Monday Morning Cubs Show

NLDS Game 2 Recap: From 3-0 Cubs Lead To A Gut-Punch From Hell

• Carl + Mahoney • Season 2 • Episode 61

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A 3-0 lead disappears, tempers flare, and the Brewers look two steps ahead. We don’t sugarcoat it. We name the mistakes, explain why Milwaukee’s opener gambit and bullpen sequencing worked, and why our rotation choices left the lineup stranded. Then we do the real work: drawing a clean, actionable map to flip the series at Wrigley.

We break down how Jamison Taillon’s cutter, curve, and arm-side two-seam can suffocate a contact-first lineup that doesn’t chase upstairs. The key is horizontal disruption—pound the hands early, widen the plate late, and live with soft contact to the left side. On offense, it’s time to hunt early-count heaters in the white of the zone and stop ceding leverage to strike-pounders. Keep Justin Turner’s bat for lefty pockets, lean on hitters who can move velocity, and accept quick, purposeful at-bats that deny their bullpen the perfect matchups. This isn’t about vibes; it’s about sequencing, roles, and the kind of small edges that become loud in a 4 p.m. Wrigley game.

We also challenge the roster decisions that sidelined dependable strike-throwing length and explain how pre-commitment to bullpen windows—and faster hooks—can keep innings clean. Win ugly on Wednesday behind Jamison, lean into the afternoon Wrigley chaos on Thursday, and you’ve earned a coin flip against a rested ace in Game 5. That’s not blind hope—it’s a plan rooted in how Milwaukee swings, how they manage, and where Chicago can still press advantage. If this team is going to push back, it starts with clarity, not cliches.

If this hits you right in the Cubbie cortex, tap follow, share with a diehard who needs the blueprint, and drop your Game 3 score pick in the reviews—we’re reading every one.

Thanks for tuning in!

- Carl & Mahoney

SPEAKER_00:

Good morning, good afternoon, and evening, Chicago Cubs fans. Welcome back to the Monday Morning Cubs Show. Today is Tuesday, October 7th. I am Carl, and I am here to do just a quick little game two recap into a game three level set of emotions. Uh, you know, special edition Cubs playoff episode, NLDS playoff episode, exactly how you draw it up at the start of the series, down two games, best of five series. Not exactly an ideal situation, we all agree on. So start there. It's Tuesday morning, we're off. We don't play till Wednesday. We have time, we have 30 hours. We have 30 hours and some change to get our heads on straight so that we might go out and not completely fucking embarrass ourselves on the MLB postseason stage. Because that's how I feel after our first two games. So just send just a quick introduction. What's the purpose of the show? Uh the purpose of the show is to just move on from the trauma that's in my head selfishly, and as I would assume in many of your heads as well. Because game two is just about the most upset I've been with this baseball team since we fucking mailed it in after Steve Bartman fouled that, knocked the foul ball out of loose hands. And then we just let eight runners score and then blame an accountant from Northfield. We just get our asses kicked by the Miami Marlins, Florida Marlins, and then we turn around, we blame that Jabroni. That's how bad I feel. That's not that's maybe not nearly as bad as how how bad how bad I am. But I'm trying to find some scale and scope to how pathetic our strategy has been and how gutless we've been in both games after taking a lead. We have a lead. The thing about the Brewers is they never let you get a lead. Both games against the Brewers so far, we've had leads and we get embarrassed. We got embarrassed Tuesday night, 7-3. Monday night. Today is Tuesday. This is the Monday Morning Cup Show. You guys get a chance, subscribe, review, etc. I really appreciate the fact that I'm seeing the reviews go up because when you make a call to action, it's super awkward. You ask people, you say, Hey, could you would you mind throwing me a review? Appreciate a five-star, helps boost us in the algorithm, helps us with sponsors, helps us secure the future of the show, which it is honestly, it takes eight seconds to just like go to the page and hit the five star. But the fact I've asked you guys to do that for the last couple weeks and the reviews are skyrocketing, that gives me juice, makes me want to keep going. And speaking of juice, I'd be remiss not to point out the sponsor of the show of the show, Thirsty Vaquero, Mexican style soda with real fruit juice. When you get the watermelon, it's got watermelon juice in it, it's got the mango juice in it for the mango muerte, it's got the lime juice in it with real agave nectar. And honestly, I've enjoyed going to five shows a week. Whatever, what what what are we on now? This is seven shows in eight days. I mean, I'll go pitch for the Cubs right now. I'm ready for battle. But no, I'm being dead serious when I say thank you to Thirsty but Carol for propping up the Monday Morning Cubs show for this deep postseason run that we're trying to make, so that we can just be locked in game to game. Now, what we've kind of settled into is a game preview and then a game postcap. Preview, postcap. And where this really hurts is I get nervous that this could be the last game preview of the postseason, which would just be defeating, following this team, March, April, May, June, July, August, September. So many ups and downs. And if it goes, if this is how the season ends, then fuck the people in charge. I'm sorry. I know I gotta watch the F-word, but and when I say in charge, I mean the Cubs, not the Thirsty Vacero guys, which you can get on Amazon, which has just been a great partner. You know, there's a reason there are so many Monday morning cub shows out right now, and that's because we partnered with Thirsty Vacero, and they were like, let it fucking rip, buddy. Let it rip. You don't need to sit around until Monday and cram a week's worth of observations into a show, you know. Break it up. Does the price tag go down? No, it goes up. They want us out here doing these shows. So that's why I'm just trying to explain to you guys from a partnership standpoint. Never mind the fact the stuff's delicious. Never mind you've never even had a Mexican-style soda with the signature spicy finish, 10% real fruit juice, and all real agave nectar. And they'll ship it, they'll deliver it right to your front door. You throw that baby on a bed of ice. We've talked about this before. Your neighbor's over, you know, he's helping you with something on the roof. What do you have? A bad gutter? You know, he's holding the ladder. You can't have the neighbor get on a ladder. You just have the name. Okay, do you mind just holding the ladder for a second? You have a good neighbor. He's fine doing that. And you get done with this little project and you say, hey, Jeff. And it's a Jeff with a G, right? It's a real trustworthy Jeff. Round face, you know, customer service-facing job, just a real solid guy named Jeff with a G. And you say, Hey, Jeff. But you don't tell him Jeff with a G. You just say, hey, Jeff. You call him Jeff. You say, hey, Jeff, would you like, would you