MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee Brewers belted three solo homers and five pitchers combined on a four-hitter for a 3-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Saturday night in the decisive fifth game of the National League Division Series between Central Division rivals.
The Brewers, who have the No. 1 overall seed and home-field advantage for the entire postseason, advance to face the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series, which begins Monday.
William Contreras, Andrew Vaughn and Brice Turang each homered for the Brewers, who are in the playoffs for the seventh time in eight seasons but had not won a playoff series since the NLDS in 2018. They lost to the Dodgers four games to three in the NLCS that season.
The Brewers won the first two games of the 2025 NLDS at home, before the Cubs rallied to take the next two in Chicago to set up the winner-take-all fifth game.
Hard-throwing rookie Jacob Misiorowski (2-0) allowed the Cubs’ only run on homer by Seiya Suzuki, but the right-hander gave up just two more singles in a four-inning stint for his second victory of the series, with three strikeouts and no walks. Abner Uribe pitched the final two scoreless innings for the save.
Vaughn put Milwaukee in front 2-1 in the fourth with his second homer of the series, a two-out solo homer off Colin Rea (0-1). The Brewers then loaded the bases on consecutive singles by Sal Frelick and Caleb Durbin and a walk to Blake Perkins. Daniel Palencia relieved Rea and got Joey Ortiz to bounce into a force at second.
The Cubs put two aboard with no outs in the sixth on a single and hit batter, but they failed to advance the runners.
Turang, who was 2-for-19 in the series, extended the lead to 3-1 with a two-out solo homer in the seventh off Andrew Kittredge.
Contreras staked the Brewers to a 1-0 lead in the first with a two-out homer, sending a 3-2 pitch from opener Drew Pomeranz 389 feet to left-center.
Suzuki answered in the second, greeting Misiorowski with a leadoff homer on a 101.4 mph fastball on his second pitch.
All-Star closer Trevor Megill opened with a perfect first inning for Milwaukee, the first time in the series the Cubs did not score in the opening inning.
