walk. If you watch the game there, you can head over to the marquee pretty quickly when they flip it to Cubs win. you know, just if you’re planning on your Saturday night, just some things to look forward to. Finishing up just on like the crowd and the environment as we head into the Gamef preview. Um, I do think like, and I’m seeing some of it in the YouTube chat, too, like I think ultimately what 2016 taught us, Brendan, that most of us literally didn’t have in our brains is that apparently the other shoe doesn’t always drop. Okay? Right. We had grown up, especially you and I, I mean, and really everybody, but like I I feel like, you know, us because that’s who I’m talking to. Like, we had been conditioned to just think like, well, they’ll just some catastrophic thing is going to happen or they will just peter out. They have the great season in 2008, they just unceremoniously get knocked out. Obviously, 2003 and 2016 taught us like apparently it’s possible that they just win. They they nothing catastrophic happens or something catastrophic does happen and I I didn’t know they were allowed to do this but they overcome it right so I think you do feel that in the crowd um Jedi of Chicago says like there’s a lightness beating the Padres’s like settles things down does yeah house money a little bit like you’ve made the playoffs you won a series like I said you push the number one seed to the brink like doesn’t mean that there’s we don’t care about Saturday but it feels like all right like they’ve they’ve pushed this pretty far. Like, so yeah, just amazing. I’m very curious what the environment feels like tomorrow. I know, you know, I’m sure a lot of people from Chicago are trying to get those tickets and get in there. Um, the first two games looked very light compared to like the regular season on Chicago fans. and being in at Wrigley these last two games very light on Milwaukee fans especially compared to regular season or like game 163 cuz that was like during the day in a weird kind of ticket situation uh very very light it was mostly the family section uh for the Brewers that were kind of leading that charge but um it’s electric it’s just absolutely electric I hope we could continue to uh keep doing it but an A+ job from the Wrigley faithful so far in these playoffs. So, are we ready for tomorrow? Are we ready to do this? Yeah. So, I think the the best way that I would set this up and we’ve kind of set we set this up even before the Padres series like you have to they are going to hypermanage everything. That that is what I would expect. When a a pitcher hits the three batter minimum, they are ready. They are eligible to be taken out. That is how I would be looking at this. Now, certainly, you’re not hoping to cycle through nine different pitchers. You’re hoping some guys can get you, you know, eat some innings or get some consistent outs, but it’s you have to leave this all on the field. There is no tomorrow. You you can’t be looking ahead to anything. And so I would expect Craig and Tommy to hypermanage everything. And I know there’s a lot of people that don’t always like that. They, you know, feel, hey, this guy’s in a rhythm. I don’t like taking him out. I don’t like going to the bullpen. I would get ready for it. Uh the minute someone’s giving up hard contact or they don’t like those matchups, the bullpen is going to be churning. And I think Craig said it in his press conference today, they didn’t name a starter, but other than Matthew Boyd, you better be ready to pitch. Unless your name is Matthew Boyd, you’re going to be in that bullpen. You might be doing some warm-ups and you might need to expect to get in this game because if there is a matchup to exploit, they’re going to do it. If they don’t like the way a guy looks after he faces three batters, I I they are eligible to be taken out. That is how I would be doing it and that is how I expect Craig Counsel to do it. As far as how they start the game, Brendan, I’m not really sure. Uh, you know, there were some reports that it wouldn’t be Shotaa. Um, and you know, I I did sort of agree with the notion like I I know you don’t want to tip your hand, but like if it was going to be Showda, he was on normal rest. He made the start the last one. You could have just announced that. Um, but we don’t know. But I I don’t know what I necessarily want them to do. I do think however you start it, you just have to be ready to quickly execute things. I know people are going to call for Colin Ray. I think Colin Ray is an option. I think Shota is an option. I think Andrew Kitridge opening the game is an option. Uh we’ve got our guy Braggs here producing tonight. Uh Ben Brown against the Brewers. Let’s see. Let’s see how crazy Craig Council wants to get, folks. Uh I I do think looking around social media, Brennan, it feels like Colin Ray seems to be the uh the fans choice, if you will. Now, if the fans had their way, Matthew Boyd wouldn’t have started game four and Ian would have been DFAD 3 months ago. That’s correct. Bryce Miller, luckily not making all those calls. Uh, but you know, look, I I think this is a situation where I don’t necessarily know that there is a wrong answer, so to speak. You don’t have your starting rotation set up that someone is geared to pitch six innings in this game. you’re approaching this from a somewhat like hands up, we just got to get 27 outs perspective. And so I think the only way that they get this wrong is if someone is left in the game too long. Otherwise, like you’re playing matchups at some point in this game, Brendan, somebody is going to have to pitch in a disadvantageous situation. You’re not going to be able to line up every lefty to only pitch to lefties in their lineup. Pat Murphy, we’ve already seen him do it. He’ll sub