A Brewers' victory, in the sweetest fashion

In the words of Bob Uecker, "How about that one folks?"

After what was one of the most stressful weeks in franchise history, the Milwaukee Brewers are the ones celebrating tonight while their division rival, the Chicago Cubs, get an early start to their offseason. In a winner-takes-all Game 5 matchup, a situation where the Brewers have not excelled in recent history, Milwaukee put on a show, and their 3-1 victory is one of the sweetest the team has ever accomplished.

It all started with the Brewers' All-Star closer, Trevor Megill, in the top of the first inning. Needing someone to shut down the Cubs' offense early, Pat Murphy turned to his flamethrowing right-hander, who made quick work of the top of Chicago's lineup. On 11 pitches, eight of which were strikes, Megill shut down the trio of Michael Busch, Nico Hoerner, and Kyle Tucker that had been excellent throughout the first four games of the series.

With things already on the right foot, the Brewers offense grabbed an early lead in the bottom of the first frame. A scorched line-drive off the bat of William Contreras carried into the Brewers' bullpen in left-center field, giving the Crew their first run of the game and their 11th first-inning run of the series.

From there, the attention turned to another flamethrower, All-Star rookie Jacob Misiorowski, who trotted in from the bullpen for the second inning. The Miz's night started off sourly, with the 23-year-old right-hander allowing a home run to the first batter he faced, Cubs' outfielder Seiya Suzuki, which tied the game at one run apiece.

Then, Misiorowski settled in. He went on to cover four crucial innings for the Brew Crew, surrendering just the one run on the Suzuki homer, before shutting down the Cubs offense during the middle innings of the game. With three strikeouts and no walks, The Miz continued his postseason dominance, which began back on Monday night when he pitched three scoreless innings.

The Milwaukee Brewers defeat the Chicago Cubs in Game 5 of the NLDS

Despite Misiorowski's heroics, the Brewers still needed someone to come up with a big hit and give them the lead once again. Said hit came from slugger Andrew Vaughn in the fourth inning. A solo shot that just snuck over the right-field wall gave the Brew Crew a one-run lead, and Vaughn his second longball of the series.

The stage was set for Milwaukee's bullpen to once again shine, just as they have throughout the postseason. Murphy turned to Aaron Ashby in the sixth inning, who has become his go-to guy out of the 'pen, with the 27-year-old southpaw pitching in all but one of the team's five NLDS games.

Chicago's first baseman, Busch, got lucky with a softly hit single to start off the inning, and Ashby followed it up by hitting Hoerner with a pitch, giving the Cubs one of their best offensive threats of the night. Ashby salvaged his outing by striking out Tucker on a perfect fastball on the outside corner, before Murphy elected to go with another rookie, Chad Patrick, to face the heart of Chicago's order.

Just as he has been in each of his postseason appearances this year, Patrick was incredible. He quickly retired Suzuki and Ian Happ to escape the sixth-inning jam, before returning to the mound for the seventh inning. Patrick made quick work of the North Siders in the top of the seventh, striking out both Carson Kelly and Dansby Swanson in the process.

However, there was still a palpable tension beneath the hallowed roof of American Family Field, with Brewers fans hoping for a Badger Mutual/West Bend/Northwestern Mutual insurance run to ease their nerves. They got just that, when Brice Turang launched a hung slider out of the hand of Andrew Kittredge 416 feet to dead center field, with another futile robbery attempt from Pete Crow-Armstrong to make matters even better.

Now with a two-run lead, Brewers fans expected the duo of Jared Koenig and Abner Uribe to close out the game in the final two frames, but the former's services were not even needed. Uribe took the final six outs himself, allowing just one baserunner, a walk to the slugging Busch, to reach. With a groundout to Joey Ortiz off the bat of Kelly, Uribe sent the Brewers to the NLCS for just the third time in franchise history.

Not only did the Brew Crew end their disappointing streak of postseason series losses tonight, but they did so against their arch-rivals, the Chicago Cubs, in front of a packed crowd of Brewers fans at American Family Field. It truly is one of the sweetest victories in franchise history.