mind sitting out in the garage right now, cracking a thirsty vacaro? And he goes, I gotta pick the kids up from soccer practice later. And you say, Don't worry, it's not alcoholic. And you can say, You don't have, I'm gonna throw a little vodka on top of this, a little floater. But by all means, Jeff, with a G, picking your kids up from soccer practice, take this baby O natural. And you know what he's gonna say? He's gonna say, You need help with anything else around the house, you let me know as long as you're slinging this thirsty fucking Bacero, which you can get on Amazon. That's how good this stuff is, guys. Gotta get the ad read in. Five and a half minutes into the show. I have a quick agenda to announce. You know, number one, obviously, again, last time I'm gonna say it, just kidding. I'll say it again, but Thirsty Bacero delivers on Amazon. Number two agenda for today. Number two agenda, we're gonna get a little mad. Like, we're gonna get mad. We're gonna actually do a good job getting mad so that we're mad about the right stuff. I'm not just walking around fucking Tom Ricketts. I tell you, that Jed Hoyer and that trade deadline. Yeah. Fuck that. We're gonna get mad about the stuff we should be mad about, but then we're also gonna move on to game three, which I've celebrated repeatedly for the Chicago Cubs as like a guarantee. You're telling me James and Teon's gonna take them out on a game three at home Wrigley Field playoff atmosphere against the Milwaukee Brewers. That's a huge advantage for the Chicago Cubs. Just like if we saved Matt Boyd to be sharp for game two and we gave him a three-run fucking lead again in Milwaukee, like he blew it against Mizarowski back in when was that, July? We could have given Matt Boyd a three-run lead. Instead, we used him game one. We're gonna get mad. We're gonna move on to game three, though, but first we gotta get mad. And the thing that gets me most upset about where we're at with the Chicago Cubs, and again, we're just getting mad so that we can get over it. This is not the final story of the Chicago Cubs. But I can't start talking to you guys seriously about game three. Can we win this series? Can we get three in a row against the Brewers? Most of you think no. But I can't go down that path until we resolve the conflict that's inside each other's heads. We're gonna do that. Because we got out we got outclassed, we got outmaneuvered by the Milwaukee Brewers. They lost David Stearns. They're using Pat Murphy, who's a career college baseball coach. I don't know if they have a computer plugged in Milwaukee. I think it's like old school 1970s advertising. You see the show Mad Men, you walk in, there's no computers. This guy's just handwritten correspondence. Type in a f on the typewriter. This sounds like a good idea. With the slideshow projector. That's what I think of the Milwaukee Brewers. When they sit down in the front office, do you guys remember this in elementary school? They'd roll out that fucking projector. The lady would write on the glass, and then it would pop up onto the screen. You guys do math like that, maybe some history, maybe some chemistry later, later years in high school. I think that's the most advanced technology the Milwaukee Brewers have. That someone could write something, it would get projected on the wall for everybody else to read. I have no respect for them as an advanced analytical fucking smart organization. And now I guess I have to. And we hit Justin Turner leadoff in response. Listen, we scored three runs in the first inning. We did end up tagging their opener. The fact that they use the opener and we end up turning around here's Justin Turner in the leadoff spot. Like we have nothing for left. Do you understand what I'm saying? We have nothing for lefties. We had we we went into that game yesterday. They our Cubs front office was so surprised that they were gonna use Ashby and not Quinn Priester. That was crazy. And even then when we got the 3-0 lead, like we didn't get the bullpen hot at all. We just let Shoda go out there and assume Shota's not gonna give up all that Show does is give up three runs. I can't even get to the point where we thought we're gonna start him in game two. We don't have it, we couldn't get to the we don't have it. Why did Colin Ray throw three and a third scoreless? Why do we have fresh arms that have started for this team that we refuse? The fact that they think, and I have to calm down. The fact that the Chicago Cubs thought that Matt Boyd, no rest, or I guess Shoda, whatever, you could say Shoda's on fucking normal rest. You want to make that, I guess, go right ahead. When did he pitch? Wednesday, so he's off Thursday, Friday, Saturday, pitches Sunday. Pitches Monday. That's regular full-time rest. Is it? Guys beat. Guys absolutely beat. I'm gonna go through Shoda Imanaga's game logs, okay? September 2nd, three-earned runs. September 8th, 3 earned runs. September 14th, 3 earned runs. September 19th, 3 earned runs. September 25th, 8 earned runs. Or you could just go back to August. Like since August, he's made 12 starts, he's given up 15 homers. And every Cubs fan knows that. You're gonna point your finger at me right now and say, well, what other option do we have? Shoda's our only pitcher, and that's just not fucking true. Could you have figured out a way to use Shoda in the series? Absolutely. But the fact that we went into this series and looked at Shoda Imanaga as a bona fide, qualified starting pitcher to be used under traditional circumstances without any creativity, is why I say we got outclassed by the Brewers. They had created a narrative in their own media that Mizorowski would not make the playoff roster. They created this narrative within their own local media that got out. We're not sure we're in between Reese Hoskins and Mizorowski. Pat Murphy's not sure what he's going to do with Mizorowski. They commuted all this shit publicly so that then we consume it, right? And you're thinking to yourself, wow, this Mizorowski kid fell off. He could have been the first player in the history of Major League Baseball to make an all-star team and then be left off the postseason roster, not for injury, but because he doesn't have any command. And he did stumble down the stretch. This guy really stumbled down the stretch. He looked so fucking dialed in yesterday. Why? Because he had a nice bowl of weavies in the morning because the sun was shining properly? Or did the Brewers develop him throughout the season for that moment? Has he been properly developed by Pat Murphy and by the Brewers organization? So the at least has fire in his belly. That guy got on the mound, he was like, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna let myself get cheated here. I'm over the plate, I'm over the zone. I'm gonna challenge these guys with what I have 103, 104. And then he looks unhittable. Oh, obviously the Mizorowski matchup is in favor compared to Show. The guy throws 103 and 104. And if he's throwing it for a strike, there's like no comparison between him and Shoda within this moment. Fine. My problem is the Brewer is so much more outmaneuvered, outclassed, outthought, out everything, because we just were not ready for yesterday's game. If