lefties for righties. At some point, guys are just going to have to get outs and do their job. So, how they start it, I’m going to leave that to them and then it’s just about every second of that game managing it correctly. Three points stand out. Number one, Michael Bush. Obviously, Michael Bush, but he hit lefties yesterday. So, if they start with a lefty again, what does Craig do? Does Craig keep him in or do we see what they did in the first time they showed a bullpen? You have Justin Turner bat leadoff. So, that’s point number one. Given how locked Michael Bush’s looked. Yeah. No, right. That then again, Justin Turner did have a base hit in that second game. Right. But I’m looking for that. I’m with you. I’m just playing devil’s advocate over here. All right. Point number two is how will the bullpen be deployed at some point? You’re seeing Miseroski, right? Is he gonna start if you don’t throw a lefty or is he going to be used right away after the first inning? How did this happen in game two? Will you Aaron Ashby pitch an inning and two/3? Nick Mirs came in for one at bat. That was it. Inning over and inning two. Mr. Rowski comes in. He’s pumping 102 on average. He pitches three innings. game gets out of hand. Chad Patrick, Jared Cohen, Trevor McIll, Abner Urebe, they’re they’re closer at this point. So, is it going to be a similar strategy? Likely. The order in which he deploys those guys will be up for grabs. Maybe we see Urebe earlier in the game. That’s the second point. The the order of operations for Miseroski. The third point that I really want to dial in on is Brad Keller’s usage. So, it is an off day. I do think we have to discuss his VO is now at 2 and a half miles per hour. Yeah. So, number one, does Craig weigh that heavily or does he just go with the default form he’s seen most of the time and accept the risk that the VLOO may not be there? Brad color is a guy who does not get much uh swing and miss. So the fact that he’s going to be throwing two three miles per hour slower, it presents a risk. No doubt about that. So does that mean Brad Culler then is maybe saved for the the ninth inning instead of the eighth inning. Maybe we see Kitridge in the eighth that otherwise if he doesn’t open may be save for you know uh a more higher leverage earlier in the game. Those are the situations I’m looking at. If we start to see the high leverage guys, Palencia, Kitridge, Theoar be used before the sixth inning. Keller’s coming in and his arms falling off. So that’s what I would expect and I would really dial in on those three trends as the game progresses tomorrow. 100%. And I think the other thing too, especially knowing that both teams are, you know, basically doing a bullpen game. There might be starters involved, but I don’t think anyone is earmarking this as like, hey, we’re hoping this guy goes six innings, right? Like it it’s going to be very interest. This is where the chess match comes in because it’s on from the minute the game starts. you know, both of these managers, you it’s very difficult to shut a game down like in the second inning, but like hey, if one of these the first inning has been full of fireworks in these in these games, if one of these teams jumps out to a lead, like they may like you you you may operate in this game as like, hey, if we have a two to nothing lead, three to nothing lead, like we’re trying to be done and we’re going to go to our high leverage relievers because we want this game still at two to nothing and three to nothing and to give our offense opportunities. Well, you saw him do that in game four. Like the game’s 5 nothing. Keller’s coming in already, right? The game’s 6 nothing. Uh-uh. We’re going Kale Te. No messing around. You will see that tomorrow. Well, and the other part of it, too, is like if you’re only down two nothing, three nothing. You may go to your high levers to keep it there, right? You need to keep a game within distance. So, I think both teams probably have guys that they would prefer not to use early or maybe would prefer not to use at all. Uh depending on, you know, how they’re feeling and and how these 48 hours of recovery time, uh, you know, suits them as they as they warm up and show up on Saturday. But it this is, you know, this is where this is a real chess match, man. And like we saw moments in that San Diego series where you kind of felt like uh Craig had gotten the better of the other dugout and you know maybe uh you know did they wait too long to pull the starter uh after the Cubs had score the runs those types of things. Did you know in that last game obviously the decisive game three like Mason Miller never pitches in that game. He’s just sitting in the bullpen. Should they have used him earlier? Who knows right? These are all questions that we don’t have to ask because the Cubs won that game. But that’s that’s how these games like tomorrow are going to play out. It’s all about timing and when to pull those levers uh to either try to shut a game down and continue giving your offense a chance to expand the lead or keeping a game close because there’s no tomorrow and you don’t want to let it get out of hand and have your offense trying to cover a four or five plus run hole. Yeah. Let’s hit our second ad break. Come back around. I do have stuff on Shota. We’re going to talk about some of the offense guys. Kyle Tucker had a home run. A lot to talk about. Let’s do the second ad break right now. Hey, Cub fans. Toyota’s got 25 vehicles with available all-wheel drive and four-wheel drive. Ready for Chicago, whatever it throws at you. The RAV 4 brings legendary versatility. The Grand Highlander. It’s that third row, which is actually adult-sized and is seriously comfortable. and the and the Tacoma’s Wildside. Yeah, that comes standard. From