MILWAUKEE — Hard-throwing rookie Jacob Misiorowski capped his playoff resurgence with a second dominant outing to help the Milwaukee Brewers to a 3-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Saturday night in the decisive fifth game of the National League Division Series between Central Division rivals.
With both teams cobbling together a bullpen game, Misiorowski (2-0) allowed the Cubs’ only run on a homer by Seiya Suzuki, but the 23-year-old right-hander gave up just two singles in a four-inning stint for his second victory of the series.
The Brewers, who have the No. 1 overall seed and home-field advantage for the entire postseason, advanced to host the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series, which begins Monday.
William Contreras, Andrew Vaughn and Brice Turang each homered for the Brewers, who are in the playoffs for the seventh time in eight seasons but had not won a playoff series since the NLDS in 2018. They lost to the Dodgers four games to three in the NLCS that season.
The Brewers won the first two games of the 2025 NLDS at home before the Cubs rallied to take the next two in Chicago to set up the winner-take-all fifth game.
Misiorowski made the All-Star team after just five starts, but then struggled in the second half, raising questions if he would even be on the postseason roster.
“He had ups and downs. He had a lot of highs, he had some low moments,” said Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich, a member of the 2018 team. “But we’re definitely not winning this series if not for him. He pitched a ton of big innings for us in Game 2. And tonight, he was really unbelievable. Really settled the game down and set the tone for the rest of the guys out of the pen.”
Five Brewers pitchers combined on the four-hitter. Misiorowski, who pitched the second through fifth innings, struck out three, but more importantly did not walk a batter. Abner Uribe pitched the final two scoreless innings for the save.
All-Star closer Trevor Megill opened with a perfect first inning for Milwaukee, the first time in the series the Cubs did not score in the opening inning.
“This team is loaded with very good pitching,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said of the Brewers. “It’s certainly a strength of the team. And it’s why they’ve won so many games. Misiorowski got four innings and got 12 outs for them, and that put the game in pretty good order for them.”
Vaughn, acquired in a midseason trade with the White Sox and then summoned from the minors in early July, put Milwaukee in front 2-1 in the fourth with his second homer of the series, a two-out solo homer off Colin Rea (0-1).
The Brewers then loaded the bases on consecutive singles by Sal Frelick and Caleb Durbin and a walk to Blake Perkins. Daniel Palencia relieved Rea and got Joey Ortiz to bounce into a force at second.
“That was huge. Big moment there,” Vaughn said of his homer. “Just swung the momentum into our dugout. It was huge, got everybody fired up. The crowd was unbelievable. They stayed loud all night after that.”
The Cubs put two aboard with no outs in the sixth on a single and hit batter, but failed to advance the runners.
“It’s really the only inning you could talk about,” Counsell said. “We just didn’t do much. We had six baserunners. You’re going to have to hit homers to have any runs scoring in scenarios like that.”
Turang, who was 2-for-19 in the series, extended the lead to 3-1 with a two-out solo homer in the seventh off Andrew Kittredge.
Contreras staked the Brewers to a 1-0 lead in the first with a two-out homer, sending a 3-2 pitch from opener Drew Pomeranz 389 feet to left-center.
Suzuki answered in the second, greeting Misiorowski with a leadoff homer on a 101.4 mph fastball on his second pitch.
“To win this series the way we did, I’m just grateful, to be honest with you, I’m grateful for the guys we’ve had in the room,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “They’ve been doubted all year. Everyone. There’s no one predicting the Brewers playing the Dodgers in the series.”
–Jim Hoehn, Field Level Media
