Brewers-Cubs NLDS Game Four Thread - 10/9/2025 @ 8:08PM

[yourout]

One run in the last 14 innings. 

Really terrible time for the offense to go in the tank

[adambr2]

1 minute ago, bm1090 said:

Lockridge was fine.

tonight OTOH was one of the worst offensive performances I’ve seen in a playoff game.

He was 0 for 2. That is not fine. That is adding nothing to an offense that is doing nothing. (But was in games 1 and 2)

[RobertCrawley]

I guess it always had to come down to this. Two pretty even teams.

Our home crowd will need to give the boys some serious energy to take us home.

[TURBO]

8 minutes ago, edfunderburk said:

I don’t want our season to depend on an up & down talented but inconsistent rookie flame thrower 

Well, it's gonna...

[Fear The Chorizo]

Id imagine the Cubs start Rea saturday?

Agreed that Bauers has to be in the lineup...but so does Vaughn.  Mona at SS, too. I dont care where or how that impacts the defense - at this point you desperately need offense/pop however you can get it.  Score some damn runs and then use your bench to bolster the defense as the game goes on with the guys who havent been hitting.

Hoskins should have been on this playoff roster, too.

[adambr2]

Just now, yourout said:

One run in the last 14 innings. 

Really terrible time for the offense to go in the tank

Again, you can say it’s a coincidence or whatever, but Murphy inexplicably overhauled the lineup after Games 1 and 2.

[beekay414]

This is now the 4th time we're involved in an 0-2 comeback in some fashion. We lost down 0-2 forcing game 5 in 1981, won in 1982 down 0-2, won in 2011 up 2-0 and now 2025. This is our 13th overall playoff series as a franchise. Not including the one game WC in 2019.

[RobertCrawley]

Just now, Fear The Chorizo said:

Id imagine the Cubs start Rea saturday?

Agreed that Bauers has to be in the lineup...but so does Vaughn.  Mona at SS, too. I dont care where or how that impacts the defense - at this point you desperately need offense/pop however you can get it.  Score some damn runs and then use your bench to bolster the defense as the game goes on with the guys who havent been hitting.

Hoskins should have been on this playoff roster, too.

I'm guessing Imanaga.

[BadgerFan]

Just now, RobertCrawley said:

I guess it always had to come down to this. Two pretty even teams.

Our home crowd will need to give the boys some serious energy to take us home.

At this point let's just hope it's at least 60% Brewers fans. I have to imagine a lot of people are dumping tickets and scrubs fans will pay anything to be there.

[HarveysWBs]

[RobertCrawley]

1 minute ago, BadgerFan said:

At this point let's just hope it's at least 60% Brewers fans. I have to imagine a lot of people are dumping tickets and scrubs fans will pay anything to be there.

I saw on Facebook ticket site where they are begging people not to sell to Cub fans. They did a great job last time not selling to the enemy. Maybe they'll do it one more time.

[Fear The Chorizo]

1 minute ago, RobertCrawley said:

I'm guessing Imanaga.

I think that would be a blessing to the Brewers....but definitely a possibility.

[RobertCrawley]

1 minute ago, Fear The Chorizo said:

I think that would be a blessing to the Brewers....but definitely a possibility.

I think he's on or close to his usual rest days. But it's all hands on deck, of course. For both teams.

[adambr2]

You could see the writing on the wall for this series the moment Priester got shelled in the 1st inning yesterday.

We’re going to blow it. It’s what we do. We’re two thirds of the way there.

[RobertCrawley]

Just now, adambr2 said:

You could see the writing on the wall for this series the moment Priester got shelled in the 1st inning yesterday.

We’re going to blow it. It’s what we do. We’re two thirds of the way there.

Oh, now. This is why you win the most games. For home field. We have as much chance as those blokes from chi.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

This one's looking like it's over, so time for some thoughts. I haven't read through the whole thread, but I can guess at its general tone. 

Observations:

1) This was a bad performance all around. Poor pitching, poor defense, very poor hitting. Cubs deserve credit for the way they approached their ABs. Very focused, really making Freddy work, good swing decisions, and Happ hit the big mistake.

2) The hitting is mostly on us. Boyd was throwing that curveball all day, and we couldn't time it up. I thought he left some pitches there for us. We just didn't do anything. The story of Chicago is bad swing decisions and poor situational hitting. Yelich hitting leadoff was weird, but the idea that it costs us very much seems far-fetched to me. Even against a lefty, that's the guy you want up in a big spot. He K'd. What can you do?

3) That fifth inning was obviously the killer. I hate the bunt with Ortiz, especially with the platoon advantage. He hits into a double play, whatever. You take that risk for a chance at an inning that really swings the momentum. That's the one decision I would want back. Did it cost us the game? No. We scored zero runs. Murphy could have been Connie Mack, and we'd still have lost.

4) Really not much else to say or analyze. We stunk. Now, the series gets a fifth game, which was a pretty darn likely scenario coming in.

5) I suspect many in this thread have declared the series over. That's understandable. Self-protection is important, and it's the hope that kills you. But, of course, the series isn't over. We might lose the series, but it'll be because of whatever we do or don't on Saturday. The Cubs did not play their best baseball in Milwaukee. We did not play our best in Chicago. Now we get one more shot, and let's ride the roller coaster one more time. Just look at what's happened to the Phillies the last two years. That's a great team that just hasn't been able to close. It's baseball. Some teams get snake bit in October. Repeatedly! It happened to the Red Sox for a hundred ***** years. 