job sites to campsites to game nights, there is an AWD or four-wheel drive Toyota to get you there in style. Find yours at toyota.com or visit your Chicagoland Toyota dealer today. Toyota, let’s go places. And hey, if you’re a real diehard Cubs fan, it’s time to be a CHO dieard. Upgrade your fandom today for access to exclusive written content, a free t-shirt, discounts on merch and events, and entry into our CHGO Discord lounge where we talk all things Chicago sports every day. Join the thousands already in the community at all.com. We cannot wait to connect with you on an even greater level. Best Bears coverage in the world, hands down. We got Braggs producing. I spend my entire Sunday watching those guys. privilege to watch them do their work and highly recommend it. Monarch Money, you know, staying on top of your finances should not feel like a second job. That’s why I’ve been using Monarch Money and it is an all-in-one personal finance tool that actually makes me feel organized and in control. What I love is just how easy Monarch makes it. It’s built for busy people. People who are rushing, people who don’t want to look at spreadsheets all day, although sometimes I do like looking at spreadsheets all day. You just link your accounts and it does all the heavy lifting. Clean visuals. Love those graphs. Smart spending categories and insights to actually help you make better decisions. Here’s the thing. When you’re doing well financially, it’s easy to go. But ignoring your money means missing chances to save even more. Use code choiconey.com in your browser for half off your first year. That’s 50% off your first year at monarchmoney.com code chgo. All right, folks. Back with you. Let’s finish on on the pitching and then we can go into some of the other uh stuff. I I think Brendan, my look, I think Craig has proven over the few months that he’s not necessarily uh go with the guys that got you here. Uh but he is someone who is trusting the track record and I think is a big believer and we’ve talked about this that this team to be successful and at its most successful has Matthew Boyd dominating in starts, Shoda dominating in starts, Kyle Tucker hitting, slugging in the middle of that order, Ian Hap getting on base and doing his thing in that order. so many things that like, you know, I think the fan base has vacasillated back and forth on, but Craig is is a believer like this is the track record and this team at its best in its highest ceiling in our minds on the projection system has these things working for it and we either need it to happen and trust it or we’re going to go down with it. Uh, and so that’s where, you know, I think some of the conversation has been like, well, will he start SODA despite the struggles because that’s just where things line up and and that’s where this team might be at its best. I expect him to pitch on Saturday. I I don’t necessarily Yeah, I don’t necessarily expect him to start. My concern with SHOD is exactly what it was when we were coming in to the playoffs when you and I talked about this and ahead of that series in Milwaukee. Like so many of these games in October are not decided by the long ball, but there’s so many environments where the runs just aren’t there or we saw it on in this last game four with the Cubs and the Brewers. Both teams had a lot of heavy traffic in that game. The Cubs ended up being the ones that get the big hits, the big blows, the home run. Ian Hap is the one that hits the big blow in that game. But the Brewers had plenty of traffic. One of those guys runs into one, right? All of a sudden, that’s a very different game. And that is something that Shota has really struggled with. That home run rate ballooned in the second half, especially in September. We saw it take hold in Milwaukee. And that’s where I get concerned is that in the playoffs a lot of times difficult to string those walks, string those hits together and have those just, you know, stationto innings where you’re ending up putting up crooked numbers. Uh but the thing you have got to avoid is giving up the long ball, especially with men on base. So, I expect him to pitch and he’s looked good at parts of these starts, but the concern is you have got to keep the ball in the park. This is a pesky Brewers offense. And look, if they soft line drive you to death, so be it, right? What are you going to do about that? If ground balls, find holes, things like that, what are you going to do? But like we saw earlier in this series, if you’re losing a game because William Contrarus is taking you deep or Andrew Vaughn is taking you deep, you can’t have it. You can’t have it in those moments. And especially like we saw earlier, Cubs jumped out to a 3-0 lead. How quick do the Brewers get it back? Because you can’t keep the ball in the ballpark. So that’s the concern. showed up in August 21st. Had a successful outing against the Brewers. Pitched seven innings, just gave up three hits. That was not even two months ago. The start on Monday, an unmitigated disaster. Completely different than how he attacked the Brewers about seven weeks ago. What exactly were the differences? Let’s take a look, shall we? On the left is what you see in game two against Milwaukee when you look at this. Look at that. When it’s about damn time, isn’t it? On the left is what you see Shota try to attack Milwaukee with. Now, the standout difference, if you don’t want to look at all of these individual pitches, the standout difference is that Shoda went up and in with intent to righthanded batters. What Shota did not accomplish is going up. He went in, but there was too much belt and waist high pitches. The home runs he gave up to Cheerio and Vaughn inside. One of those was a sweeper inside off the plate was not dipped and the