Brewers Bash Their Way to a 2-0 Series Lead over the Cubs, one win away from the NLCS!

ROLL THAT BEAUTIFUL BREWER BEAN FOOTAGE:

Sweet sassy molassy what a night! And we made sure to get the local radio calls posted above. More often than not I think the hate on national broadcasters gets blown out of proportion, but Alex Faust (who looks like he’s made in a Mattel lab) and Ron Darling are calling this series like they have their respective mortgages on the Cubs. Spewing propaganda and spin zones that Himmler would be proud of.

Thoughts in no particular order:

• This guy going from the White Sox, to the minor leagues, to being the solution to the Brewers’ first base problem has been QUITE a storyline.

• And with that majestic Red Forman hairline! Seriously though, what a hit last night. Falling behind 3-0 on the Suzuki first inning home run was obviously not ideal. But just like in Game 1 on Saturday, the Brewers had a counterpunch immediately in the bottom half of the inning. The crowd gets back into it, you hit the reset button, game on. Absolutely massive.
• I’ll be honest, I was stunned we didn’t get Priester on the mound last night after Ashby opened. Felt like a no-brainer. But Murphy gambled on a bullpen game and even though it started in ugly fashion, it ended up beautiful. And the biggest part of the night was the three clean innings from Miz. No doubt he’s been scuffling for the last month and a half, to the point where there were legitimate questions as to whether or not he’d even be on the playoff roster. But he came in last night firing 104 mph and hopping around the mound like he had a few Tylenol in the bullpen, and he finally somewhat resembled the pitcher we saw pre-All Star break. What made it even better was how butthurt Cubs Twitter was about his enthusiasm level last night:

Imagine looking like this:

And calling someone ELSE a dork. Only in America!

• Did William Contreras drop a callback to Counsell’s bullpen call after his go-ahead home run last night??

• And last but not least, Jackson Chourio. Holy moly what a stud. He activated those Reggie White healing powers from Saturday to last night and collected two more hits and that home run to dead center field that was JUST out of PCA’s reach. This kid has played in 5 playoff games in his career, and is 10 for 18 with 3 home runs and 9 driven in. Hitting a cool .556 with an OPS of almost 1.700 in October. Is that good? What does high score mean?

Now look, as we often say on the pod, nothing is done, until it’s done. We celebrate today, we are excited about a 2-0 series lead, but this thing ain’t over yet. You’ve got to go into Wrigley now and try to beat a team with its back up against the wall and a crowd that is going to be chippy. Remember 2011 against Arizona? The Brewers dominated games 1 and 2 at home, then got SMOKED in Arizona before having to win it in extra innings in Game 5*. The good news is you’ve got your #2 pitcher fresh and ready to go for a potential close out game tomorrow. Let’s get it.

*It just so happens that this date 14  years ago was the Nyjer walk off!

PS: Live look at me when my alarm went off this morning after getting to bed at 1am: