The Cubs were the only NL Central team to win their season series against the Brewers, which they did seven games to six.
This is good not just because it shows the Cubs can compete right there with the team
that had the best record in MLB this year, but because in recent years it’s been tough for the Cubs against their I-94 neighbors. This is the first winning record for the Cubs against the Brewers since 2022 (10-9 that year) and since the Cubs lost that tiebreaker game to the Brewers in 2018, they are 46-60 against them.
This year, then, represents (we hope) the beginning of a new era in the Cubs/Brewers rivalry.
Here’s a brief review of the 13 games between the two clubs in the 2025 regular season.
The season series began with a Cubs blowout. Ben Brown threw six shutout innings, allowing only four hits, and Chris Flexen (remember him?) threw three one-hit innings for a save.
Michael Busch homered and Pete Crow-Armstrong added two home runs. Busch’s homer was a grand slam, part of a seven-run second inning [VIDEO].
The Cubs again raced out to an early lead. PCA hit a three-run homer off old friend José Quintana to key a four-run third [VIDEO].
Dansby Swanson and Kyle Tucker added long balls and Jameson Taillon threw six strong innings for the win.
This was the game in which Shōta Imanaga suffered a hamstring injury just one out away from completing six shutout innings.
That was thisclose to being an inning-ending double play, and the game would have remained scoreless. Instead, Imanaga left with the injury, not to return until late June, and Julian Merryweather allowed those two runners to score, plus two others. Would the Cubs have come back to win if the game had remained scoreless? Obviously we’ll never know.
What we do know is that Merryweather had several more rough games after that and was gone from the Cubs by the end of May.
The Cubs spotted the Brewers a 2-0 lead on a home run by Isaac Collins off Ben Brown in the second, but cut that lead in half on an RBI double by Matt Shaw in the bottom of the inning.
Seiya Suzuki gave the Cubs a 4-2 lead with this three-run homer in the fifth [VIDEO].
PCA added a homer, his 19th, off former Cub Rob Zastryzny in the eighth.
The game on June 18 was rained out, scheduled to be made up as part of a doubleheader on Aug. 18, making the August Cubs/Brewers series at Wrigley a five-game set.
The Brewers teed off on Jameson Taillon, chasing him from the game after four innings. He served up home runs to Rhys Hoskins and Caleb Durbin.
Then Génesis Cabrera (remember him?) gave up three more in the fifth on a three-run homer by Isaac Collins to make the score 8-3 Brewers.
The Cubs did try a comeback. Ian Happ hit a two-run homer in the seventh and the Cubs pushed two more across in the eighth. Happ walked leading off the ninth to put the tying run on base but after Kyle Tucker struck out, Seiya Suzuki hit into a double play to end the game.
The Cubs took a 3-0 first-inning lead when Jacob Misiorowski had a meltdown. He wild-pitched in a run and two more scored on an infield hit that Misiorowski then threw away [VIDEO].
But the Brewers came back with a four-run third off Matthew Boyd, including a home run by the rejuvenated Andrew Vaughn. Ryan Pressly gave up a run and Chris Flexen two, and that was Flexen’s final game as a Cub. Pressly would last one more day.
Once again, the Cubs scored first, an RBI groundout by Dansby Swanson in the second. But the Brewers came right back off former Brewer Colin Rea, pounding out nine hits and four runs in four innings.
The Cubs got to within 5-2 in the top of the sixth on a home run by Nico Hoerner, but Pressly entered the game and loaded the bases on two walks and an error. Vaughn then hit a grand slam that put the game out of reach.
That was Pressly’s last MLB appearance. Three days later he was given his unconditional release.
The Cubs salvaged the final game of this series with an offensive onslaught. Michael Busch hit Freddy Peralta’s first pitch out of the yard [VIDEO].
William Contreras tied the game in the bottom of the first with a solo homer, but the Cubs added three in the third on RBI doubles by PCA and Moisés Ballesteros, the latter clearing the bases.
Contreras homered again in the fourth and the Brewers were within 5-3 when the Cubs put three on the board in the sixth. Dansby Swanson doubled in a run and Kyle Tucker doubled in two. The Cubs put the cherry on top with a sac fly by Nico Hoerner and Ian Happ’s 15th home run of the season.
This was the Brewers’ last loss before their 14-game winning streak.
This game was actually somewhat close until the eighth inning, just 3-0, until the Brewers teed off on Gavin Hollowell for four runs in the eighth.
The Cubs couldn’t do anything off Freddy Peralta and three Brewers relievers, with just two hits on the day, singles by Seiya Suzuki and Owen Caissie.
This was supposed to be a doubleheader to make up the rainout on June 18, but the night game was rained out. It was rescheduled for an afternoon game the next day.
August 19, first game: Cubs 6, Brewers 4
The Cubs raced out to a 5-0 lead after three. Three of the runs came on a home run by Willi Castro in the third [VIDEO].
The Brewers got to within 5-4 off Matthew Boyd in the sixth but Brad Keller, Caleb Thielbar, Drew Pomeranz and Daniel Palencia threw 3.2 innings of two-hit relief with six strikeouts to finish up.
Owen Caissie added an insurance run with his first MLB homer in the sixth [VIDEO].
August 19, second game: Cubs 4, Brewers 1
Jameson Taillon threw six strong innings, allowing just one run on five hits, and the Cubs got to Brandon Woodruff for three runs in four innings. That included RBI hits from Owen Caissie and Michael Busch in the second and RBIs from Nico Hoerner and Busch in the fifth and sixth, respectively. Shutdown relief from Taylor Rogers, Ryan Brasier and Andrew Kittredge (three innings, two hits, no runs) finished things off.
It was the Cubs’ first doubleheader sweep of two scheduled nine-inning games since Aug. 16, 2016, coincidentally also against the Brewers. They won those two games 4-0 and 4-1. (They’d swept a doubleheader in 2021 against the Dodgers, but those were scheduled seven-inning games, though one did go nine.)
Colin Rea spotted the Brewers a 1-0 lead in the second, but the Cubs took the lead on a bases-clearing double by Michael Busch in the third [VIDEO].
The Brewers edged to within 3-2 on an RBI single by Brice Turang in the sixth. Matt Shaw’s solo homer in the eighth made it 4-2, and that run turned out to be really important, because Daniel Palencia had a high-wire act in the ninth. He posted the save, but not before allowing a pair of hits and a run before walking the bases loaded.
Palencia got William Contreras to line to Nico Hoerner for the final out [VIDEO].
The win gave the Cubs the season series over the Brewers.
Quinn Priester and five Milwaukee relievers held the Cubs to just five hits and one run. Shōta Imanaga threw seven strong innings, allowing just two runs on three hits.
These are two good teams who had a hard-fought season series. The Cubs won the series seven games to six and outscored the Brewers 60-56 in the 13 games. Looking forward to more intense divisional rivalry in the Division Series!
