Brewers (Harrison) vs Cubs (Holmes): 08/31/26, 6:40 PM

[Brock Beauchamp]

Harrison takes the ball for the Brewers tonight at Wrigley Field as Milwaukee faces Holmes and the Cubs.

[Brock Beauchamp]

	WED	THU	FRI	SAT	SUN	TOT
Trevor Megill	0	0	0	7	0	7
Shane Drohan	0	0	0	99	0	99
Robert Gasser	82	0	0	0	0	82
Grant Anderson	19	0	0	0	39	58
DL Hall	0	12	13	0	0	25
Chad Patrick	0	9	0	28	0	37
Bryse Wilson	22	0	0	0	42	64
Antonio Senzatela	0	27	0	9	0	36
Aaron Ashby	0	0	24	0	0	24

[adambr2]

Honestly, just take one game this series and the Cubs are in a tough spot, 6 back with only 3 left against us. 

Of course, that should not be the goal, especially when we still need to worry about positioning versus the Dodgers and/or Braves.

[Marc Newfield of Dreams]

Don't want to put too much into one start, but I'll be watching Harrison closely tonight. I want to see how he responds to playoff-like pressure. 

If you can get this first one the pressure on them just gets bigger. 

[OldSchoolSnapper]

1 hour ago, adambr2 said:

Honestly, just take one game this series and the Cubs are in a tough spot, 6 back with only 3 left against us. 

Of course, that should not be the goal, especially when we still need to worry about positioning versus the Dodgers and/or Braves.

I don't see the Cubs taking the division even if they were to sweep this series, which I don't think they will. Issue with dropping 3/4 is more about the seeds at this point than the division. You want one of those byes and ATL and LAD are just not fading. Doesn't seem to be a big difference between 1 or 2 though. The current "reward" for the 1 seed is PHL/CHC. Yay.

Hate fixed bracketing though. Makes no sense to me that if AZ were to beat LA (lol), that we aren't playing the Dbacks.

[jay87shot]

I am interested to see how our offense looks in a playoff atmosphere against a quality starter. We have been building momentum with the lumber and this could be a big momentum swing if things go really good.

[Playing Catch]

If there is a sweep this series, it's gunna be a Brewers sweep. Book it.

Facing Harrison, Gasser, and Miz looks like a Golden Sombrero for PCA tonight, tomorrow, and Wednesday (Couns will probabaly give him a mental break Thursday night). Maybe he scratches out an infield single at some point. Fly the L, Chicago. Good luck next season. Go find an Old Style to cry into and go root for the Gary Bears.

[Fear The Chorizo]

Win at least one of these 1st two games with Miz and Henderson wrapping up the series and really put the screws to these clowns...Cubs are as close to falling completely out of the playoffs as they are to overtaking the Brewers at this point.

Forecast looks to have Wrigley Field playing like a little league diamond - hot and winds mainly out of the southwest (straight out)....get the bats going early and keep tacking on.

[long ball]

Holmes is probably the Cubs best SP. so pitching matchup, this is probably the toughest one. Getting this game would help calm my nerves a little even though it’s pretty irrational to be worried about the cubs at this point. 

[igor67]

A win today and we enter September with a Magic number already in the mid teens.

[bucks2281]

Winning 1 in this series should put the division away. 
 

The race to lock down a bye will be the focus in September, and unfortunately the Dodgers only have 3 games remaining against teams with a winning record (Padres at home). Braves have 7 against the Phillies, 3 at Wrigley, 3 vs Rays and 3 at Houston. 

[RobertCrawley]

Let's beat these guys early and often.

[Brewcrew82]

Clay Holmes is perhaps the best ground ball generator in the game and he's playing in front of the best defense in MLB bar none. But no way he's a sub 2.30 ERA caliber starting pitcher.

Regression is going to come at some point, and no better time that tonight with the wind blowing out at 20 MPH. Going to require some disciplined ABs, which the Brewers are more than capable of. Can't go out hacking and rolling over on that sinker. 

[adambr2]

33 minutes ago, Brewcrew82 said:

Clay Holmes is perhaps the best ground ball generator in the game and he's playing in front of the best defense in MLB bar none. But no way he's a sub 2.30 ERA caliber starting pitcher.

Regression is going to come at some point, and no better time that tonight with the wind blowing out at 20 MPH. Going to require some disciplined ABs, which the Brewers are more than capable of. Can't go out hacking and rolling over on that sinker. 

I was really surprised to see recent metrics that put us more middle of the pack than near the top in team defense. I would have thought for sure that in order for us to have the record we have, defense would have to be a major part of it. 

Plus when you look at our usual lineups — Turang, Ortiz, Pratt, Lara, Mitchell, Chourio, Contreras, you have almost all high end defenders, maybe Chourio is closer to average. It almost doesn’t compute to me. Surely 1st base defense is not bringing us down THAT much, 

[BruisedCrew]

It’s here. The 10 days that will determine if the last 15 games will find the Brewers cruising to a division title and focusing entirely on getting a bye, or fighting to hold off a Cubs charge.  