6) Look at the rosters of these teams. It's hard for me to say ours is better. Truthfully, the Cubs seem pretty clearly better. There is no soft landing in that lineup, their current starting rotation goes one deeper than ours, and their bullpen is pretty good (I think we have the advantage there, but that's probably the only spot). they've run the bases better than us this series, I think. If they win, it'll be because they earned it. 

7) Game 5, I imagine we start Patrick or Mis. Priester might factor in on his side day, same for Quintana. We'll have everyone ready, and if our guys keep them in the park, I think we win.

8) So far, run differential for the series is +3. Cubs have hit 7 homers to our 4. We need EITHER some big swings on Saturday or inning after inning of sustained pressure. These games turn on weird crap. Hopefully it benefits us.

 

[bm1090]

8 minutes ago, adambr2 said:

He was 0 for 2. That is not fine. That is adding nothing to an offense that is doing nothing. (But was in games 1 and 2)

He put together a good AB in his first at bat. I think 12 pitches. Second AB he was asked to bunt and got it down, Durbin probably would have scored if he didn’t stop. He wasn’t good. But he was fine. I wouldn’t rank him in the top 10 if we were making a list of issues.

[adambr2]

1 minute ago, Cool Hand Lucroy said:

This one's looking like it's over, so time for some thoughts. I haven't read through the whole thread, but I can guess at its general tone. 

Observations:

1) This was a bad performance all around. Poor pitching, poor defense, very poor hitting. Cubs deserve credit for the way they approached their ABs. Very focused, really making Freddy work, good swing decisions, and Happ hit the big mistake.

2) The hitting is mostly on us. Boyd was throwing that curveball all day, and we couldn't time it up. I thought he left some pitches there for us. We just didn't do anything. The story of Chicago is bad swing decisions and poor situational hitting. Yelich hitting leadoff was weird, but the idea that it costs us very much seems far-fetched to me. Even against a lefty, that's the guy you want up in a big spot. He K'd. What can you do?

3) That fifth inning was obviously the killer. I hate the bunt with Ortiz, especially with the platoon advantage. He hits into a double play, whatever. You take that risk for a chance at an inning that really swings the momentum. That's the one decision I would want back. Did it cost us the game? No. We scored zero runs. Murphy could have been Connie Mack, and we'd still have lost.

4) Really not much else to say or analyze. We stunk. Now, the series gets a fifth game, which was a pretty darn likely scenario coming in.

5) I suspect many in this thread have declared the series over. That's understandable. Self-protection is important, and it's the hope that kills you. But, of course, the series isn't over. We might lose the series, but it'll be because of whatever we do or don't on Saturday. The Cubs did not play their best baseball in Milwaukee. We did not play our best in Chicago. Now we get one more shot, and let's ride the roller coaster one more time. Just look at what's happened to the Phillies the last two years. That's a great team that just hasn't been able to close. It's baseball. Some teams get snake bit in October. Repeatedly! It happened to the Red Sox for a hundred ***** years. 

6) Look at the rosters of these teams. It's hard for me to say ours is better. Truthfully, the Cubs seem pretty clearly better. There is no soft landing in that lineup, their current starting rotation goes one deeper than ours, and their bullpen is pretty good (I think we have the advantage there, but that's probably the only spot). they've run the bases better than us this series, I think. If they win, it'll be because they earned it. 

7) Game 5, I imagine we start Patrick or Mis. Priester might factor in on his side day, same for Quintana. We'll have everyone ready, and if our guys keep them in the park, I think we win.

8) So far, run differential for the series is +3. Cubs have hit 7 homers to our 4. We need EITHER some big swings on Saturday or inning after inning of sustained pressure. These games turn on weird crap. Hopefully it benefits us.

 

Yelich is not the guy you want up in a big spot, and just because he’s been around the longest doesn’t make it so.

[adambr2]

3 minutes ago, RobertCrawley said:

Oh, now. This is why you win the most games. For home field. We have as much chance as those blokes from chi.

Momentum matters. 

[willie key]

It’s over isn’t it

 

another brewers choke.       It’s tough to take this ****

[RobertCrawley]

Just now, adambr2 said:

Momentum matters. 

Yep. But the crowd and home cooking make everything better.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

1 minute ago, adambr2 said:

Momentum matters. 

No. Momentum is fake. But this is the great thing about sports books. Cubs are +112 right now. You think momentum is real, there's money out there to be made.

[adambr2]

They totally had me fooled after 2 games that this time was different. I’ll give them that.

[adambr2]

1 minute ago, Cool Hand Lucroy said:

No. Momentum is fake. But this is the great thing about sports books. Cubs are +112 right now. You think momentum is real, there's money out there to be made.

Momentum is not fake. There’s a reason why teams who come back from 0-2 are 10-7 in game 5.

[RobertCrawley]

2 minutes ago, Cool Hand Lucroy said:

No. Momentum is fake. But this is the great thing about sports books. Cubs are +112 right now. You think momentum is real, there's money out there to be made.

That number will change, but for now, I hope the boys in Vegas are right.