Chicago (AFP) – William Contreras, Andrew Vaughn, and Brice Turang blasted solo home runs to give Milwaukee a 3-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Saturday in a winner-take-all Major League Baseball playoff showdown. The host Brewers captured the National League Division Series 3-2 to claim a berth in the NL Championship Series against the defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers. That best-of-seven matchup begins Monday in Milwaukee, with the winner to meet Toronto or Seattle in the World Series.
“This is unbelievable,” Vaughn said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do but let’s soak in this moment. This is awesome. Crowd has been electric. Unbelievable. It was special.” All three Milwaukee homers came with two outs in an inning. “We fight back,” Vaughn said. “If somebody throws a punch at us we’re going to throw it right back.”
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Brewers manager Pat Murphy, whose team led MLB with 97 wins in the regular season, said Milwaukee still had something to prove despite the stellar campaign. “They are just a great group. A lot of people didn’t believe in them early on and they just continued to stay relentless. I’m very lucky to be around these people,” Murphy said. “They are a bunch of guys that never quit. You can call them the Average Joes but I say they are the Above Average Joes.”
The Brewers, who had not won a playoff series since 2018, reached their only World Series in 1982, losing to St. Louis. The Cubs, who fell behind Milwaukee 0-2 before two home wins to force the decider, sought a club-record fourth elimination game victory in this year’s playoffs. The Cubs won their first World Series title since 1908 in 2016 to end North America’s longest pro sports title drought.
The Brewers started closing relief pitcher Trevor Megill after the Cubs became the first team in MLB history to hit homers in the first inning of the first four games of a playoff series. Chicago started left-hander reliever Drew Pomeranz as the clubs hoped to subdue sluggers who had combined for a one-series MLB playoff record 21 first-inning runs.
Contreras hit his homer in the first inning, and Chicago’s Seiya Suzuki smacked a solo homer to begin the second, prompting both teams to turn to the bullpen early. Vaughn gave the Brewers a 2-1 lead with a solo homer over the left-field wall in the fourth inning. Milwaukee loaded the bases after that, but Joey Ortiz grounded into an inning-ending fielder’s choice. Turang smacked a two-out solo homer in the seventh to give the Brewers a 3-1 advantage.
The Cubs, meanwhile, managed only one hit after the third inning as four Brewers relievers — Jacob Misiorowski, Aaron Ashby, rookie Chad Patrick, and Abner Uribe — combined to mystify Chicago batters to the finish. “Unbelievable stuff,” Vaughn said. “They came out and they put them away. That’s what we needed. It was huge and got us a victory.”
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