fast balls were not elevated. Shift your eyes to the right. What do you see? First and foremost, those red pitches, they are not up and into right-handed batters. They’re up and into lefties and up in general in away from righties. So the question I have is, is that actually the strategy in game two? Did they want to go more in on Ry’s and did SHA accomplish that? Because if that’s the case, then the result from the game too may not be as dire as you and I perceive because you can interpret that as succeeding in at intent. This also begs the question, well, do we see him look different in this next game and use a similar strategy that he showed on August 21st? That will be in the form of fast balls generally less inside and more generally up and hitting those targets and also relying more on that split and hammering in on the command and feel of that split. If he can do that, then I think we’re going to be in pretty good shape. When you’re watching him pitch, look at where Kelly’s setting up. If he’s setting up generally up, you know there’s probably going to be an intent change. If he’s setting up generally in, then it signals the strategy is sound, but he wasn’t executing in the first game, and that means they believe there’s reason he he can execute in this game. That’s what I’m looking for. I do think there’s reason to be optimistic. I don’t think the first game in game two was really egregiously bad. It was not good, but it wasn’t this command that was all over the place and he was on the margins of error and it just cost him. Yeah. So, we’ll see. We’ll see what Craig decides to trust. I mean, then, you know, you look at someone like Colin Ray, obviously didn’t give up any runs earlier in this series against Milwaukee, but did give up four hits, did walk two guys, didn’t get any strikeouts. uh I don’t think got a lot of whiffs in that game, wasn’t generating whiffs, so there’s, you know, reason for concern there. He obviously was hit harder by lefties. I think lefties hit almost 290 against him this year uh on the season. So there’s there’s parts in that lineup. You know, if you were to start Colin Ray and they throw uh you know, Bryce Terra and Christian Yelich at the top of that lineup, like those are going to be dangerous matchups. So, it’s all to say, as I said, you’re going to face dis disadvantageous matchups. There’s not a great solution. Uh, I know people joked about it, but they’re not going to pull some IIL scheme and get Kate Horton out there or anything like that. All right. No, no, Maseroka shoulder looked a little tight to me. It did. I thought so, too. Yeah, I thought so, too. From from the stands, I I could see in the bullpen, I was like, he looks hurt, honestly. Yeah, a little a little tight. Um, and it’s funny. It’s funny too that for whatever reason everybody just picks Sroka for that. If they’re going to do someone it’s got to be Michael Sroka that’s faking this injury Sroa. So guy it’s all to say like I hear the arguments with everything right and you would say you know even if oh they’re going to do Andrew Kitridge. Well they tried that before and they gave up a run when they tried opening uh with Kitridge and then turning it over to show. So that didn’t necessarily work the first time that there’s not a great perfect this is a no question no risk option. Everybody’s going to have to do their job. Some righties are going to have to pitch the lefties. Some lefties are going to have to pitch the righties. They’re going to have to face bad matchups. Guys just got to do their job. The Cubs pitching staff has done a really great job over the course of this season. We’ve seen guys step up in ways that I certainly wouldn’t have imagined. If you had told me in April that Drew Pomearan’s would be a postseason ace, I would not have believe. Well, maybe I would have believed you, but I would like, man, Tommy Hottie really on something here. You rolled your eyes at me in uh February about Brad Culler. You rolled your eyes on the show. I got the video of it. I mentioned find the video proof of that. I don’t I already know what it is. I already know I know about that, but I’m getting it. Um, so yeah, it it look, Craig Council says this all the time and like sometimes, you know, I know fans get tired of hearing this stuff. It’s about getting outs 27 outs. That’s what you got to do. They’re going to have a plan for how they’d like to do it, but best laid plans often fall apart in October. They’re going to have to be ready. They’re going to have to be quick. And I would expect people churning in that bullpen basically the entire game. Do you expect to tie on? I don’t know. I don’t know. Maybe. Why not? Right. It’s technically it’s technically it’s Yeah. So, I mean, like one inning, two inning. Absolutely. I mean, all hands on deck, quite frankly. All hands on deck. And yeah, like I said, you know, look, you have to consider, too, you’ve been riding some of these guys. Pomerance has pitched a lot. I know you’re going to have 48 hours between this game, but like Palencia has pitched a lot. Yeah. Like, you know, uh Keller obviously has pitched a ton. Um Yeah. So, uh, would you be surprised to see Ben Brown in high in higher leverage, let’s say like fourth, fifth inning? Well, I mean, you know, look, as our guy Bragg said in the in the chat here, like, you know, he has been good against the Brewers. He’s had some nice outings against the Brewers. Um, you know, that’s that’s the same thing, right? Like, you just have to be hyper aware of what what is the risk here. And I think with Brown, we’ve seen it in some of these starts that the command escapes him and things get off the rails quick. And the exercise tomorrow for both teams is nip it in the bud. Like this is a game you don’t want to wait a batter