you're telling me a lefty, we're gonna start gonna start a lefty in Ashby, and our counter is we're gonna lead off with Justin Turner. He went one for two. That's great. Okay, fine. That's our counter. We have Justin Turner, and Shota's gonna start. He's giving up 15 homers his last 12 starts. We should be fine. Did anybody at the Cubs think to themselves that we might have to be a little bit more creative if they're gonna do this opener bullshit? Because then that just opens up a whole bag of tricks for their bullpen. We don't know if we were gonna see Chad Patrick or Quinn Priester, two guys who pound the strike zone. Pound the strike zone, right? Mizorowski isn't pound, but they put Mizorowski in a position when he took the mound yesterday. He looked exactly like the guy they thought they were getting when he was coming up. So credit to the Brewers because they put Mizorowski in a position where a lot of outsiders were going, this guy may not be even on the roster. He looked so fired, ready to go, ready to compete for his teammates yesterday. And we're just doing game two recap right now. We are going to get out of some of this negative head trash, talk game three. Is it possible for the Cubs to win this series? Well, you're talking to me, so of course I'm going to come up with a couple ways where I think we can win three in a row. I mean, heaven forbid we win three in a row. It's happened before. You know, heaven forbid a team that finished the regular season 18 and 20 loses three in a row down the stretch here. It's not impossible. We still have to see Freddie Peralta again to accomplish this. But I'm still a little mad about game one and game two. Particularly, this is just going to be about game two. You know, how does a 3-0 lead mean nothing? Okay, fine. Michael Bush 1-0 game two or game one. You're like, oh right. Michael Bush off Freddie Pro. We're ready to play Freddie. Nope. Matt Boyd's got to go out there and give up nine fucking runs, six runs, four runs, Nico's error or whatever. You guys, so many people have convinced themselves that if Nico fields a ground ball, like we're back in this series, without paying any attention to the fact that the Brewers were teeing off on Matt Boyd. So it's just crazy. Like, we didn't are we did not have to start Matt Boyd game one. We could have given him full rest, started him game two. We didn't have to start Shodi Minaga on the first two games of the series because he's been absolutely fucking brutal his last time's out. Did we think something would change? Or are we the type of organization that just says, well, we don't have any other choice then? We have no other choices. If we can't use Kittridge and Shota against the Padres, no, I guess we just have to use Shota's a starter against the Brewers. I mean, I guess it's not the Pirates, guys. This is a real baseball team. They take walks, they hit the ball hard the other way, they play their defense, they don't swing out of their shoes, they look for mistakes, they have advanced scouting, tips, tells, you name it. It's a real baseball team. And we got completely outclassed yesterday. So how do how how else do you want to think about it? We lose on a couple big home runs, we're up 3-0, and then the starting pitching goes out and just give how deflating is that for your lineup? Because you're going into a situation where you're saying we're on the road, Milwaukee's tough to score against. What is every starting pitcher ask for? Hey, just give me a lead. Every team takes a field. They go, if we give our guy a lead, we got a great chance today. Fuck that. 1-0 lead, 3-0 lead, gone in 15 minutes. So that's why we're mad. We're mad. And game two is. That was that was telling for Craig Council. Craig Council looked like he should be coaching the Whitefish Bay 12 and under team. He did not look like a guy who was ready at all to make a single tough decision. Now we can go back to the pitchers too, right? We want to blame the pitchers. I I can blame Shoda. I got no problem doing that. You sat out in May, you sat out fucking June, and you've been shit since August 1st. There, that was easy. Now we don't pay him that much, and technically when we signed him, it was to be like a three, right? Like he can overperform and pitch well at the top of a rotation. He ain't Justin Steele. But like he did well, he's done well in his major league career because he's different than what a lot of guys see in his four seam right. But he's definitely tired, and his arm is not fresh. And the fact I know this, and many people listening to this know this because you've watched him. Imagine working for the Cubs. Imagine actually being a guy who has the data, and you're sitting in the meetings, and they're like, all right, let's talk about Shoda next. Where are we at with Shoda? Everybody outside that room that pays attention to the Cubs is going, he's dead, his arm is tired. Find a different role for this guy, give him extended timeout, do anything. They're like, fuck it. How about game two? What if we go Matt Boyd short rest into Shoda full rest? What if you go bullpen game one with a little bit of collar rate, Matt Boyd game two? Or if you're gonna be pussies and run Matt Boyd out there game one because you need somebody to go pitch for pitch with Freddie Peralta, would we at least consider a bullpen game for two? Could we at least do that? Or are we just gonna go back-to-back lefties that throw 92 with breaking stuff over the middle of the plate? That's dumb shit. And we talk about missing Kate Horton. I mean, missing Kate Horton here, this is a prime example of why we miss Kate Horton so much. Right? Like it's not that he's just so dominant and that he can go out and pitch well game one and shut guys down. It's also the variety of the look of seeing a righty with a cutter over the middle of the plate into a funky lefty. Instead, we do just go back-to-back funky lefties. And obviously, guys that have slowed down towards the season, obviously guys that haven't pitched as well as they did middle of the season, obviously showed has had arm issues throughout the year and has had issues, particularly down the stretch, giving up home runs. And so we just didn't have any creative solutions available to us. We didn't do anything for ourselves to give even like the slightest edge here. You know, and instead what we left uh we left Javier Asad off the playoff roster, a guy who can throw three or four innings with command for Ben Brown. Why? Why is Michael Soroka on this playoff roster? That is stuff that's true indictments on front office and leadership and Craig and whoever sits down and makes these rosters. Don't be lazy and go back to the trade deadline and get mad that Jed didn't trade for McKenzie Gore, so he could go out and throw four fucking sloppy innings against the Brewers yesterday instead. The decision Craig made at the deadline was we are not trading top prospects when Cade Horton is emerging in the rotation. We do not need to go extend ourselves for players who are worse than Kate Horton to give up our best young players. So instead we added Andrew Kittridge, who's been sub just absolutely superb. Um, you know, we added Willie Castro, who sucked. You know, we brought Mises by