I tried so hard and got so far. But in the end, it doesn’t even matter.
Hopefully, you didn’t come here for a long-winded post mortem. I’m going to be short and sweet. The Cubs gave it their all. In the year
2025, their all wasn’t good enough. In the final weekend of the season, I finally had my confidence waver. This day was all too easy to see coming. I made no secret of my thinking that this day actually would have come against the Padres. But the team fought valiantly, beat the Padres and then gave the Brewers everything they had in the tank.
In the end, the Brewers were the better team this week. I absolutely believe there was enough talent in the Cub locker room to win the series, even with Cade Horton out and the ghost of Kyle Tucker that they had the last half of the season. But those significant injuries eliminated any margin of error they could have had against the Brewers. To be fair, they also had a pretty serious injury to their pitching staff and scrambled all series to find enough outs to finish games.
In the end, they made the plays and the Cubs just didn’t come up with enough. You win classy and you lose classy. I tip the cap to the Brewers. They played their asses off. There wasn’t a thing in the decisive game to give even a whiff of any kind of sign stealing, legally or not. Three times they took a Cub pitcher deep. Call them mistakes. Call them winning matchups. Whatever. William Contreras and Andrew Vaughn have been their most significant thump and they were again in this one. Kyle Tucker missed a center cut fastball with two on and no outs in the sixth. Their guys came through. Ours didn’t.
There were two or three balls Cubs just missed the might have changed the whole game. But the Cubs never gave the Brewers and their fandom enough pressure to allow them to choke. They scored first, got to play downhill a ton in the game and they were lethal that way. Game. Set. Match.
I’ll have a post mortem for Heroes and Goats in the near future. If you’re like me and tend to tune out once the Cubs are done until the offseason begins, it’s been a pleasure. Thanks for reading, thanks for voting, thanks for commenting. I’d not do any of this just for the fun of it. But some of you seem to care about what I do and I hear you. It is always a privilege to have a platform to talk to so many of you.
Go Cubs.
Pitch Counts:
- Cubs: 126, 33 BF (8 IP)
- Brewers: 123, 33 BF
Sometimes the story is the other side of the coin. The Cubs had really worn out Brewers pitchers as this series wore on. It seemed like that might be the story. But, with their backs pushed to the wall, their pitchers produced their best outing. Start to finish they were dominant and attacked. Their approach so often in this series had been to get strike one and then look to expand the zone. Not in this one. They attacked early and often. They were efficient.
Ironically, there was much consternation about the Cubs “only” scoring three runs in so many games. Three would have changed everything in this one.
Star Performances:
- Seiya Suzuki provided the offense with a second inning homer. Appeared to just miss a couple of other times.
- Michael Busch with a single and a walk.
- Nico Hoerner had a single and was hit by a pitch. Scorched another one but it was caught.
- Daniel Palencia kept the Cubs in the game.
- Brad Keller capped a stellar season.
NL Division Series Game 5: Brewers 3, Cubs 1 (2-3)
Reminder: Heroes and Goats are determined by WPA scores and are in no way subjective.
THREE HEROES:
- Superhero: Daniel Palencia (.114). 1.1 IP, 4 BF, BB
- Hero: Michael Busch (.064). 1-3, BB
- Sidekick: Nico Hoerner (.042). 1-3, HBP
THREE GOATS:
- Billy Goat: Kyle Tucker (-.157). 0-4
- Goat: Ian Happ (-.137). 0-4
- Kid: Pete Crow-Armstrong (-.093). 0-3
WPA Play of the Game: Andrew Vaughn’s two-out, solo homer in the fourth ended up being decisive. (.138)
*Cubs Play of the Game: Seiya Suzuki’s solo homer leading off the second inning tied the game. (.106)
Cubs Player of the Game:
Previous Winner: Matthew Boyd 151-121 over Ian Happ (289 total votes)
H&G Top & Bottom:
- Colin Rea/Daniel Palencia +5
- Pete Crow-Armstrong -4
- Kyle Tucker/Ian Happ -5
Sad reality of the postseason. On the biggest stage, your stars need to be stars. PCA, Kyle Tucker and Ian Happ contributed very little offensively. Tucker offered some OBP, he and Happ each had a homer in game four. But that was about it. Hard to win that way. Busch emerged, but couldn’t set the table for himself.
Up Next: For me, I’ll write up the full H&G standings, formally award the Rizzo. Four teams remain. I’ll be rooting for the droughts to continue. That is, a Blue Jays/Dodgers World Series. And bizarrely enough, the championship to find its way back to Canada. Blue Jays, Dodgers, Mariners, Brewers. That is my order of preference for the championship.
Thank you again for reading and following me. It means a lot.
