MILWAUKEE — Not to get all “baseball is a wacky game” on you — we have Hall of Famer Jayson Stark for that — but imagine telling a Chicago baseball fan in late May that Andrew Vaughn was going to homer off Shota Imanaga in a meaningful postseason matchup.
In this scenario, the surprise wouldn’t be the idea that the White Sox were in the World Series — no one could do that many drugs — but rather that Vaughn would be playing for any team in the playoffs, let alone hitting a home run.
But that’s what happened in Milwaukee’s 7-3 win over the Cubs in Game 2 of the National League Division Series on Monday night at American Family Field. Anything can happen in baseball. Except, apparently, Chicago scoring more than three runs in this postseason.
And without any offensive punch, the Cubs, a team that reasonably thought it had a chance to win this series and advance to the NLCS, were done in by a guy the White Sox demoted this spring and a team they have a decided financial advantage over.
Vaughn, who has rebounded well in Milwaukee but hadn’t homered in almost two months, tied the game with a three-run shot in the bottom of the first, matching Seiya Suzuki’s monster homer to left in the top half of the inning and killing any chance the Cubs had at getting some momentum.
William Contreras added a solo homer off Imanaga in the third, and Jackson Chourio, who left Game 1 with right hamstring tightness, hit a three-run homer in the fourth off Daniel Palencia and, well, that was that. All three of them came with two outs.
“You’re not going to win playoff games giving up two three-run homers,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “That was just too much to overcome.”
Earl Weaver couldn’t have said it any better.
Game 3 is Wednesday at Wrigley Field, and if there’s a need, Game 4 will be there on Thursday. I don’t envision having to drive back to Milwaukee for a decider. The Brewers look every bit like the team that won 14 straight games this season to take a stranglehold on the NL Central. They didn’t charm their way to the best record in baseball.
Chicago led both games of this series after a home run in the top of the first inning and was outscored 16-4 after that. That adds up to a 2-0 deficit in the series.
You can start writing your obituaries on the 2025 Cubs season. I think the epitaph should be: “Not Enough.”
The Cubs had a lot, but not enough. It was a mostly fun season, but in the end, not good enough.
They didn’t have enough pitching depth at the end, partially because they didn’t make enough moves at the trade deadline to account for injuries.
As for the offense, well, not to harp on the past, but the harbinger for it all came in spring training when they missed out on Alex Bregman. You could see Cubs president Jed Hoyer seething from the interview he did with reporters in Mesa, and I’m betting he’s still a little angry about it now. Bregman is the kind of guy you sign for October.
Meanwhile, rookie Matt Shaw is hitless in his first five playoff games. The collective failures of the lineup aren’t hard to decipher. On Monday, they had four hits and 11 strikeouts. It was their second game this postseason with four hits and 11 strikeouts.
In five playoff games, the Cubs have 33 hits (13 of which game in their Game 3 win over the Padres) and 58 strikeouts. That’s how you score no more than three runs in any game. They got away with it against the Padres, but not in Milwaukee. (To be fair, they have seen three pitches above 104 mph.)
“I think it’s a pretty simple idea here, we put more balls in play and we’ll probably score more runs,” Pete Crow-Armstrong, who went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, said.
Seiya Suzuki provided an early spark, but in the end, all manager Craig Counsell could do was watch as the Brewers marched to victory. (Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
Counsell tried to play the percentages by starting right-handed veteran Justin Turner against lefty Aaron Ashby and Turner did single in his second at-bat. But with a weak bench and struggling starters, like Kyle Tucker, he doesn’t have many buttons to push.
“First two innings we did a nice job and we had two at-bats with runners in scoring position today,” Counsell said. “That’s a pretty good sign that we’re not creating enough pressure. We had one hit after the second inning. That’s going to add up to a lot of zeros and that’s what happened the last seven or eight innings.”
Milwaukee pieced together a dominant win by using seven different pitchers, led by rookie All-Star Jacob Misiorowski, who struck out four in three innings of middle relief. Brewers manager Pat Murphy saved Quinn Priester to start Game 3, a gamble that paid off. He’ll go against Jameson Taillon in a battle of former Pittsburgh Pirates first-round picks.
Taillon has been the Cubs’ best starter of late — not Imanaga or Matthew Boyd. So maybe Chicago can extend the series with a win Wednesday at Wrigley Field. I hope they do. Chicago fans deserve to see more playoff baseball, especially after the misery of watching these two games.
The Cubs deserve credit for making the playoffs for the first time in a full season since 2018 and for winning a postseason series for the first time since 2017 — things that should happen a little more often — but none of that matters right now.
It should be revealing for everyone in the front office, from chairman Tom Ricketts on down, to see how much better the Brewers have looked in a series that many felt could swing the Cubs’ way. Instead, it hasn’t been close. There’s a reason they partied so hard after winning the Wild Card Series.
Now stone sober, do the Cubs have any hope left?
“Absolutely,” Crow-Armstrong said. “I’d be a fool if I was here and didn’t believe so.”
Crazier things have happened, you know, like Andrew Vaughn homering off Shota Imanaga in a playoff game.