Esteros up towards the end of the year when that was somebody who people very much wanted. Now he should have been up the whole much longer in the season. That's a different point. But Jed stood his ground at the trade deadline. And the reason I'm bringing this up now is some people are bitching and saying, well, this is what happens when you don't beef it up at the trade deadline. You know? Yeah, this is what happens. Is this what happens when we don't beef up the Kate Horton cracked his fucking ribs coughing? So you're telling me we gotta go back in time and Jed's gonna be like, well, wait a second, what if Kate Horton gets hurt cracking a rib? When all they did was manage Kate Horton's pitch load for October. I would be so mad right now if we gave up top prospect. We'd still be down 2-0 against the Milwaukee Brewers, folks. I I I'm trying to think of who is the starting pitcher you're mad about that Jed didn't get that would find himself pitching above Shodi Imanaga and Matt Boyd in these circumstances. Because then wouldn't he have pitched against him in the Padres anyways? And then wouldn't he have been on short rest anyways, even if this person does exist? He doesn't exist. I don't know what pitcher exists out there that we could have traded the same capital we gave up for Siroca or somebody of that nature. Who is a high-risk starting pitcher that's turned out to be awesome in the second half that the Cubs were linked to and said no to? So you're just making shit up in your head when you get mad at the trade deadline. I can't believe Jed didn't do this. Do what? Be specific. Be fucking specific and tell me what you think Jed Hoyer should have done at the trade deadline. Because what he didn't do, Cade Horton's gonna win rookie of the year. Kate Horton became the best pitcher in Major League Baseball. If Kate Horton's pitching game one against Freddie Peralth with a 1-0 lead against Michael Bush, did people feel better? I f I mean it's shitty. We lose our top dog right before playoff start, and then it creates this mess. Why I'm mad in the indictment on game two, in particular game two, just no strategy then. We just move it down the order, okay. Here you go, Shoda. Let's see what you got today. And if you're gonna put Ben Brown on the roster over Javier's side, then grow some fucking balls and use him then. At least use that. At least use somebody who's throwing it sharp. Like, I hate Ben Brown. I think he's one of the worst pitchers I've ever seen on a full season. I've I absolutely hate that guy's guts. He doesn't locate his fastball. He's got horrible answers in post-game when he gets rocked. I thought I threw a good pitch. You didn't. You didn't. You know, can't feel a change up. There's so many re but and for how much I hate Matt or Ben Brown, I'm like telling you guys, I'd rather at least see that guy over a dead shoda. Everybody knew it was a dead show to that's where I'm at, guys. You know, I'm pissed. And and when it's time to make a big pitch, we don't make a big pitch. And the Milwaukee Brewer team is just so free and easy, ready to compete. They're down one-nothing, they don't give a shit. They're down three-nothing, they don't give a shit. And the fact that they used Mizerowski and Aaron Ashby yesterday, like I should this go five games, you will have the absolute healthiest version of Freddie Peralta to go at home. You know, and instead we see what what six pitchers, seven pitchers from the Brewers yesterday in a game that wasn't even close. You get your closer work, you get your rebay work, you get Chad Patrick gets an inning to work, both your lefties get work. Everybody gets work. Everybody got work yesterday for the Brewers, and it was all positive for him. You know? Meanwhile, Colin Ray, three and a third scoreless, and not for nothing, it's probably the 30th time that guy's pitched on a Milwaukee Brewers Mound. I don't know, does that stuff matter when they do the strategy? You know, does it matter that Colin Ray has experience in Milwaukee, is fresh? Does it matter if we ask him to only throw two or three innings to start a game? And probably not, because you know, then whatever. So we could get to Palencia so he could get hit hard. I just don't understand it. I don't understand how we got to the place where we were yesterday when I watched the guys who were pitching for the Brewers and I watched the guys who were pitching for the Cubs and when they were pitching and how they were getting used. You know, there's a guy who pitched yesterday for the Brewers, Chad Patrick. I would cut off my left fucking arm to have that guy on the Chicago Cubs. A bulldog? A bulldog without the best stuff in the world who doesn't give a shit and is gonna fill the strike zone up anyways, and is gonna maximize his fastball and challenge guys with a fastball repeatedly. So that would be nice. And I am just a lot of this is just me getting it off my chest now. Like I'm just getting this stuff off my chest. Today's an off day, they play tomorrow. Like we have time to compartmentalize, but where am I mad? So the lineup, it's tough. Like, I'm not that mad when you jump out to a 1-0 lead, then you just you just get your ass kicked down 9-1. Game's over. What do you want from that lineup? Game one. We came out, we scored early against Freddie Peralta. Michael Bush hit a home run. You know you're gonna need three or four, like three or four runs win. That's it. You're not gonna beat Freddie Peralta 7-2. Not in the playoffs, not at home. All right, so then the mission for game one, go out there, get a little leadoff, get us going, baby. And we got going. Only to watch a guy, a guy on short rest just completely shit his pants, you know, Matt Boyd. But hey, here's a fair thing, too. Matt Boyd hasn't pitched as much as he has since 2019. This is stuff we've talked about on prior episodes, but I'm still working through my angst. He wasn't sharp. Did anybody see that coming? Who gets paid? I don't know, if you get paid a couple million dollars and your job is to look for stuff like that coming. Did you motherfuckers see it coming? Or do you just need guys like me? Do you need maniacs out here going, this isn't make sense? Do the maniacs get a vote in the boardroom next year? I'm not joking for the Chicago Cubs, because if this is how lame they are when it comes to making critical decisions, well then what's your safety veil for using Matt Boyd game one? Well, we got Showda game two. So that stuff really pisses me off. And we minimize the homer Shota gave up to Machado against the Padres as a mistake, is a bad pitch. As a pitch that guy doesn't make if he's healthy and fresh. So you I mean it'd be like it would be like a NASCAR driver, and you're entering a car with three fucking wheels. No, that's too simple. What bad tranny? What do you have? Bad fuel injection, not enough air in the tires, and then you stupidly run that car out in the race, and then you finish dead last, and you go, Well, that's the best car we got. Is there anybody who accepts that theory? So the final question What would you have done differently, Carl? Well, for starters, I wouldn't have Ben Brown on the fucking playoff roster, neither Michael Sioka, two cunts who haven't earned that