too long. You don’t want to like see if a guy can get you through a couple inning. As soon as it looks off, you got to pull the plug and try somebody else. Well, I mean to your point, right? So that that circumstance would be a dirty inning where you need one and two outs. That way you don’t roll the lineup over. So you only have them for that whiff. Craig Council did say Ben Brown’s on the roster instead of Jav Assad because Ben Brown gets whiffs. In hindsight, I think they probably would have rather had Assad if they were being maybe, you know, truthful about this, but that’s just the way baseball goes. But if the circumstances work out and they need a whiff early in the game, of course, I think you got a dirty inning. Well, and especially look like you know, you talk about whiffs too, like especially with this Brewers team. Like they make a lot of contact. They put the pressure on you, they put the pressure on your defense. Uh, and at times, yeah, we’ve talked about that for years with so many of these guys that they have good stuff or they get good results, but sometimes you have to be able to throw the ball past people and you need it to not be in play. You saw a ask the Phillies how they feel about when the ball gets put in play. All right? Like that’s what happens, man. And the Brewers are pesky. Like that’s the thing. So, it’s going to be interesting. I think we’ll spend the last segment here talking about the offense uh and what we expect. and you know before we hit our first ad break here. We got another minute or so before we do that. But uh I expect the lineup to look the same. I don’t know that it’s going to matter uh who starts or what they do. I know, you know, we saw in one of the games obviously as you talked about Justin Turner getting in there for just a couple of quick things. Uh I I I would say I don’t expect it. I I think it’s game five, Michael Bush is the hottest hitter on the planet. Uh, your offense showed up in this last game finally kind of looking like themselves from earlier in the year. Uh, Ian Hap with the big hit. Kyle Tucker, an onbase machine launching one. Jason Hayward style from the Cardinals into the left center gap. Um, and I think you’re riding it. I think you’re riding it. Pat Murphy is obviously going to try to exploit those matchups and I think you let him do it. These are the This is This is your offense. The best outcome for the Cubs is that group one through nine shows up and gets it done like they have a ton this year. Not as much in that second half, but that would be the area the the pitching staff. You’re coming into a situation where like I said like vintage postseason John Lester is not walking through the door. You’re going to have to piece it together. He might be able to pitch. Maybe give him a call. Um like you’re going to have to piece things together. There might be calls that Craig makes that make a lot of us uncomfortable, right? Watching this guy come into the mound in a playoff game, etc., etc. But for the offense, like I wouldn’t get cute with it. I would ride with these guys. They’re coming off a good couple games here. Uh they’ve been making a lot of traffic. I think generally they look good. Uh and I would ride with it. I wouldn’t get cute with that. Uh maybe later in the game, depending on the situations and when you start getting, you know, if you start seeing those really tough relievers, maybe you think about that. But the best the best version of this team is that group doing their job and putting runs on the board. And I say you ride with them or die with them. All right, hit our last ad break here. Finish up this next segment. Man, there’s nothing like catching a game live. The crowd, the energy, that first crack of the bat, but getting those tickets usually a nightmare. You’re stuck in cues, prices, jump at checkout, and by the time you’re in, all the good seats, they’re gone. That’s why I started using game time. It’s honestly the hack for getting amazing tickets fast. The app gives the advantage back to fans in just a few taps. I was scroll scrolling through great seats for the next Cubs game, game five. And within minutes, I can see all the different tickets. And even if I wanted to wait last second, I know game time is there for me. I love also the seat view feature. You can literally see what your view looks like before you buy. So, take the guesswork out of buying MLB tickets with Game Time. Download the app, create an account, use code chio for $20 off your first purchase. That’s CHO for $20 off. Tap ticket go download game time today. You know that moment, the one where you realize you left your favorite sunglasses at the beach or on the roof of your car or at a gas station three states away. I’ve been there, too. In fact, I’ve actually left my glasses on top of my car, drove away. Not a happy guy. But then I found Shady Rays and it changed the game. These sunglasses are made for idiots just like me. For those who actually experience real life, it is seriously good-looking. They have polarized, durable, and not stupidly expensive shades. Here’s the wild part. If you lose them or break them, even on day one, Shady Rays will send you a brand new pair. No guilt trip, just replacements. Now I actually wear my sunglasses without fear on hikes, at concerts, on the boat, even if I put them on top of my car. Shady Rays is eyewear that has your back. So we’ve teamed up with Shady Rays to bring you an exclusive offer. Head to shady rays.com. Use code chio for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated five stars by over 300,000 people. All right, Brendan, I think we already talked about, you know, kind of one of the keys. If you see Mizowski, like we know he can pump gas. We know he has the potential to blow you away, but also has the potential to be quite wild. Uh, and you know, maybe that adrenaline gets to you, the pressure of the game five. And so the key in that situation is take advantage of it. Don’t give in. We know this offense is capable of it. At times we didn’t see them do it, but we know this offense is capable of letting a pitcher make trouble for himself, taking key walks, and pouncing at the right opportunity. but not beating yourself when the pitcher is trying to do it. Merowski, in that first game, you mentioned the wildness. The wildness in that game manifested in pitches over the heart of the plate. Don’t get this twisted. 