The Milwaukee Brewers are a team that looks better in the standings than the stat sheet.

The Brew Crew won more games (97) than any team in MLB, but were 22nd in home runs and have just one player among the top 50 in OPS, and that’s Christian Yelich at No. 49. To be fair, second baseman Brice Turang is right behind at 51.

Study the Brewers for any amount of time and it’s easy to see what made them successful. Their hitters will lay off dozens of pitches 2 inches outside the strike zone. Everyone on the team runs well, so they’ll beat out infield hits and take extra bases. They play excellent defense.

Wearing down pitchers, manufacturing runs and clutch hitting are what allowed the Brewers to finish third in runs scored, despite the lower ranking in home runs.

The Cubs and Brewers will meet for the first time in a playoff series. The best-of-five division series begins Saturday (1 p.m., TBS, HBO Max) at American Family Field.

There was also some luck involved. Milwaukee led the majors in unearned runs scored and infield hits. Some of that can be a product of the relentless pressure the Brewers put on opposing teams. But if the Cubs play defense the way they did against the Padres, unearned runs shouldn’t be an issue.

The Cubs won the season series, going 3-3 in Milwaukee and 4-3 at home. Neither of these teams has advanced past the division series in a few years. The Brewers last did it in 2018 with Craig Counsell as their manager. Since 2018, they’ve lost four straight playoff series, plus a wild-card game.

The Brewers will send Freddy Peralta to the mound for Game 1. He started against the Cubs four times in 2025. In two of those games, he threw six shutout innings. In the other two, he gave up a combined 8 earned runs in nine innings.

The Cubs announced Matthew Boyd will start Game 1 on short rest. He pitched Tuesday in Game 1 of the wild-card series and was warming up in the ninth inning of Game 3 on Thursday night but did not enter the game.

Hot or not

For starters, a key point with this series is Milwaukee got a first-round bye and hasn’t played a game since last Sunday. In the previous three years of this playoff format, National League teams that received a bye went 1-5 in the divisional round.

The one team that did advance was the Dodgers, which won the World Series last year. So it can be done, but the time off has been a hindrance so far.

Andrew Vaughn, the former White Sox first baseman who made his Milwaukee debut on July 7, looked like an MVP candidate for a few weeks. He’s still been decent but went from a 1.157 OPS in July to .719 since Aug. 8. Vaughn last homered on Aug. 15.

Center fielder Jackson Chourio (.200 batting average) and left fielder Isaac Collins (.191) struggled in September. Outfielder/first baseman Jake Bauers didn’t play a ton early in the year but was the Brewers’ best hitter over the past month.

Luck changing?

After going 54-25 during June, July and August, the Brewers were 12-12 in September. Did their luck even out? Maybe, and injuries popped up.

Manager Pat Murphy confirmed pitcher Brandon Woodruff will miss this series with a lat issue. Left-hander Jose Quintana finished the season on the injured list but is expected to face the Cubs.

Closer Trevor Megill made just one appearance in September due to a flexor strain. He threw a perfect inning against the Reds in the season finale last Sunday.

Catcher William Contreras is suffering from a bruised left hand after getting hit with a backswing but has said he plans to play.

Heated rivals?

Counsell will surely get booed relentlessly by Wisconsin fans, but he and Murphy are practically best friends. There is no bad blood between participants in this series.

“I don’t really think it’s about us at all,” Murphy said Friday. “I’ve got a huge staff around me and a great bunch of ballplayers … and I think he (Counsell) probably feels the same way. This isn’t about us.”

https://www.dailyherald.com/20251003/chicago-cubs/another-round-do-brewers-still-have-that-summer-magic/