opportunity, not this year or in their career. I mean, I guess Siroca six fucking years ago when he was good for the Braves. I gotta watch the F-words. You can tell I'm starting to get really mad here. I wouldn't have those two. I'd have, I would be, I think it would be, I think it would be more prudent to ask Javi Arsad to throw two innings, Colin Ray to throw two innings, see if we can get to the fifth inning. It would be more prudent for us to have, I don't know, anybody else. And literally anybody else but Shoda Imanaga. We made these assumptions too. We go, we come out of the eight, we come out of the wild card. Who's gonna start game one? Well, we know it can't be Boyd, we know it can't be Shoda, we know it can't be Jameson, and they were just like, nah, fuck it, it's actually gonna be the same guy. It's gonna be Boyd, then it's gonna be Shote. We're gonna have Shoda pitch most of that game. Game two. We'll see Jamison game three. So, so bad stuff, obviously, just the way we match these pitchers up. Don't even give the lineup a chance to compete. You know, there was a stretch yesterday. I should take that back. There was a stretch yesterday, it was three to three for a couple innings, and we could compete. And then this is go back to getting out class. The way the Brewers have primed Mizarowski to be a dominant force in October. Good luck to anybody who's got to see this kid. The guy throwing 103, 104 yesterday was a magician. That dude is so good. I would like to never see him again, period, in my life. And I hate his guts. He's so weak. And we just let that guy fist pump and run around and jump up and down on the because he deserved it. We just got beat. And I put like 20% of it on the players. I put 25%. It's like, well, we didn't beat Mizorowski, it was 3-3. You could have beat Mizorowski. It should have been 3-3. We get up 3-0. Ugh. So now we're through it. Now we're through getting mad, right? Before 30 minutes hits, I said, I want to get through it. Alright. We're down two games. Worst things will happen in our lives. You many people listening to this right now are enduring challenges that are significantly worse than being down two games in a bit, you know. I got plenty of shit going on in my life. Makes this baseball game look like fucking nothing. You know. But when we come together to talk about it, we care. I care. I gotta put everything else aside. And I gotta focus on this baseball team. And we're down two games. And I think this is a good exercise for people out, you know, Cubs fans. You have shit going on in your life. Separate the two. Let's get focused on the Cubs game. Let's get focused on let's let's really lock in and say, fuck it, Wednesday we can beat him. Jamison Tane. We can beat him. Right? We have a huge advantage. Wrigley's going to be rocking. We can get we can win game three. If we win game three, we're going to win game four. So then the question is like, all right, we can go back to we can take the mistakes we've made in games one and two in Milwaukee where we've been thin pitching and we can reapply it to game five, and we can try and beat them two to one, three to two. And we can give everybody in the bullpen an opportunity to compete. Did you see what Aaron Savali did when he got a chance to compete? You see what Colin Ray does when he gets a chance to compete? Three and a third, walks two guys, gives up four runs, still scatters the scoreless, still makes the pitches when it counts. So it's not like it's just Jabroni City down there. That's the worst part. Like we have guys that have competed in Major League Baseball for like a decade. And then we just get to these points where like, it doesn't matter. Shota. He's given up 15 home runs in his last 12 starts. What's the one thing we can't do up three? Give up fucking multiple home runs. Give up a big home run. What do we do? Give up a big home run. You know? To Andrew Vaughn, who's got minus 0.4 war above the season on the season. Collectively over 162. He's been better with the Brewers because most people at the White Sox are trash, but are we feeling are we can we agree we're done being mad? Whatever. I got a big day for me running Aaron Sturk family farms, pickups, drop-offs, trying to get into a couple more stores. So I have stuff to keep me busy. I'll be on the road today, pounding pavement. 88. Coming all the way in 88, gonna go into Oakland for a little bit. Hopefully get some lunch with my dad in Evergreen Park. You know? I had a huge maintenance project done on the house. I had all of our a I've got acres, lots of them, and I had all of them sprayed for autumn uh vegetation control. And the problem is the spray, they say, for this, you it needs you need to water the grass in the first seven days. I'm distracting myself here, guys. We're gonna get to game three, but I want to tell you this quick. So you have these people come out, it costs a couple hundred dollars a session, it's a lot of acreage. And they come out and they're spraying everything. The number one thing they tell you, they go, hey, we spray this. You have to thoroughly water the grass within the first seven to ten days, or else severe damage can happen long term. Now, this is the fourth treatment we've gotten from these people, and each time it has there's been torrential downpour within the first four to eight hours after the spray, which is, in my opinion, a gift from God. Because I can't water, I can't water acreage. I can water one acre. I could maybe water two. I can't water the property we're sitting on in the middle. Out there's no way. I've tried it before. I've dragged the sprinkler around. I spent seven hours one day, Saturday. Imagine you just have a Saturday yourself. What are you going to do? And I tell my wife, I go, hey, weather forecast, I should get in front of the fact we just got sprayed, I'll be out. Out seven hours moving sprinklers around. I didn't get 25% of the property done. These guys sprayed in the house last Tuesday, and I have been walking around looking at this weather report, so mad, I had today all flagged for me to try and get all the water I could throughout the property so there isn't severe significant damage. Rain last night, baby. Woke up in the middle of a thunderstorm. I was crying my eyes out. I was so excited. We're talking about little silver linings that turn this Milwaukee Brewer Series around. There was no rain in the forecast last night. Thunderous downpour for hours. I sit in the kitchen at 3 o'clock in the morning and give a just fucking make a cup of coffee and just stared out the window at the rain. Just thought to myself, this could be the greatest moment of my life. This is it. I don't have an underground sprinkler system. I need to invest in that. I don't have a good water management system. I'm figuring this shit out the best I can. And I'll be honest with you guys, it was a it's been a lot harder than I thought it would be. Coming out to the country, managing this shit. You know, I got the riding tractor, all the fucking attachments. My neighbor next door helps me out with a ton of shit. We've been planting wild flowers and growing corn and just doing the type of shit you're supposed to do. If you say, hey, I want to kind of get off the grid