Brewers-Cubs NLDS Game Three Thread - 10/8/2025 @ 4:08PM

[Jim French Stepstool]

So if you fit anyone for goat horns today it obviously has to be Priester. 3-2 to Busch, then the HR really seemed to put him in nibble mode until the Kelly AB, which he couldn't afford with the zone that was tight both ways. You could say he didn't catch much of a break w/the bases-loaded hit, I guess. Got to 0-1 due to Crow-Armstrong chasing a pitch he chases all the time, then puts the next two in the same spot & he takes both. Then of course you don't want to go 3-1, so......

Most of the civilized world thought Lockridge might be bunting in the 1st & 3rd situation. Even so, I was OK with it in concept, he just needed to deaden the ball more than he did.

They battled, and the BP was once again terrific. But we needed to be a little more woodpecker-ish in a few key spots. Turangs' AB after the Chourio double was pretty terrible. And that was nothing like the Isaac Collins I've seen all season, swinging at a clear ball four.

Had they scored in the ninth, that would've been one damned interesting defensive alignment for the bottom half. I kinda expected Monasterio to hit for himself, then probably Vaughn for Perkins.

Someone might have to nominate Counsell for the PJ Fleck 'Get Put on Camera Every Twelve Seconds' award.

[BrewerFan]

5 minutes ago, HarryDoyle said:

I tend to agree but do we have enough arms to do that? Can you really trust Gasser to not be Priester? Ashby, Miz, Uribe and Megill is all I see that would be available to cover nine innings. 

I do not trust Miz and you might only get 3 batters out of him. 

Patrick is the guy I trust and I don't think you can ask him to go 3-4 innings tomorrow after the last two games. 

I say go with Freddy. And I wouldn't be scared to come back with Priester in Milwaukee in Gm5... but we're not going to get that 3rd home game revenue this year. 

 

 

Although... according to ChatGTP, that's worth about 5M in revenue... could mean we could add a FA, so... maybe that's Rick Schlsinger's plan? I know that's not how it's spelled... I don't care enough to spell it right. 

[treego14]

Counsell went with Jesse Winker

AND 

Pat Murphy went with Brandon Lockridge

Does Rob Manfred have a gun to our managers' heads in the playoffs?

Murphy overdosed on maple syrup today!

 

[Turning2]

13 minutes ago, BrewerFan said:

... is this supposed to be in blue?

 

LOL... I don't always put things in blue because it's sometimes SO obvious, but... please tell me this is one of those cases...

I don't know what you mean, Text color in blue? 

[bm1090]

4 minutes ago, treego14 said:

Counsell went with Jesse Winker

AND 

Pat Murphy went with Brandon Lockridge

Does Rob Manfred have a gun to our managers' heads in the playoffs?

Murphy overdosed on maple syrup today!

 

Lockridge was fine. Great AB with a bad decision at the end and a bunt that was too hard. Winker was a total disaster 

[treego14]

16 minutes ago, jason21nl said:

Cubs won 90 + games.  They’re not some ****** team that shouldn’t be in the playoffs.  They won the season series vs us.  They’re very capable of winning 3 in a row.  

Especially if we're starting Lockridge and Priester lays the biggest egg ever after an outstanding season.

[BruisedCrew]

Im going to be in Chicago Saturday and Sunday and I’m dreading the fact that I might find myself surrounded by thousands of celebrating Cubs fans. 

[treego14]

1 minute ago, bm1090 said:

Lockridge was fine. 

Put that in BLUE!

[adambr2]

14 minutes ago, Turning2 said:

Yep, he was having a career year of overachievement, and that brought a quick halt to his mojo. Don't know his personal life, maybe they have a hard time conceiving, but I told my wife... "what was he thinking... plant that seed in late spring / early summer.. so you don't have a kid during the season". 

I have kids. I love my kids, they are everything to me.

I remember when they were infants and at no point, particularly months down the road, did I ever think of having babies at home as a “this is so distracting that I can’t possibly focus on my work” situation.

As long as they are home with a capable mother, I don’t know why it would I be.

Maybe he’s just slumping like many players do and this is just a made up explanation that we came up with that doesn’t have anything to do with it.

[BrewerFan]

30 minutes ago, RobertCrawley said:

He's an excellent right fielder with a cannon that keeps runners from getting to third. More important, I don't see how it makes sense to start changing things up in a the middle of a playoff series.

So... what would you have done then?

Play Chourio in CF with his hamstring?

That's a pretty obvious reason to change things. 

 

It's the playoffs. That's why you have to do some different things sometimes. You don't manage the same way in October as you do over 162 games for obvious reasons. 

Over 162 games, you don't have your starters throw out of the pen... because you're worried about the next 5-10-20 games. You're worried about winning ONE game at a time and just getting through that game. 

 

He's an excellent RFer. He's ALSO a good enough CFer to get through the last part of the game with him out there given... again, the only other option would have been Chourio. Chourio also has a pretty strong arm and can play RF well and Bauers is... not a scub in LF. 

[Fear The Chorizo]

1 minute ago, adambr2 said:

I have kids. I love my kids, they are everything to me.

I remember when they were infants and at no point, particularly months down the road, did I ever think of having babies at home as a “this is so distracting that I can’t possibly focus on my work” situation.

As long as they are home with a capable mother, I don’t know why it would I be.

Maybe he’s just slumping like many players do and this is just a made up explanation that we came up with that doesn’t have anything to do with it.

Exactly - Collins isnt the first major leaguer to have a baby at home during the season.  He is also not the first young player to struggle mightily at the end of a really solid rookie year where he was exceeding expectations.  Just because both of those are true for Collins doesnt mean they are in any way directly related to each other

[Brian]

5 minutes ago, treego14 said:

Especially if we're starting Lockridge and Priester lays the biggest egg ever after an outstanding season.

And don't forger about Collins who has done nothing since the all star break. Didn't like Murphy's lineup from the jump and it was managed almost like a spring training game. 

[RobertCrawley]

28 minutes ago, treego14 said:

Put that in BLUE!

Put this in Blue!

[Jim French Stepstool]

42 minutes ago, adambr2 said:

Obviously gotta give him credit for Bauers, but other than that, there was no need after the first 2 games for the big lineup shakeup with Yelich leading off, Turang batting 3rd, etc. You had a working formula from the first two games and completely went in a different direction and scored 3 runs. 

Lockridge has like a .550 lifetime OPS. It just didn’t make any sense 3 hours ago to get him a start and doesn’t make any more sense now.

Lockridge was a headscratcher, for sure. But it's not like they've never moved Chourio up or down in the order due to the handedness of the pitcher. Hell, the guy in the other dugout benched Busch & his 30-whatever HRs the other day because Ashby was opening. Managers these days are big on matchups & going L-R-L-R as often as possible.

One quibble I might make, is dropping Frelick to 5 with Yelich leading off vs RHP. It just smells to me of overplaying the 'get him as many ABs as possible' thing. Ohtani does it but he obviously has much more help surrounding him, and LA has folks other than Perkins & Ortiz in the bottom third of the order.

[Turning2]

4 minutes ago, adambr2 said:

I have kids. I love my kids, they are everything to me.

I remember when they were infants and at no point, particularly months down the road, did I ever think of having babies at home as a “this is so distracting that I can’t possibly focus on my work” situation.

As long as they are home with a capable mother, I don’t know why it would I be.

Maybe he’s just slumping like many players do and this is just a made up explanation that we came up with that doesn’t have anything to do with it.

Me too, but a baseball profession schedule is a different animal than most of us having 9-5 type gigs. At the end of the day, I knew I could fight through the commute, get home and be the supportive husband and dad. And I wasn't in a high pressure, uniquely athletically skilled job trying to hit 85-100+mph pitches with RISP on a regular basis. 

[RobertCrawley]

9 minutes ago, BrewerFan said:

So... what would you have done then?

Play Chourio in CF with his hamstring?

That's a pretty obvious reason to change things. 

 

It's the playoffs. That's why you have to do some different things sometimes. You don't manage the same way in October as you do over 162 games for obvious reasons. 

Over 162 games, you don't have your starters throw out of the pen... because you're worried about the next 5-10-20 games. You're worried about winning ONE game at a time and just getting through that game. 