 Fortunately the Brewers are entering this stretch with a significantly bigger lead than it looked like they would have just a few weeks ago. 

i’m not going to make any prediction about what I think is going to happen in these games, but even with the bigger lead, I am focusing on the Brewers winning at least three of the seven games against the Cubs.

.If the Cubs win five, they would take three games off of the Brewers lead and earn the tiebreaker. Anything less than that would put them in position to need a Brewers collapse on the level of the 1964 Phillies or 2007 Mets.  While the Brewers would still have a nice lead,  it would keep some pressure on them and weaken their position in the race for a bye. 

[owbc]

We’re catching the Cubs on a slump with all our leverage bullpen arms rested, Uribe back, and our top 3 starters going in the series. 

2-2 to hold serve will be good enough, my eyes will remain on the first round bye chase.

Given the way our fanbase reacts to Cubs games, ideally we take today’s game and can relax a bit after that. 

[Brewcrew82]

16 minutes ago, adambr2 said:

I was really surprised to see recent metrics that put us more middle of the pack than near the top in team defense. I would have thought for sure that in order for us to have the record we have, defense would have to be a major part of it. 

Plus when you look at our usual lineups — Turang, Ortiz, Pratt, Lara, Mitchell, Chourio, Contreras, you have almost all high end defenders, maybe Chourio is closer to average. It almost doesn’t compute to me. Surely 1st base defense is not bringing us down THAT much, 

Chourio fwiw is the best OFer on the team on a per inning basis.

As for the defense as a whole, it really does come down to Bauers, Vaughn, and Hamilton. Those guys combined are at -22 in the OAA department. That unfortunately is substantial enough to cancel out the elite fielding they generally get th/o the rest of the diamond. 

[baseball101]

8 minutes ago, Brewcrew82 said:

Chourio fwiw is the best OFer on the team on a per inning basis.

As for the defense as a whole, it really does come down to Bauers, Vaughn, and Hamilton. Those guys combined are at -22 in the OAA department. That unfortunately is substantial enough to cancel out the elite fielding they generally get on the rest of the diamond. 

Chourio has made a huge leap this season on the defensive side. The Bauers, Vaughn, Hamilton metrics are worse than what I thought.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

0-4: You're still okay, but you've let the Cubs back in it and are going to have to play well down the stretch for the bye.

1-3: Kept the door open just a crack, but avoided the worst outcome.

2-2: Enough to put the division away.

3-1: Game over.

4-0: Putting the Cubs' playoff position in dicey territory.

The forecast for tonight will likely make for a high O/U. A good home run night advantages the Cubs lineup, but Harrison misses A LOT more bats than Holmes, so maybe that mitigates things a little bit. Holmes also has a slightly higher walk rate.

This feels like the toughest matchup on paper, but all of these games will be tough. The Brewers bullpen advantage may come into play tonight. Here's hoping they score throughout the game.

[markedman5]

1 hour ago, adambr2 said:

I was really surprised to see recent metrics that put us more middle of the pack than near the top in team defense. I would have thought for sure that in order for us to have the record we have, defense would have to be a major part of it. 

Plus when you look at our usual lineups — Turang, Ortiz, Pratt, Lara, Mitchell, Chourio, Contreras, you have almost all high end defenders, maybe Chourio is closer to average. It almost doesn’t compute to me. Surely 1st base defense is not bringing us down THAT much, 

Yeah it depends on which metric you look at……in defensive runs saved Brewers still near the top…..but well behind the historic Cubs D and the Rays

https://www.fieldingbible.com/drs-leaderboard/teams

[wiguy94]

Hopefully Harrison’s velo continues to trend up like it did in his last start and he’s sitting more 94-96 tonight than 93-94. With the wind blowing out finding the swing and miss with his fastball again could be crucial to having a good outing 

[CheezWizHed]

41 minutes ago, Cool Hand Lucroy said:

4-0: Putting the Cubs' playoff position in dicey territory.

[just_some_guy]

ICYMI, our returning hero Uribe wore Saturday's Timber Rattlers uni like a boss: https://www.threads.com/@witimberrattlers/post/Dcm0h0mHGpc

[just_some_guy]

I live about a mile from Wrigley.  It's currently thunder storming like crazy here.  Forecast says it's supposed to clear for tonight; hope that's right.

[liveforoctober]

We are getting the Cubs at the right time, they are playing a lot of games in a row and we get them for 7 of the last 10 of that stretch. Maybe most importantly, we get the final three of that long stretch for them at home. 

Obviously it might end up meaning nothing but on paper we are in a good spot to sew this thing up in the next week and a half.