a little bit, come out here. You know, if I'm in a buy acreage in the middle of the forest, 60 miles west of Chicago, I'm gonna enjoy the outdoor aspect of it. And I've shared some pictures, you know, pictures, you know, here's where we are at the lawn, a fresh lawn. People, it's nice to get, hey, that's really cool. And it's been a great experience, to be honest with you guys. I got two neighbors and we're like a half mile apart. You know, I got there's it, there's just nothing I'm looking right now into the woods as I broadcast this. I sit in the woods and broadcast. And it feels good. This is stuff I'm just saying to get over the fact game one and two. We're just this is the little distraction period of the show. Before we look at game three. Because I have a huge my point is my Tuesday now, instead of me having to do this shit around the house, making sure I can walk. How the fuck? You you know how to water three something acres? You got a hose? Come on over. I don't. So I was nervous. Now that's off the table. Now we get to hit Sturk Family Farms hard today. Now we get to go out, make our deliveries, and what I like to do is go into these local small grocers and just drop off a ton of free product. Give it to the girls who work here. If you guys are interested, I have pricing. My only problem is I can only do 100 jars per month with you guys. So if you love it and you want to come in inventory and you say, hey, I would like to do 200, the max I can do per location is 100, which is kind of tough. Not everybody wants to only buy 60 fucking jars. So there's a long-winded rant to get us away from game one and two. We're out of it. So I will not be going game three. I've just there's I've been on the end of losing that game, the last game, where the season's over, and you're just sitting there and you're like, I would rather I mean, honestly. Honestly, I'd rather be dead. I wouldn't. I'm not that that dramatic, but that's a tough when you're sitting there. I went to a work game, when was this 2015? The last game they played in 2015 at Wrigley, they got eliminated, and I'm sitting there with vendors from work, like people I do work with that don't, and they don't, it's not like we work for the same company. They work for a company that I do business with. We work together to find clients and partners. Do you know what I mean? This is pretty straightforward. It's a fucking vendor relationship, and I'm sitting with the guy, he's a diehard St. Louis Cardinals fan. I fucking love this guy too. And he's sitting there laughing, being like, Don't worry about it, there's always next year. And that was maybe not the first time. That is maybe the second time I almost killed someone in a work environment on purpose. I told him, I said, You ever say that shit to me again, I'm gonna throw you off this fucking grandstand, buddy. And then he started laughing, and I started laughing because he didn't know I was dead serious. I was dead serious. I will throw your ass off this. That's kind of a joke, but I am being dead serious. So no, I won't be going to game three. If you're going to game three, let me know. You know, shoot me a DM. Say, Carl, I'm going to game three. I that reason is because I'd like to flag who I have respect for. Because I have tons of respect for people that are about to walk in a Wrigley field for game three. I I don't even know how to explain the size of your balls to go witness that in person around 40,000 plus Cubs fans. And the problem too, again, I thought I was done being mad. I'm okay losing because we got outplayed. I'm okay losing just because they went out and made the plays, we didn't make the plays. Or I'm okay losing. We tried our asses off. It comes down to that last inning, it comes down to the what there's a pitch, there's a moment. You know, and you just it that's it, it is what it is. We got our asses kicked game one, we should have just canceled the fucking game. We literally should have just walked off the field. What's the penalty for that? A loss? We're done, we're done competing. We gotta get ready for game. We should have just done that. That's how bad it was. And then obviously game two, it's like we to just give up a 3-0 lead as soon as you get it, and then not even be close to be competitive for the rest of the game. That stuff drives me up the wall. So as we get into Wednesday's game, we got today off, forget about it. I do love Jamison Tayan on the mound for the Cubs. I think his the way he looked against the Padres commanding his cut fastball and his curveball and all the glove side breaking stuff, the stuff that breaks away from righties, moves away from righties. It was so good and sharp and late and clean. And you can tell that in the quality of the swings the Padres have been making. The 165th game those guys have played this year, probably 200 if you include all the spring training scrimmages. A lot of those guys, that's their 800th plate appearance, if you include spring training. A lot of those guys are scratching 800 plate appearances for the Padres. And Jamison Teon went out there and made them look like they hadn't seen a cutter all season long. Like they were going back in the dugout, man. Like, what's the pitch? What's the one that goes 92 and breaks sharp at the very end? That's how sharp Jamison was against the Padres. And no disrespect, it's just I think you're executing that shit against the Padres. I think you can execute it against the Brewers. The problem there is the Brewers don't free swing like the Padres. The Padres swing like assholes. Do we agree on this? You could watch the Padres swing, just laugh the whole time. These guys swing, all they're trying to do is drive and lift. So the Brewers don't do that. The Brewers are just trying to run it down your foot. They're just honestly trying to put as much pressure on the pitcher as possible. Runners on first and third, second and third, taking extra bases, and hitting the ball as hard as they possibly can on line drives. Not hitting the ball as far as they possibly can, which is such a common thing in Major League Baseball. We're talking about a group of guys that are just trying to hit the ball as hard as they can every single time, as hard, which is surprisingly unique, surprisingly a differentiator. So how man do we're over it? You know, Wednesday 408 at home, that advan that's a huge advantage to the Cubs. And I'm making assumptions Jamison Tayan's gonna pitch. As far as that fucking Bugs Bunny pitch, I wouldn't be surprised at this point. You know, if Carter Hawkins went out and threw an inning or two, I wouldn't be surprised at this point. Just because like we're over it. I know a lot of people listening to this have been saying Shoda was on full rest the whole time. Shoda should not be pitching game two of a playoff series down one-nothing against a team that quite literally is gonna eat him for fucking breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And if Jamis and Teon couldn't could not have pitched, they should have figured something out. And if you were in a you really want to be you really want to have big balls, bring Matt Boyd game four back at home after throwing 30 pitches game one. So like for game two, we had the whole