{"id":202095,"date":"2025-10-10T07:09:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T07:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/202095\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T07:09:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T07:09:10","slug":"cubs-blank-brewers-to-force-game-5-in-nlds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/202095\/","title":{"rendered":"Cubs blank Brewers to force Game 5 in NLDS"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO \u2014 Matthew Boyd pitched two-hit ball into the fifth inning, and the Chicago Cubs<\/a> shut down the Milwaukee Brewers for a 6-0 victory Thursday night that pushed their NL Division Series all the way to a decisive Game 5.<\/p>\n

Ian Happ, Kyle Tucker and Michael Busch homered for Chicago, delighting a rollicking Wrigley Field crowd of 41,770. Busch went deep for the second straight game and third time in the series.<\/p>\n

The Cubs were on the brink of elimination after they dropped the first two games of the NLDS in Milwaukee. But they held on for a 4-3 victory Wednesday before making the most of a sharp performance by Boyd and four relievers in Game 4.<\/p>\n

Next up is the finale of the best-of-five series back in Milwaukee on Saturday night. The winner takes on the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series.<\/p>\n

The Brewers, who went 97-65 this season for the majors’ best record, finished with three hits. They were 1 for 13 with runners in scoring position and left 13 on base overall in the series’ two games at Wrigley.<\/p>\n

Boyd also started the series opener Saturday. Pitching on three days’ rest, he recorded just two outs while Freddy Peralta worked into the sixth inning in Milwaukee’s 9-3 win.<\/p>\n

Given another opportunity, Boyd delivered. The All-Star left-hander struck out six and walked three in 4 2\/3 innings.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old Boyd was staked to an early lead when Happ drove a 1-1 fastball from Peralta deep to right for a three-run drive with two out in the first. Nico Hoerner singled and Tucker walked ahead of Happ’s third career postseason homer.<\/p>\n

Chicago has gone deep in the first in each of the four NLDS games. It has scored 11 of its 16 runs in the series in the first inning.<\/p>\n

It was a big moment for Happ, who went 2 for 21 with 11 strikeouts in Chicago’s first six postseason games this year.<\/p>\n

The Cubs had a 3-0 lead when Boyd exited with runners on second and third in the fifth, drawing a huge ovation from the crowd. Daniel Palencia came in and retired Jackson Chourio on a popup to shortstop, ending the inning.<\/p>\n

Palencia also worked the sixth in this third win of the playoffs. Drew Pomeranz and Brad Keller each got three outs before Caleb Thielbar handled the ninth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO \u2014 Matthew Boyd pitched two-hit ball into the fifth inning, and the Chicago Cubs shut down the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202096,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-202095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}