The Brewers' dream to win the first World Series in franchise history is still alive.
Behind four strong innings from Jacob Misiorowski and three homers from three different players, Milwaukee defeated the Cubs 3–1 in Game 5 of the NLDS on Saturday night at American Family Field.
Milwaukee is heading to the NLCS for the first time since 2018.
All four runs scored in this game came on solo homers. William Contreras gave Milwaukee a 1–0 lead in the first inning, and Cubs outfielder Seiya Suzuki tied it up with one of his own in the second. Andrew Vaughn broke the tie in the fourth with a big swing to make it 2–1, and Brice Turang gave the Brewers an insurance run with a solo homer in the seventh for good measure.
As is custom in Milwaukee, the pitching was more of the story. The 23-year-old Misiorowski, pitching in his first postseason, allowed just one run across four innings to earn the win. Perhaps the most impressive outing of the night belonged to Chad Patrick, who got the Brewers out of a jam in the sixth and fanned the side in the seventh.
For the first time in seven years, Brewers fans at American Family Field are going home happy after watching their team win an elimination game.
YOUR MILWAUKEE BREWERS ARE HEADING TO THE NLCS ‼️‼️‼️#MagicBrew pic.twitter.com/SsaTYKZ19M
— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) October 12, 2025
Up next? The Dodgers. But first, here are three things we learned from the Brewers' big win:
No more heartbreak in Milwaukee
Playoff baseball in Milwaukee has mostly been synonymous with pain over the last decade.
In 2018, the Brewers were one win away from the World Series when they lost 5–1 to the Dodgers in Game 7 of the NLCS. Since then, the franchise has made five playoff appearances but hadn't won a single elimination game.
In 2019, the Brewers lost in heartbreaking fashion to the Nationals—who went on to win the whole thing—in the wild-card game. In '20, the Brewers were swept by the Dodgers. The following year brought a 3–1 series loss to the Braves in the NLDS, followed by another wild-card round sweep by the Diamondbacks in '23. In '24, the Brewers were literally two outs away from advancing before the Mets' Pete Alonso mashed a go-ahead three-run homer in the top of the ninth, crushing Milwaukee's postseason dreams.
Game 5, however, was finally a different story. The Brewers are moving on.
An unlikely hero
Perhaps nobody embodies the story of the 2025 Brewers more than Andrew Vaughn, a former first-round pick who sputtered out over four-plus seasons with the lowly White Sox.
Acquired in June in exchange for Aaron Civale and cash, Vaughn wasted no time getting comfortable in Milwaukee—and that carried into the playoffs. After batting .189/.218/.314 with Chicago earlier this year, Vaughn transformed the Brewers' offense and hit .308/.375/.493 in 64 games.
Vaughn smacked a three-run homer in the Brewers' 7–3 win in Game 2, and his bat showed up again Saturday night, clobbering a 3–2 pitch from Colin Rea over the left-field wall for a 2–1 lead in the fourth inning.
BOW DOWN TO YOUR KING#MagicBrew https://t.co/Tay9ZSVeYv pic.twitter.com/qmi5xE7eF3
— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) October 12, 2025
Brewers get their revenge on Craig Counsell
The heart and soul of the Brewers organization will always be the late, great Bob Uecker. But for the better part of a decade, the face of baseball in Milwaukee was current Cubs manager Craig Counsell.
A native of Whitefish Bay, Wis., Counsell grew up rooting for the Brewers. He ended up playing more games for the Brewers (711) than any other team across 16 years in the big leagues, and after retiring following the 2011 season, Counsell was named Milwaukee's manager in '15.
Over nine seasons from 2015 to '23, Counsell took the Brewers—a franchise which had made a total of four playoff appearances in its history when he was hired—to the postseason five times. He's the all-time franchise leader in managerial wins. So it was beyond shocking in November 2023 when he packed his bags and left Milwaukee—not for the Mets, as many expected, with former Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns—but for the archrival Cubs, located just 90 miles south on I-94.
There's still plenty of respect between Counsell and the Brewers, and in fact, he and Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy are good pals. But so far, it appears the Brewers have won the breakup. That was certainly the case Saturday night.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Three Takeways From Brewers' Redemptive Win to Eliminate Rival Cubs.
