The Chicago Cubs went 7-6 against the Brewers during the regular season, outscoring Milwaukee 60-56. The NL Central rivals last played in August, when the Cubs won three times in a five-game series.
Game 1 of the best-of-five NL Division Series will be played Saturday at American Family Field in Milwaukee (1:08 p.m., TBS), with Game 2 set for 8:08 p.m. Monday. The series then shifts to Wrigley Field starting Wednesday.
Here’s how their earlier meetings unfolded.
May 2: Cubs 10, Brewers 0
By the time Pete Crow-Armstrong stepped in the batter’s box in the ninth inning at American Family Field, already with a multihomer game, a Brewers position player greeted him on the mound.
Crow-Armstrong’s solo home run in the second was part of a seven-run inning, two batters after Michael Busch slugged his first career grand slam, and he delivered another solo shot in the seventh as the Cubs’ exclamation mark in a 10-0 blowout. The largely pro-Cubs crowd among the 34,559 fans broke out in “PCA!” chants following each home run and by the end of the game it became a “Let’s go, Cubbies!” party in the first meeting of the season between the division foes.
May 3: Cubs 6, Brewers 2
The Cubs took Game 2 of the series, riding three home runs to a 6-2 victory. Pete Crow-Armstrong hit a tiebreaking three-run blast in the fourth — his third in two nights — and Dansby Swanson and Kyle Tucker added solo shots to give Jameson Taillon his second win.
Even the players are getting into the act when it comes to Craig Counsell-baiting in Milwaukee.
“Couns getting booed every time he comes in, I kind of love it,” Crow-Armstrong said afterward. “I’m over here booing him in the dugout too. We’re so glad we have him. It’s definitely a fun, rowdy environment when we come to play Milwaukee.”
May 4: Brewers 4, Cubs 0
Cubs starter Shota Imanaga was removed with two outs in the sixth in a scoreless tie, and things quickly caved in after he left.
Julian Merryweather’s first delivery was a wild pitch, allowing a run to score. A two-run double by Daz Cameron and a run-scoring single by Caleb Durbin gave the Brewers a 4-0 lead, and the Cubs offense was muted, limited to five hits by Milwaukee’s Freddy Peralta and the bullpen at American Family Field.
June 17: Cubs 5, Brewers 3
The depth of Pete Crow-Armstrong’s greatness was on display in the eighth inning at Wrigley Field.
Crow-Armstrong covered 69 feet to make a diving catch on a ball in left-center field that had a 5% catch probability off the bat of the Brewers’ Brice Turang for the second out in the top of the eighth.
Minutes later, as “P-C-A!” echoed around the ballpark from the crowd of 38,687, the 23-year-old budding superstar stepped into the batter’s box. He got all of Brewers lefty Rob Zastryzny’s first-pitch elevated cutter, barreling the ball at 111.5 mph off the right-field video board for a 452-foot solo home run.
Crow-Armstrong’s home run, his 19th of the year, extended the lead to 5-3, and the score held as the Cubs (45-28) increased their division lead to 6½ games over the Brewers.
June 19: Brewers 8, Cubs 7
Pete Crow-Armstrong’s incredible season has landed him a Cubs record.
With his two-run home run in the first inning against the Brewers, he became the fastest player in franchise history to 20 home runs and 20 steals in a season, reaching the mark in his 73rd game of the year. The Cubs record had been held by Sammy Sosa, who achieved the feat in his 96th game of the 1994 season.
Crow-Armstrong turned on Brewers right-hander Freddy Peralta’s 96.3-mph fastball above the zone, sending it 377 feet into the right-field bleachers for his 20th home run to briefly give the Cubs a one-run lead. The 23-year-old center fielder homered in his second straight game, the third time this season he has gone deep in back-to-back games.
July 28: Brewers 8, Cubs 4
The somber mood in the Cubs’ postgame clubhouse had nothing to do with a loss to their rival that dropped them into second place in the division.
The Cubs still were digesting the loss of franchise icon Ryne Sandberg, who died Monday at 65 after a battle with prostate cancer.
Manager Craig Counsell shared the news with the team in the clubhouse after an 8-4 loss to the Brewers. Counsell had been informed shortly before the 6:40 p.m. first pitch at American Family Field. Some Cubs players found out during the course of the game.