bullpen. We had the we had literally the entire bullpen to work with, and you say we went show to Imanaga. And I said I was done complaining about this, and now I'm officially done complaining about it. Now, what can the Brewers do for game three? They can start Quinn Priester, and they probably should because they're gonna need him in an NLCS if they get there. I think they're getting to the point, and then it's a little negligent that you wouldn't have Quinn Priester throw yet. He hasn't thrown in a while, and you're gonna need him if you're the Brewers in a seven-game series. So the Brewers at some point, they got to get into him. Chad Patrick threw an inning, that could be a starter in a seven-game series. And then Freddie Pralta, if we do get to game five, is absolutely gonna pitch game five at home. So we have Jamison verse, who I would guess is Quinn Priester, which is gonna be a slight advantage just to the Cubs because it's a home game, it's an elimination game. But Quinn Priester's very fucking good and has been very good. I think the Brewers won 19 straight starts of his or something, because he doesn't give up home runs. He doesn't get hit hard. He does give up runs, he does put guys on base, he does get hits, but he doesn't give up the three-run Molly Whopper with one out in the second inning and then give up a double and do all that. He just doesn't do that. He pounds his own hard, low. So he's probably pitching game three, would be my guess. This has not been announced yet at the time of recording. Jamison Taeon hasn't been announced either. We're just making these assumptions. If Jamison Taeon doesn't pitch game three, I now we're just now we just might as well just hang signs around her neck that just says we're so dumb and stupid we shouldn't be here. So this is where we're at, just recapping game two. I'm looking ahead a little bit to game three. That's tomorrow. That's four o'clock. If they start Quinn Priester, then the lineup passes stay what it's been with Bush, Nico Horner. You know what we're doing three, four, five. I don't understand this. Kyle Tucker will hit three instead of Ian Happ now, say Suzuki instead of five, he's four. They did that to counter the lefty against Ashby, because Tucker's better on lefty-lefty, as you saw. But if we see Quinn Priester again, are we gonna move Kyle Tucker to four? And are there people listening this that think it doesn't matter? Because it matters. This absolutely matters. We talked ad nauseum about how the lineup was going to respond to what they were doing with their starting pitching staff, and it ended up being a substantial change. I told you guys Justin Turner would get serious playing time in the playoffs. He did. He did go one for two, and I do respect how much that guy cares, how prepared he is. Like he's he doesn't give a bats away, he just pops out a lot. You know, he just is absolutely no power to any place except directly down the left field line. So will we see him in game three, maybe in a pinch hit situation? The Brewers use both of their lefties in game two, so I would expect we would see them game three as well, off of an off day into another off day. So we're just on off day island, and when you're in off day island, you're gonna see the best of the bullpen. So we've really put ourselves in a shitty situation being down two games, but let me just spin some positive stuff here to close the show here, guys. Not even 45 minutes here. The positive stuff is that Jameis and Tayan will pitch well, and the Cubs will have a significant advantage Wednesday, and that's a four o'clock game. The other advantage is that they'll turn around, they'll probably play a four o'clock game Thursday. So if we win on Thursday at four o'clock, then you turn around, you play that same time four o'clock. Four o'clock is a very hard time to play at Wrigley Field. Very hard time to get ready for it, and I think it's a huge advantage to our players. I don't think the Brewers for game four, I think we'd end up seeing Chad Patrick or a bullpen day. But the idea of Freddie Freddie Freeman doesn't lose until game five. The only idea that we would see one of the best pitchers in the world is game five if it's tied 2-2, then we'd be going back to Milwaukee with all this momentum and this chance to say we blew game one and two, really blew game two, got slapped around game one, and if there's an opportunity for us to win the series in game five, then I think it's like, whoa, now we're really talking four like coin flip or blackjack odds, 51-49. Where I said game one, Freddie Peralta, that's 3070, beating Freddie Peralta game one at home. But if you go to a game five after if the Cubs win two, get the get the momentum from Wrigley, then we can go into a game five with a ton of momentum and beat Freddie Peralta. But first we have to win Wednesday, 4 p.m. Jamison has to pitch his ass off. And I think that's a weird, ugly game, 3-1 Cubs. I think it's weird and ugly. I think it's, you know, and then can we boom break out on Thursday, score eight runs, you know, really assert our dominance against the Brewers, then take some time and go up for a five. That's my path to winning the series. You know, I got no mailbags on this. Somebody did ask me a great question, I'm gonna look it up. In the meantime, I just want to emphasize we've spent most of today to try and get over game two loss. We've spent most of it so that we can get over the fact that like hold those are two of my least favorite games like in the last decade in the biggest playoff series we've had since 2017. So it just hurts. It just hurts. So really, really, really disappointed. Not just in the players. You'd be mad at Boyd and Choda for falling off. But the fact that they have uh entire professional staff around them of coaches and doctors and fucking all these people who are like sole purpose, nutritionists and trainers whose sole purpose is to make sure you're 100%. In order to make sure you're 100%, they know you inside and out. They know you when you're not a hundred percent, they know what you need to do to get to 100%, they know what you need to eat, they know how much sleep you need to get, they know your throwing programs. It's not just that the players play bad, it's that we put these guys in a position to play poorly, and that we haven't fostered and developed them to get better throughout the season's gone on, and that's a huge indictment, too, when you consider how bad we played in the second half and how much shitty 500 baseball there was. How much slumping. So there's an answer to this as to why we have slumped down the stretch. Obviously, Boyd's thrown more innings than he has since 2019, so we're gonna expect obviously there's some wear and tear. We didn't manage that. We managed Kate Orton at 65 fucking pitches the entire season. We couldn't manage Matt Boyd better. You know, showed us hurt. We bring him back, he gets his absolute shit destroyed in September. Did we make adjustments for him other than letting him pitch a second inning against the Padres? What did we do to help these guys? And I think that's where you're gonna find a huge gap between us and Brewers, Dodgers, etc. Teams that have look how good Mizerowski was. You