MILWAUKEE — For moments that turned into minutes, all Pete Crow-Armstrong could do was lean against the dugout railing and watch the celebratory scene.
The blue and gold streamers fell onto American Family Field as the Milwaukee Brewers rushed out of the dugout following the final out of the Chicago Cubs’ 3-1 loss in Game 5 of the National League Division Series that abruptly ended a journey that started eight months ago.
“That’s the worst part: We all go hug each other and stuff, but I don’t really think that does a full year justice,” a soft-spoken Crow-Armstrong said. “I guess it’s something I’m going to get used to. I’m not going to go out and win a World Series every year of my career, so that’ll be the toughest part moving forward is kind of understanding it may not be the same faces in here next year. And that’s going to suck. But we’ve got a couple days to pack at Wrigley and give more hugs.”
A resilient Cubs had fought their way to a fourth elimination game this postseason, battling back from being down 2-0 in the NLDS against their rival to the north with a chance to extend their season. The Cubs’ belief they could make a deep October run was instead extinguished by the division champs, putting another champagne celebration on ice until next year.
The Cubs had just four hits in their season-ending defeat to the Brewers, won won their first postseason series since 2018. Seiya Suzuki’s game-tying home run in the second inning was all the Cubs offense could produce against five Brewers relievers while the hosts used three two-out solo home runs to finish them off.
“I’m disappointed, I’m sad,” manager Craig Counsell said. “I think this team did a lot to honor the Chicago Cub uniform. In the big picture, that’s how I feel.
“But what we did wrong tonight, that’s kind of what you’re stuck on. Why couldn’t we get anything going? It’s hard to get past that right now.”
For more than 2½ hours, the Cubs rode the emotions of a win-or-go-home game in a hostile environment of 42,743 fans. The go-ahead clutch swing consistently eluded the Cubs in a dueling bullpen game against the Brewers.
The home team ultimately prevailed in each game of the NLDS as the Brewers advanced to face the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL Championship Series that begins Monday.
“That’s the expectation of the organization, the expectation of the players is to be back in the playoffs,” Ian Happ said. “It’s really hard. It’s really hard to get here. It’s really hard to win in the playoffs and the fact that we expect to be here doesn’t make it hurt any less.”
Column: A boom-or-bust season is over, and now the Chicago Cubs must reflect on what needs to change
The Cubs will lament missed chances offensively, none bigger than the sixth inning.
Michael Busch (single) and Nico Hoerner (hit by a pitch) set up a prime scoring opportunity for the heart of the Cubs lineup. Kyle Tucker couldn’t take advantage of working a 3-1 count against lefty Aaron Ashby, striking out swinging on well-placed, full-count, 98.6-mph fastball down and away. Brewers manager Pat Murphy turned to right-hander Chad Patrick, who had batted-ball luck go in his favor on Suzuki’s 101.6-mph liner that found Jackson Chourio in left field despite a .500 expected average on the ball. Happ got caught looking at strike three to end the inning.
The Cubs finished the NLDS 4-for-27 (.148) with runners in scoring position, left 34 on base and struck out 46 times compared with 18 walks.
“Situations like that you’ve got to try to take advantage of and capitalize on, but they have some really good pitchers and made some really good pitches when they needed to and got out of spots,” Tucker said of the sixth inning. “We just needed to do a better job of not letting that happen and try to get those runs in.”
Left-hander Drew Pomeranz got the start and saw his streak of retired batters to begin the postseason end at 17 when William Contreras took him deep for a two-out home run that continued the series streak of at least one of the teams scoring in the first inning.
Brewers first baseman Andrew Vaughn broke the tie in the fourth when right-hander Colin Rea left an 88-mph cutter over the plate. And without another lefty reliever available in the pen — though southpaw Shota Imanaga twice started warming — veteran Andrew Kittredge went up against a pocket of Brewers lefties and was burned by Brice Turang taking him deep.
Daniel Palencia, Counsell’s postseason fireman and midgame closer, kept it a one-run game with a huge sequence in the fourth and fifth innings. Brought in to face Joey Ortiz for a two-out, bases-loaded situation in the fourth, Palencia induced a forceout to end the inning, then worked around a leadoff walk in the fifth by getting Turang to fly out and dodging Contreras’ liner that Nico Hoerner snagged to double up Chourio at first.
“If you would have told me we gave up three runs going into tonight you’d probably have to say, yep, we pitched well with running a full bullpen game,” Counsell said. “I would have been happy with that. … The guys did their job. It didn’t really go necessarily the way I thought it was going to go. But I thought we did a nice job and the guys pieced it together.”
While their postseason drought ended, the Cubs face another offseason trying to figure out how to make a run to the World Series. Putting the season in a big-picture context became difficult postgame for the emotionally-raw Cubs players. Hoerner was among the players, coaches and staff to initially linger in the visitors dugout staring at the Brewers’ on-field hugs and cheers they fully expected to be partaking in Saturday night.
“The last out of a season is a strange thing when” — Hoerner said, pausing to collect his emotions — “you’ve done nothing but prepare, prepare, prepare and feeling your best and feel like you have so much more to give but there isn’t a next thing. I think that really stings.”
As the Cubs dugout cleared out, Crow-Armstrong remained stoic against the dugout railing. Dansby Swanson emerged, patted him on the back and headed down the hall to a somber clubhouse.
“There’s only one team that at the end of the year gets to celebrate, everyone else feels the same kind of pain,” Swanson said. “I felt this before and it doesn’t get more enjoyable. Honestly, it probably hurts even more the more you do it. It stinks.”