By Andy McCullough, Patrick Mooney and Sahadev Sharma
For the first time since 2018, the Milwaukee Brewers have won a postseason series, advancing to the National League Championship Series after downing the Chicago Cubs, 3-1, in Game 5 of the National League Division Series.
With each team running a bullpen game, it was the Brewers — the team dogged all season for their lack of power — who swatted three solo homers to ignite the crowd at American Family Field and send the Cubs packing. The trio of William Contreras, Andrew Vaughn and Brice Turang all went deep. Jacob Misiorowski provided four innings of one-run ball for Milwaukee and his fellow rookie, Chad Patrick, pitched the club out of a massive jam to keep Milwaukee ahead in the sixth.
MORE MAGIC IS ON THE WAY#MagicBrew pic.twitter.com/XNXpHdZl71
— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) October 12, 2025
The Brewers will host the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 1 of the NLCS on Monday evening. For the Cubs, a 92-win season, the organization’s best since 2018, will end sooner than expected, with major offseason acquisition Kyle Tucker headed to free agency.
That Andrew Vaughn trade? Pretty good for Milwaukee
This past June, the Brewers informed pitcher Aaron Civale that he would be moved from the starting rotation to the bullpen. In response, Civale told the team he would prefer to play elsewhere. Milwaukee scrambled to find a taker. It did not take long to find a match with the Chicago White Sox, who had demoted former first-round pick Andrew Vaughn to the minors in late May. The deal came together on June 13.
It has proved to be one of the best in general manager Matt Arnold’s career. Vaughn has added a dose of thunder to the Brewers lineup since joining the team in July. The output included a go-ahead home run off another former Brewer, Colin Rea, in Saturday’s fourth inning.
The deal offered a window into the team’s ethos, initially forged under chief executive David Stearns and continued under Arnold’s watch. The Brewers are willing to deal at any time of the year. They acquired Game 3 starter Quinn Priester in April. They acquired Vaughn in June. Their insistence on constantly searching for upgrades is part of how the team remains competitive despite a lack of spending.
Cubs offense fails to deliver
Chicago’s offense put little pressure on Milwaukee pitching all night. But in the sixth, the Cubs seemed to be getting to Aaron Ashby. After Michael Busch and Nico Hoerner reached to start the frame, the heart of the Cubs’ order was due up.
Ashby fell behind Kyle Tucker 3-1. He challenged him with a 98.8 mph heater in the heart of the zone that Tucker tipped. Ashby then dotted another heater down and away at the very edge of the zone that Tucker swung through.
Brewers manager Pat Murphy then went to his bullpen, calling upon Patrick. The righty gave up a rocket line drive to Seiya Suzuki, but Jackson Chourio ranged to left and made a fairly routine catch in the left-center gap. Ian Happ was next and he couldn’t recreate his Game 4 magic. Patrick had his way with the left fielder, getting him looking on a cutter on the outside edge.
Threat over. And for the Cubs, season over.
‘The Miz’ handled his biz
Misiorowski was not the starter for Milwaukee on Saturday. But he handled the role of bulk reliever with aplomb. He logged four innings of one-run ball. His only blemish came on his second pitch, a 101.4 mph fastball that Suzuki hammered for a game-tying solo shot. Otherwise, Misiorowski looked composed as he worked through Chicago’s batting order.
Jacob Misiorowski was everything manager Pat Murphy needed him to be in Game 5 of the NLDS. (Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
It was an excellent outing for the rookie after a challenging second half. At the All-Star break, Misiorowski looked like a lock for Milwaukee’s postseason rotation. But he pitched himself into relief role after posting a 6.06 ERA in his final eight appearances. Which made his output in this series all the more impressive.
Misiorowski pitched so well on Saturday that it prompted some second-guessing when Murphy replaced him with the lefty Ashby for the sixth inning. Ashby sparked a fire which was subsequently put out by another rookie, Patrick. The duo of Misiorowski and Patrick should give Brewers a reason to feel excited about the future.
Where’s Shota?
That became a kind of inside joke when Shota Imanaga traveled from Japan and made the Chicago area his temporary base while evaluating his options as a free agent. After his 2023 season in Nippon Professional Baseball, Imanaga attended a Blackhawks game, posed next to the Michael Jordan statue and trained at Bo Jackson’s indoor facility near O’Hare International Airport.
During a dazzling, Cy Young Award-caliber rookie season last year, Imanaga exceeded all expectations. An elimination game on the road against a division rival seemed like a moment when he would have been a big piece of the innings puzzle.
The recent trends, however, did not look so good. Imanaga had gotten knocked out in the third inning of a Game 2 loss in Milwaukee, continuing a late-season slump that appeared to dim his confidence.
Instead, the Cubs opened with Drew Pomeranz, a 36-year-old lefty they had acquired for one dollar from the Seattle Mariners’ Triple-A affiliate in an April deal. The Cubs then made a bullpen call for Rea, who did not make Milwaukee’s postseason roster last year. Pomeranz and Rea are good examples of the organization’s ability to identify certain traits, coach up pitchers and put them in positions to succeed. But stretching this pitching plan over multiple elimination games left almost no margin for error.
While playoff baseball has evolved in recent years, making a deep October run still requires some semblance of quality starting pitching.