103 miles per hour, 104. No matter where you throw it, it’s difficult to hit. However, you see few pitches hitting the black edges in that game, too. I can overlay Freddy Peralta’s uh zone profile. Freddy Peralta in that last game in game four, 80% of his pitches were touching the black edges. So, second time through in less than a week, they will be facing this sort of stuff. Second time through, there’s an expectation for him. Does that mean jumping on pitches earlier on? Does that mean just simply not missing those heart pitches, those middle zone pitches? If that’s the case, when you typically see a profile like this, it’s not sustainable having this sort of, you know, almost every one of his sinkers are over the middle of the plate. You know, there’s a significant chunk of red outside the zone, right? So, it’s a matter of waiting for your pitch and having the expectation that there’s something there’s some pattern that is going to click for these hitters that they have just seen. Yeah. And you know, look, the other side of the coin, right? When you have a guy that can throw in the hundreds, uh, if the Cubs are free swinging and whatever, like that’s obviously a momentum shift. The crowd is going to feed off of that. if they’re being blown away, like that’s going to be one of those areas where the Cubs are need to keep themselves composed, like not let that get to them. It’s going to be overpowering, but he’s not going to pitch the whole game, right? So, two sides of that coin depending on what version uh of Miz you end up seeing, when we see him, uh you know, uh all those questions. But I think, you know, look, like we saw it on Thursday, like keep the traffic heavy and pounce when you can. It was something that we’ve been waiting for in these playoffs. Obviously, so much of the Cubs runs coming in the early innings, several of these games, scoring early and then not again, just kind of disappearing for the rest of the game. Uh, and so certainly you’d like the recipe to be much more like Thursday. I think both teams in that uh last game, you know, plenty of uh traffic and opportunities that they wish they had cashed in on. That’s certainly going to be a key. You don’t want to leave those runs on third base. Very nervous in the game yesterday when the Cubs left that runner on third with just one out and didn’t get that in. I think it was the fourth run at the time. Like felt pivotal like please get that fourth run in. Uh so you know if they load the bases they’re not able to take the lead. Um, so that’s always a key. Uh, but I think we, you know, have seen throughout these playoffs what is the key to success for this team. Obviously, Michael Bush, we’re going to, we’ll have a completely separate conversation about him in the off season, but just astounding uh, what he has been able to do in these playoffs, paying off a massive regular season and just absolutely carrying that over in spades. 38 home runs, including the postseason. Insane. Nico her first playoff appearance hitting 429. I mean just unbelievable. The exact type of hitter you want to see in October doing exactly what that type of hitter does in October. Just constantly getting hits, pulling base hits, going oppo for base hits, taking those extra bases. Just excellent stuff from Nicoer. Kyle Tucker alive. I know, you know, people frustrated with him uh throughout the second half of the year as he’s playing through multiple injuries and not looking like himself at times, but driving a home run. He’s walking at an insane clip uh in these also 429 OBP with Yeah, amazing uh on base work from Kyle Tucker uh and finally seeing a little bit of the slug. Seiya, you know, uh, not, you know, some of his best at bats in the game last night, but he’s at times in this postseason been the only source of slug and offense for this team outside of Michael Bush, of course. Uh, Matt Shaw, you know, finally getting a knock in the game on Thursday, but he’s been getting on base. He’s been taking some walks, like being patient. Uh, Ian Hap, of course, the big hit, waiting for that, coming from the left side, ripping one off Freddy Peralta. That’s what you want to see. Like, we’ve talked about it. Like we know this offense has the ceiling and we’ve seen it for months at a time like what they can do when they are firing and going as a group. Even in the game on Thursday, they missed what four other home runs. Kelly’s just foul. Felt like every ball Ian had hit was either a home run or just short of the basket. So we’ve seen it. We have seen this offense when they are clicking. We’ve seen glimmers of it in the postseason. Thursday felt like a good bunch of it coming together and you leave it all out on the floor. You’re going to like here’s the thing. We know this Brewers pitching staff is tough. You’re going to see some guys with some heavy VO, some great stuff and Pat Murphy is going to churn through them. He this is going to be as difficult for this lineup as they can possibly make it in terms of the different looks they’re going to face, the handedness splits, the VO, everything. They are going to make this very, very difficult. Uh, but we’ve