July 29: Brewers 9, Cubs 3
The Cubs played what Craig Counsell called “uncharacteristic” baseball, losing 9-3 to the Brewers before 40,136 at American Family Field.
Former White Sox first baseman Andrew Vaughn hit a grand slam off Ryan Pressly and drove in a career-high six runs, while two of the game’s best fielders, Pete Crow-Armstrong and Nico Hoerner, committed costly errors.
“I don’t think you’re going to have another game this year where Pete and I both drop balls and things like that,” Hoerner said. “Obviously more to it than that, but move on.”
July 30: Cubs 10, Brewers 3
Moisés Ballesteros’ return to the majors left him running on little sleep. A Triple-A night game followed by a 3 a.m. wake-up call to fly from Des Moines to get to American Family Field in time for first pitch meant a quick snooze before joining the Cubs.
Inevitably, the game’s biggest moment found Ballesteros. The Cubs had struggled with runners in scoring position in the series, coming into the game 4-for-20 in such situations in the two losses to the Brewers. As the Cubs held a one-run lead in the third inning with two outs and the bases loaded, the 21-year-old rookie went with an outside 1-2 changeup from Brewers starter Freddy Peralta to the opposite field for a bases-clearing double to the left-center field gap.
The Brewers scored a run in each of the next two innings off Shota Imanaga to pull within one, but the Cubs put them away in a 10-3 victory.
Aug. 18: Brewers 7, Cubs 0
This game, though, repeated many of the issues that have plagued the Cubs lately: their stars not hitting, the offense failing to take advantage with runners on base, and losing ground to the Brewers.
The “Let’s Go Brewers” chants started early and rang through Wrigley Field often.
Cubs fans attempted to counter those efforts by booing to drown out the Brewers and their crew — and at times turned those boos onto their own team. The Cubs gave the faithful among the 38,971 plenty of reasons to voice their displeasure in an uninspired 7-0 loss to Milwaukee in Game 1 of the planned doubleheader. The second game was postponed due to the weather.
Aug. 19: Cubs 6, Brewers 4
Per usual, Matthew Boyd warmed up to the guitar licks of Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child” before his start at Wrigley Field, providing a perfect soundtrack to Game 1 of Tuesday’s doubleheader.
Maybe a little bit of voodoo was exactly what the Cubs needed against the hottest team in baseball. Or perhaps it was just a matter of giving Owen Caissie a chance that turned the trick.
After replacing slumping All-Star Kyle Tucker in right field, the rookie hit his first career home run and drove in three runs, leading the Cubs to a 6-4 win before an announced crowd of 33,103.
Aug. 19: Cubs 4, Brewers 1
Jameson Taillon’s first big-league start in seven weeks required just six pitches to retire the first two Brewers hitters.
By the end of the first inning, however, Taillon’s pitch count had climbed to 30 as the Cubs trailed by one run. He responded by keeping the Brewers off the board over the next five innings, and the Cubs offense countered against Milwaukee starter Brandon Woodruff, putting up three runs off the right-hander en route to a 4-1 victory.
The Cubs secured their first doubleheader sweep since May 4, 2021, against the Los Angeles Dodgers and only their second against the Brewers, the other occurring Aug. 16, 2016.
Aug. 20: Cubs 4, Brewers 3
Cubs rookie Matt Shaw won an important 11-pitch at-bat in the third inning that kept a rally going.
The third baseman also barehanded an Anthony Seigler bunt attempt and threw him out in the sixth inning to prevent a rally attempt from going haywire.
And since good things can come in threes, Shaw topped off the night with an eighth-inning solo home run, which turned out to be the game-winner in a 4-3 victory over the first-place Brewers in front of a Wrigley Field crowd of 36,327.
Aug. 21: Brewers 4, Cubs 1
Kyle Tucker’s return coincided with a 4-1 loss to the Brewers in the finale of the five-game series at Wrigley Field. But that’s it for the season series, which the Cubs won 7-6, for whatever that’s worth.
It was a lot of fun, with plenty of fan taunting, some great endings and manager Pat Murphy’s crazy assertions the Brewers were still “underdogs” to the Cubs despite their huge division lead.
We can only hope the Cubs and Brewers meet again in the postseason with a chance to end each other’s season.
That would be a fitting conclusion to a rivalry that gets better and better every year.