MILWAUKEE (AP) \u2014 Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Quinn Priester has experienced postseason baseball at Wrigley Field before, only from a much\u2026<\/p>\n
MILWAUKEE (AP) \u2014 Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Quinn Priester has experienced postseason baseball at Wrigley Field before, only from a much different perspective than the one he\u2019s about to have.<\/p>\n
Priester grew up in the Chicago area and was in Wrigley Field\u2019s stands for Game 5<\/a> of the 2016 World Series. The 25-year-old right-hander will be back at Wrigley on Wednesday as he continues his breakthrough season by trying to pitch the Brewers into the NL Championship Series.<\/p>\n \u201cI was in the last row in the nosebleeds,\u201d Priester said about that 2016 experience. \u201cMy mom and I had our backs against the chain-link fence up there drinking hot chocolate because it was late October in Chicago and it was freezing.\u201d<\/p>\n Priester watched the Cubs beat Cleveland 3-2 that night to begin their rally from a 3-1 series deficit that earned them their first World Series title<\/a> since 1908. Now he wants to make sure the Cubs don\u2019t start a similar comeback.<\/a>Milwaukee carries a 2-0 lead<\/a> into Game 3 of this best-of-5 NL Division Series.<\/p>\n This start will mark Priester\u2019s postseason debut. Jameson Taillon is starting for the Cubs.<\/p>\n Priester went 13-3 with a 3.32 ERA during the regular season while winning 12 straight decisions<\/a> at one point. According to Sportradar, that was the longest streak within a single year by any pitcher since Gerrit Cole won 16 consecutive decisions for Houston in 2019.<\/p>\n Until the Cincinnati Reds beat Priester<\/a> 3-1 on Sept. 26, the Brewers had won 19 straight games in which Priester had pitched. That stretch included 16 starts and three appearances in which he had followed an opener.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s been sensational for us,\u201d Brewers manager Pat Murphy said.<\/p>\n The Brewers needed starting pitching due to multiple injuries on April 7 when they acquired Priester<\/a> from the Boston Red Sox for minor league outfielder Yophery Rodriguez, the 33rd pick in the 2025 draft and minor league pitcher John Holobetz.<\/p>\n Priester, the 18th overall selection in the 2018 draft, had a 6-9 record and 6.23 ERA in 21 career appearances with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Red Sox at the time of the trade.<\/p>\n \u201cI had followed him for years,\u201d Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold said. \u201cObviously when guys come up to the big leagues, especially as pitchers, they don\u2019t always have success immediately, but we thought there were some really good ingredients there.\u201d<\/p>\n Priester quickly warmed up to the idea of pitching in Milwaukee.<\/p>\n \u201cI was really surprised,\u201d Priester said. \u201cI felt like I was kind of in the mix for the rotation in Boston. I certainly felt like I had a shot at it. When I did get traded, I was super excited for the opportunity. Being close to home was super exciting for me and my fianc\u00e9e, being able to see family. And obviously, being in Pittsburgh, every year, you\u2019d see how well the Brewers seemed to play.\u201d<\/p>\n Priester wasn\u2019t as familiar at the time with the Brewers\u2019 reputation for getting the best out of pitchers who hadn\u2019t encountered much success before arriving in Milwaukee. He\u2019d develop into the latest example.<\/p>\n The turning point came against the team he faces Wednesday.<\/p>\n Priester gave up seven runs over 4 1\/3 innings in a 10-0 loss<\/a> to the Cubs on May 2, raising his ERA to 5.79. That immediately followed a start in which he allowed five runs over five innings in a 6-5 loss at St. Louis.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThat was the kind of the moment when I felt things needed to change,\u201d Priester said. \u201cWhat I was doing, it\u2019s not like I wasn\u2019t trying, but what I was trying just wasn\u2019t working. And so I started to write some things down every day, came in with some goals, talked to all of our guys, started to go about the lineups a little bit differently.\u201d<\/p>\n Priester pitched 24 more times the rest of the regular season and allowed more than three runs in just two of those appearances.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Cubs blistered this guy, and he wanted to continue pitching and his competitive nature came out, and actually the last couple innings of that outing he was pretty darned effective,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cI think that failure, if you will, for him, like, launched him into open ears, \u2018OK, how do I figure this out?\u2019 And we got the best version of him because of his competitive nature, and we got the best version of him going forward, and it\u2019s been miraculous.\u201d<\/p>\n Priester added a cutter this year that he now throws about 20% of the time to complement his sinker and slider, while he abandoned his four-seam fastball. Priester averages less than one strikeout per inning, but he has a knack for inducing ground balls and weak contact while working quickly.<\/p>\n He understands the raucous atmosphere he\u2019s going to encounter Wednesday. When Priester was in the stands for that 2016 World Series game, Priester recalled how \u201cKris Bryant hit a homer and I thought the stadium was going to collapse.\u201d<\/p>\n But he also enters this game with the confidence that comes from spending the last few months living up to all the expectations that accompanied his draft selection.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it was just kind of a ticking time bomb waiting for a year like this to happen for him,\u201d Brewers outfielder Sal Frelick said. \u201cI\u2019m super happy we got him when we did because I just kind of knew it was coming for him.\u201d<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n