Cubs fans know the rules by now. If pitcher Shota Imanaga doesn’t hit the top line of the strike zone with his fastball, it’s trouble.

The Cubs were supposed to have a power advantage in the National League Division Series against Milwaukee. But having Imanaga on the mound was a precarious situation.

Sure enough, Imanaga gave up two home runs in Monday’s Game 2, giving him 15 homers allowed in his past eight starts. Daniel Palencia later surrendered a 3-run homer and the Cubs lost 7-3 at American Family Field. They fell behind in the best-of-five series 2-0 with Game 3 at Wrigley Field on Wednesday.

“You’re not going to win playoff games giving up two 3-run homers,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “That was just too much to overcome.”

The game featured dueling 3-run homers in the first inning. The Cubs got a 440-foot blast from Seiya Suzuki, but the Brewers responded when former White Sox first baseman Andrew Vaughn connected for his first home run since Aug. 16 to tie the score.

According to the TBS broadcast, the 13 combined first-inning runs in the first two games of a series is an MLB record.

William Contreras added a solo home run off Imanaga in the third. Then Daniel Palencia surrendered a two-out, 0-2 count, 3-run smash to center field by Jackson Chourio, who was questionable for this game with hamstring tightness.

During the regular season, the Cubs ranked sixth in MLB with 223 home runs, while Milwaukee was 22nd with 166.

When the Brewers announced left-handed reliever Aaron Ashby would start Game 2, the next question was whether Ashby would serve as a single-inning opener for Quinn Priester, or if Priester would be held until Wednesday’s Game 3 at Wrigley Field, possibly with a chance to close out the series.

Ashby stuck around for a second inning, even facing Cubs leadoff man Justin Turner a second time. When Turner singled in his second at-bat, Ashby departed. Nick Mears finished the second inning, then manager Pat Murphy brought in hard-throwing Jacob Misiorowski for the third, which suggested this would be a bullpen game for the Brew Crew. Misiorowski tossed three scoreless innings, throwing 31 pitches above 100 mph on the radar gun, with a peak of 104.3 mph.

Priester, a Cary-Grove High School graduate, was an unlikely candidate to serve as the Brewers’ savior this season. A 2019 first-round pick by Pittsburgh, the right-hander was toiling for Boston’s Triple-A team in Worcester when the Brewers, desperate for pitching due to a number of injuries, made a trade on April 7.

Priester was dropped into Milwaukee’s rotation and had some rough early moments. His worst outing of the year was on May 2 against the Cubs, when he gave up 7 earned runs in just over 4 innings.

Eventually, he got comfortable and ran off a remarkable streak where the Brewers won 19 straight games started by Priester. The run started on May 30 and lasted until the final weekend of the regular season. His personal stat line was 13-3 with a 3.32 ERA.

“Quinn Priester, an amazing story,” Murphy said before the game. “We go pluck a kid from Triple-A. We kind of knew about him, he pitched for Pittsburgh so we saw him a few times here and there, but you would not peg him to be one of the flagship guys that’s going to help us have the regular-season success we’ve had.

“To know the kid and the competitor, it’s amazing. It’s really amazing. I’m really, really happy for the kid. Obviously we’ve enjoyed having him, but he’s been great.”

Ashby started by retiring Cubs leadoff guest Turner on a flyout. That was followed by a single from Nico Hoerner, walk to Kyle Tucker and the 3-run blast by Suzuki.

Suzuki’s home run would have come close to leaving the building, reminiscent of Sammy Sosa at the 2002 Home Run Derby in Milwaukee. The large outfield windows were closed Monday due to the wet, cold weather conditions, so the ball technically could not have left the premises.

According to Statcast, Suzuki’s longest home run this season was 445 feet in Sacramento against the Athletics on April 1.

https://www.dailyherald.com/20251006/chicago-cubs/falling-flat-brewers-home-runs-leave-cubs-in-a-bad-spot-in-nlds/