{"id":205514,"date":"2025-10-11T13:26:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T13:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/205514\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T13:26:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T13:26:08","slug":"mlb-division-series-lineups-analysis-for-cubs-brewers-game-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/205514\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB division series: Lineups, analysis for Cubs-Brewers Game 5"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Another day, another win-or-go-home Game 5 in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com.au\/mlb\/story\/_\/id\/46409722\/2025-mlb-playoffs-word-series-schedule-how-watch-postseason-bracket-standings\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2025 MLB playoffs<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p>With the American League Division Series <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com.au\/mlb\/story\/_\/id\/46546182\/mlb-playoffs-2025-division-series-alds-game-5-mariners-tigers-updates-analysis\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">decided in an epic finale<\/a>, the National League Division Series between the <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"5cda5067-7075-66b1-4b94-2333ab8d9807\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com.au\/mlb\/team\/_\/name\/chc\/chicago-cubs\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chicago Cubs<\/a> and the <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"4750d73d-d92e-b390-758c-2c7b44a810db\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com.au\/mlb\/team\/_\/name\/mil\/milwaukee-brewers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Milwaukee Brewers<\/a> comes down to one last meeting tonight at American Family Field.<\/p>\n<p>The Brewers entered the series as the favorite &#8212; and the NL&#8217;s top overall seed. But after taking a commanding 2-0 lead, their NL Central rival Cubs evened the series with two wins at Wrigley Field.<\/p>\n<p>Now we&#8217;re back in Milwaukee &#8212; with the winner moving on to face the <a data-clubhouse-guid=\"fb7cf413-5156-9fc2-abe0-2273b89f70db\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com.au\/mlb\/team\/_\/name\/lad\/los-angeles-dodgers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a> for the NL pennant.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ve got you covered with pregame lineups and the keys to Game 5, along with takeaways after the final out.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"floatleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1760189168_490_chc.png&#038;h=60&#038;w=60.png\" width=\"30\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"floatleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1760189168_475_mil.png&#038;h=60&#038;w=60.png\" width=\"30\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Series tied 2-2<\/p>\n<p>Game 5 starters: TBD vs. TBD<\/p>\n<p>Key to winning Game 5 for Chicago: The Cubs will need to get some length from one of their pitchers. While it will undoubtedly be Johnny Wholestaff going for manager Craig Counsell, they&#8217;ll probably need one pitcher to go at least three innings or so. <a data-player-guid=\"af1ec5d4-41a0-3097-9cb4-9e32ec6250a2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/player\/_\/id\/5134630\/shota-imanaga\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Shota Imanaga<\/a>, who was bad in Game 2 and struggled down the stretch? <a data-player-guid=\"bfa0cdb3-03e1-c0a0-2bb7-e084bc06e972\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/player\/_\/id\/33950\/colin-rea\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Colin Rea<\/a>, who pitched 3.1 innings of scoreless relief in that game? Game 3 starter <a data-player-guid=\"7b22dbac-bf27-d507-096c-642a550c4c6b\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/player\/_\/id\/31258\/jameson-taillon\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jameson Taillon<\/a>, coming off a 75-pitch outing? <a data-player-guid=\"36ae5266-0827-6a23-1f06-324795f4865e\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/player\/_\/id\/40934\/aaron-civale\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Aaron Civale<\/a>, who pitched 4.1 scoreless innings in mop-up duty in Game 1? This game shapes up as an interesting strategic battle of relief decisions and pinch-hitters between Counsell and Pat Murphy, with Murphy focusing on his left-handed pitchers against <a data-player-guid=\"52d0b18a-1810-3aa6-b963-84ecef72a66d\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/player\/_\/id\/42415\/michael-busch\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Michael Busch<\/a>, daring Counsell to pinch-hit, and Counsell trying to get his right-handed pitchers against <a data-player-guid=\"84dbf7f2-04ba-3bb6-98c0-c4bc68934584\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/player\/_\/id\/4917869\/jackson-chourio\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jackson Chourio<\/a>, who is 7-for-15 in the series. &#8212; David Schoenfield<\/p>\n<p>Key to winning Game 5 for Milwaukee: The Brewers have rightfully received a lot of credit for their ability to score runs without relying as much on homers as other teams. But they&#8217;ll probably need to hit more home runs than the Cubs to win this game. When the Brewers hit at least one home run, they&#8217;re 70-36, including 1-1 in this series. Yes, they scored nine runs in Game 1 without hitting a home run, but when they don&#8217;t hit a home run this season, they&#8217;re 29-31. If <a data-player-guid=\"af1ec5d4-41a0-3097-9cb4-9e32ec6250a2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/player\/_\/id\/5134630\/shota-imanaga\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Shota Imanaga<\/a> pitches for the Cubs, either as the starter or in a long-relief role, that&#8217;s a good sign for the Brewers. They homered twice off him in Game 2, and he&#8217;s now allowed at least one home run in 10 consecutive appearances and two-plus home runs in eight of his last 14 appearances. &#8212; Schoenfield<\/p>\n<p>Lineups<\/p>\n<p>Cubs<\/p>\n<p>TBD<\/p>\n<p>Brewers<\/p>\n<p>TBD<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Another day, another win-or-go-home Game 5 in the 2025 MLB playoffs! With the American League Division Series decided&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205515,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-205514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}