 

He's an excellent RFer. He's ALSO a good enough CFer to get through the last part of the game with him out there given... again, the only other option would have been Chourio. Chourio also has a pretty strong arm and can play RF well and Bauers is... not a scub in LF. 

I wouldn't have done anything because I'm not the manager and the game is over. I'm not a would've, could've, should've guy.

My only point is that Sal Frelick is our right fielder.

[adambr2]

2 minutes ago, Jim French Stepstool said:

Lockridge was a headscratcher, for sure. But it's not like they've never moved Chourio up or down in the order due to the handedness of the pitcher. Hell, the guy in the other dugout benched Busch & his 30-whatever HRs the other day because Ashby was opening. Managers these days are big on matchups & going L-R-L-R as often as possible.

One quibble I might make, is dropping Frelick to 5 with Yelich leading off vs RHP. It just smells to me of overplaying the 'get him as many ABs as possible' thing. Ohtani does it but he obviously has much more help surrounding him, and LA has folks other than Perkins & Ortiz in the bottom third of the order.

Yeah, I don’t really understand that with Chourio, though. It’s not like he’s a platoon bat who really struggles versus righties.

[BrewerFan]

36 minutes ago, Bulldogboy said:

Lockridge starting a game over Collins a month ago was not even a consideration. What a fall.

I didn't like that at all. Collins is a good fielder.

On top of Frelick being able to play CF in a pinch late, he's also more than capable of doing so for a whole game. Lockridge isn't a great fielder from what I've seen(he's good, but mostly just fast). 

But I'd have certainly taken my chances with Collins over Lockridge. 

 

That being said, Lockridge at least had a good AB vs Tallion and Collins swung at a really bad 3-2 pitch. It's easy to go back and nitpick the managerial decisions and we can debate them. But some guys(Chourio, Vaughn... every pitcher not named Priester/Ashby) has been good and other guys like Turang have not. That's a 5-6 WAR player and he's up there on a 1st pitch swinging like he's protecting... but also NOT protecting.

 

He's gotta get it going like he did last year in the post-season. The Brewers need someone else to step up. 

[BrewerFan]

18 minutes ago, Turning2 said:

I don't know what you mean, Text color in blue? 

Yeah, for sarcasm.

You're not seriously complaining that Collins and his Wife had a kid during the season... right?

[Jim French Stepstool]

1 minute ago, adambr2 said:

Yeah, I don’t really understand that with Chourio, though. It’s not like he’s a platoon bat who really struggles versus righties.

Very true. It's really about the LRLR thing & not wanting him next to Contreras when opponents go to the BP.

Me, I'd be fine with Frelick, Chourio, Yelich & Contreras 1-4 & be done with it.

[adambr2]

9 minutes ago, Turning2 said:

Me too, but a baseball profession schedule is a different animal than most of us having 9-5 type gigs. At the end of the day, I knew I could fight through the commute, get home and be the supportive husband and dad. And I wasn't in a high pressure, uniquely athletically skilled job trying to hit 85-100+mph pitches with RISP on a regular basis. 

This is still just pure speculation. Lots of players have kids during the season and lots of players go through slumps.

[adambr2]

Definitely nervous for the what-ifs about tomorrow .. because if you don’t win, there’s no staff anchor to turn to for game 5. You’re just trying to win a bullpen game any way you can.

[Fear The Chorizo]

11 minutes ago, Turning2 said:

Me too, but a baseball profession schedule is a different animal than most of us having 9-5 type gigs. At the end of the day, I knew I could fight through the commute, get home and be the supportive husband and dad. And I wasn't in a high pressure, uniquely athletically skilled job trying to hit 85-100+mph pitches with RISP on a regular basis. 

You realize half the time Collins isnt even in the same state as his young family, right?

 

His slump isn't because he is a new dad.

[RobertCrawley]

1 minute ago, adambr2 said:

This is still just pure speculation. Lots of players have kids during the season and lots of players go through slumps.

Post hoc, ergo propter hoc.

[BarremlensTSSC]

Had them in the 8th and let them off the hook.  Ge 'em tomorrow!