seen this offense do it. They have the tools to do it. They got to put it together one more time here against the Brewers. Listen, we started this season 7 months ago in Japan, waking up for me 3:00 in the morning. I started this season watching practice, watching and seeing Rich Bisterfell’s photos in January. This has been a 10month season. It’s felt like two seasons in one season. every single conversation we’ve had is to get to this moment, to get to these games, to get to the games where honestly all the trends you and I just talked about, they likely will not manifest tomorrow. It’s going to be one of those games, as baseball always is, of surprises where things are unexpected. That’s the nature of this game. For all we know, Mashaw hits three home runs. For all we know, Kyle Tucker hits three home runs. Maybe we don’t even see Shota. Maybe Colin Ray does pitch. We don’t know. Baseball in a oneame sample all hands on deck. You cannot expect a single thing. And sometimes in elimination games, you have 30 something old catchers hit game seven home runs against Andrew Miller. You have guys who have looked awful for the past week hit home runs. In the Cubs case, they had Seiya, PCA, and Tucker not perform at all for six plus weeks. And those guys within this postseason stretch have been some of your significant contributors. Pete with the clutch RBI hits, this is what it’s about, Corey, for moments like these. And I think, look, it sounds simple. Uh, and then we’ll give our final thoughts here, uh, and let you all try to get some sleep. I don’t get much sleep when I didn’t sleep last game. My neck is killing me by the way. Um I know it sounds simple, but especially in a decisive game five and because it’s paced the Cubs a lot of this way. Sound defense, continuing to make those big plays, taking those extra base hits away from these Brewers. Uh they make a lot of contact, not letting cheap hits fall in, not letting sun getting in your eyes. We’ve seen, you know, in that San Diego series, it felt like Danby Swanson kind of won it for the Cubs with his defense. Like, you need that, of course, to show up in a decisive game five. Clean clean baseball and then just staying with their approach, man. Like, like I said, you’re going to face a lot of different looks. It’s going to be aggressive. You’re going to have to keep keep an eye on that iPad to like figure out who’s coming in and see watching this game. I got the the Vizcast on Savant. They got the whole bullpen situations up. It’s a mess over here. I got to tell you that. Keeping within your approach, letting the pitcher put himself in trouble if that’s what they’re giving you. If you’re getting hitable pitches, pounce on them. Uh, and then, you know, situationally, like these are games where you may see the managers hyper manage in some of those situations. Maybe more sack bunts, things like that. Execute. Got to execute in a game, a decisive game five. We talk about it all the time in the long haul of a season, but like living on those margins and getting those little things right, you can’t give an inch in an elimination game. You have to take them away. And when the Cubs are really good at it, they got to show up and do it for one more game. I’m nervous. So, when we don’t have a full pitching matchup and everything is sort of, you know, we’ve seen very different games depending on where these teams have been playing so far in this series, I don’t know what to expect, Brendan. But I’ll go back to kind of how we began this conversation, which is uh I think you have to be proud of this team and you have to see the fight that they’ve put up uh and they battled back from being down 20 uh after playing a tough wildcard series and they have pushed the number one seed to the brink and they will leave it all out on that field. Um, you know, the Brewers got the best of them in the division. Cubs got the best of the Brewers in the regular season series. And somebody is going to celebrate tomorrow and end up having the last laugh. Uh, the Cubs have put themselves in a position to take that. And I think you got to be happy with that. You got to be proud of that. And as long as they, you know, don’t give a bad effort tomorrow, like you ride with the boys and and it, you know, it is what it is. I know that’s that’s simple to say, but ultimately, look, like I said, you know, this is what we do it for. It’s been a long time since we’ve had those moments at Wrigley Field, and this team has given us some excellent ones this October. Doesn’t mean we don’t want more. Doesn’t mean the job is finished, but it’s been a it’s been a fun ride thus far. I desperately hope it continues. Uh I’m extraordinarily nervous. Uh but I believe in these boys. They’ve shown the fight. It’s in there. That level and that ceiling is there for them to do it and we know they’re capable of it and I hope they go out on the field tomorrow and prove it. Uh but it’s it’s been a pleasure thus far. I I hope it continues. Man, 15 seconds and you can sign off. Listen, I’m letting myself believe what we saw in the last couple innings there. Kyle Tucker, Michael Bush. I’m I’m thinking crazy thoughts, okay? I’m thinking crazy thoughts over here. Crazy thoughts. Let’s go. Let’s do it. Cubs, Brewers, decisive game five on Saturday night from Milwaukee. As Brendan said, we woke up in March in Japan to watch this team, then went back to spring training, Cubs Con, all that stuff. It all comes down to tomorrow and a trip to Los Angeles to play for a penant on the line. I say this with as much enthusiasm as I can possibly muster. Thank you for your support and as always, go Cubs. [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Subscribe to our NEW CHGO Cubs YouTube channel! https://www.youtube.com/@CHGO_Cubs

The Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers face off in a do-or-die NLDS Game 5 in Milwaukee, with everything on the line. Corey and Brendan break down how Craig Counsell will use Shota Imanaga and a heavily-used bullpen to challenge Christian Yelich, Jackson Chourio, and the Brewers’ powerful lineup. If the Cubs win, they advance to face the Los Angeles Dodgers in the next round — making this one of the most pivotal games of the season. Don’t miss the CHGO Cubs deep dive before this epic NLDS decider!

An ALLCITY Network Production

📬 Chicago sports in your inbox: https://allchgo.com/newsletter

BUY MERCH:
CHGO Locker

FOLLOW ON SOCIAL:
Twitter: @CHGO_Sports
Instagram: @CHGO_Sports

Empire Today: Schedule a free in-home estimate today! All listeners can receive a $350 OFF discount when they use the promo code CHGO. Restrictions apply. See https://empiretoday.com/chgo for details.

Monarch Money: Use Monarch Money to get control of your overall finances with 50% off your first year at https://www.monarchmoney.com/chgo

PrizePicks: Go to https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/CHGO and use code CHGO for $50 instantly when you play $5. PrizePicks. Run Your Game!

Rugged Road: Gear up for your next adventure with Rugged Road Coolers – Your ultimate outdoor companion! Head tohttp://ruggedroadoutdoors.pxf.io/ALLCITY and use code CHGO for 10% off!

Ray Auto Group: Get into your next vehicle with Ray Auto in Fox Lake!
Ray Chevy: https://www.raychevrolet.com/
Ray CDJR: https://www.raycdjr.com/

HelloFresh – Get 10 FREE meals at https://hellofresh.com/freecubs. Applied across 7 boxes, new subscribers only, varies by plan.

Better Help: This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Never skip therapy day, with BetterHelp. Visit https://www.betterhelp.com/CHGO today to get 10% off your first month.

Use code chgocubs50 to get 50% OFF your first Factor box and free wellness shots for life with any active subscription at https://FACTORMEALS.com/chgocubs50

Hall of Fame App: Get a 7-Day Free Trial + 50% Off your first month with code CHGO. Just download the HOF app on iOS and Android or visit www.hofbets.com, enter code CHGO, and you’re all set. #ad

Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code CHGO for $20 off your first purchase.

When you shop through links in the description, we may earn affiliate commissions.

Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.

#Cubs #ChicagoCubs #FlyTheW #VibeWithUs