know, look how good Fredd Peralta gets as the season continues to go on. A lot of the Brewers players have gotten better throughout the season, and a lot of the clubs players have slowed down. Why? Why is that? I think that's an organizational thing. Now the nice thing about this is we can talk about all this shit November and December and January and February, we'll hot stove it. Right now I have gain three and I got Jamison Tayan going out. And what he has is a bunch of righties that are gonna try and take his cutter and his curveball into right center. Where really, if his two seam, I'm telling you, if Jamison Taon's two seam in command to his arm side of the plate, so in on righties, if that's average to above average and he's still feeling the outer half of the plate, you're gonna feast this Milwaukee lineup. Because the way to beat Milwaukee is in and out. Cubs, you beat us up and down. How many times do you see guys on the Cubs swing through fastballs at the top of the zone while taking fastballs at the bottom of the zone? That the Cubs are avert, you try and beat the Cubs vertically. There's different players, you can get them in and out, etc. But just generally, when I talk about these teams and their identities, the Brewers don't chase up. They don't give a if the ball's up, they're like not tempted, can't hit it hard. You're gonna be they've they've uniformly bought into one collective strike zone identity, generally speaking. Some guys are a little bit different than others. Bryce Terrang's a good example. Bryce Terrang's a little bit more challenge him vertically. But most of these guys, Caleb Durbin, Isaac Collins, you know, Joe, I can't believe I'm about to say his name, Joey Ortiz, Jackson Churio. Uh Yelich is a little up and down. He will chase up. But most of these guys, you got to pitch in, you got to pitch away, in and away, in, in, in, away, away, away. So you can get the weak rollover to shortstop. So you can get the weak chopper to second base. Jamison Taon sets up very well for that. Jamison Taeon sets up elite for that. So that's kind of our marker going into game three. And I can't really get ahead into game four without winning game three. But I really think if Jamison Taon can get in and out, first inning and show that, that should be enough momentum, and hopefully that translates over to the lineup. And then the lineup's aggressive. Because we don't want to be wasting fucking bullets. Let's get into this matchup. Let's get into the game and let's swing the fucking bat. Stop all this bullshit of like, well, I didn't really like that on one-o. Pitches up over the plate. You better be ready to hammer it, buddy. So this is the Monday Morning Cup show, obviously sponsored by Thirsty Vacaro. I'm going to go make some deliveries for Stirk Family Farms. If you listen to this show and you understand the show, Stirk Family Farms is a non-toxic skincare company. My wife started about two years ago, officially incorporated for the last year. And she's been trying to do a side cosmetic product business for as long as we've been dating, as long as I've known her. She just loves this shit. Buying stuff, sell, and so we settled into making beef tallow skincare products at our farm. She's the engineer. I've got the suppliers. I got a buddy who's got a 1200-acre cattle ranch. How about that? This is really good, sharp stuff. So we were out at the Aurora Farmers Market this past week, slinging orders, being in the community, making friends. So it's been a true blessing. It's been a real fun business to work on. Uh certainly more fun than I had in public accounting, uh, forensic accounting, consulting, municipal government insurance sales. There's a lot of stuff I've done that doesn't compare to the Stirk Family Farms product run. I can't tell, I can't tell you guys enough how much fun it's been. And just as a sidebar, you guys do get 20% off for listening to the show. The promo code is MMCS. The website's Stirk Family Farms. Just Google Stirk Family Farms, you'll see it. Wagyu eye cream, you know, hand cream, face cream, lip balm. Do something nice for the lady in your life. Get something for your mom or just treat yourself because the winter months are coming up, you're gonna be a little chapped, you're gonna want something good. And the fact, like, do you think I would like do you think I would talk positively about a skincare product that didn't work? Or do you think I'm even capable of making this shit up? If I could, I wouldn't be doing Cubs podcast into the void. I'd be in Hollywood writing dramas. I'd be on a beach drinking Mai Thai because I've just cashed in on so many screenplays because the fiction that I can come together is unfucking believable. So no, we're not sitting here talking about the Cubs. I'm getting loaded on a beach. But that's if I was capable of lying. I'm not. I can only tell the truth, and the truth is this is a great product. SturkFamilyFarms.com. Check it out. 20% off with the promo code just MMCS. And I'll ship, I've shipped to six of seven continents now. I'm not bragging. I'm not gonna get to Antarctica. There's a plenty of reasons for that. Go listen to the conspiracy theorists. For now, I just want to say we need to win game three, we can win game three. And hopefully I've given you guys enough stuff to get mad about game two and then move on from it. Like be specific in your criticisms. It's not just that we suck, it's not just we give games away. It's not that Jed didn't hit the trade deadline or that Danzby Swanson's a bitch. You know, our five through eight going oh for fucking 16 yesterday certainly doesn't help. But we just didn't even, we didn't even have the juice to go out there and go match up for matchup with Murphy. And what they did with Mizorowski, credit to those guys. Now we got to be sharper on Wednesday, we gotta take the momentum into Thursday, and then we gotta roll the fucking dice game five. And as far as I'm concerned, I think we can do that. I think we can. I'm gonna need the rest of you guys to get that momentum and that energy going behind this. So this is the Monday morning Cubs show, typically only available on Monday mornings, uh, but we've been hitting it hard for postseason. So subscribe if you like it. If you're learning stuff along the way or you're getting a better look at the Chicago Cubs, I just ask share it with a friend that likes the Cubs a lot. Because I do think what we do here is a little bit more unique than just sitting here and going, well, he's 14 for his last 26. And no, I mean, we're trying to talk more subjectively and more about the psychology of the game. And hopefully just give you guys just a different look based on what we know here at Monday Morning Cubs Show. So if you've enjoyed it, share it. You know, you want to support the farm, knock your socks off. You want to Thirsty Vacaro, there's a couple things we're doing for the audience right now. It's out there. Check it out. The most important thing, and I really fucking mean this. I love you guys. I love you guys. Thank you for keeping me going. Thank you for getting this show off the ground. We're not going anywhere, especially when we win game three. I'm gonna see you guys after that. I love you, Go Cubs.