Andrew Vaughn hit a tiebreaker homer in the fourth inning and William Contreras and Bryce Turang also went deep as the Milwaukee Brewers shook off their recent history of playoff disappointments by beating Chicago Cubs 3-1 in the deciding Game 5 of the NL Division Series on Saturday.
The Brewers, making the playoffs for the seventh time in the last eight years, earned their first postseason series win since beating Colorado in the 2018 NLDS. The Brewers were on the verge of making their second World Series appearance in franchise history that year before losing Game 7 of the National League Championship Series at home to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
They now face another NLCS matchup with the Dodgers, who beat the Philadelphia Phillies in four games in the other NL division series. The first game is Monday in Milwaukee.
In the final game against Chicago, Milwaukee won with an all-hands-on-court approach. Trevor Megill, Jacob Misiorowski, Aaron Ashby, Chad Patrick and Abner Uribe combined for a four-forward.
That the Brewers ended their recent history of postseason disappointments in this series was especially gratifying for Milwaukee fans because they faced their archrival and knocked Cubs manager Craig Counsell out of the postseason.
Counsell grew up in the Milwaukee area, played for the Brewers and became the winningest manager in team history before leaving for Chicago.
In the two seasons following Counsell's departure, Brewers fans booed every mention of his name whenever the Cubs visited American Family Field. They did it again Saturday, although the sold-out crowd seemed to contain more Cubs supporters than in Milwaukee's Game 1 and Game 2 home wins.
The Cubs forced Game 5 by winning two in a row at Wrigley Field. They were trying to become the 11th team to erase a 2-0 deficit and win a best-of-five playoff series, something the New York Yankees last accomplished against Cleveland in their 2017 ALDS.
Homers made all the runs in this winner-take-all game, and each of Milwaukee's runs had two outs.
Contreras hit a 389-foot shot to left-center off Drew Pomerantz in the first inning. Vaughn sent a 3-2 pitch from Colin Rea over the left field wall to break the tie at 1, and Turang provided some insurance with a 416-foot shot to hit Andrew Kittredge in the seventh.
Chicago's Seiya Suzuki greeted Misiorowski by sending a 101.4 mph fastball into the Cubs bullpen to start the second inning, but that was the only run the rookie right-hander allowed in four innings. Misiorowski struck out three, giving up three hits and walking none, to earn his second win of the series.
The young right-hander pitched three shutout innings in Milwaukee's 7-3 triumph in Game 2.
The Brewers forced Misiorowski into the game in the second inning after Megill worked first and retired the team in order in the first. The Cubs scored 11 runs in the first inning in the first four games of this series without trailing once in the first frame.
After Suzuki's homer, the Cubs didn't score again.
Chicago's biggest threat came when they pitched two and struck out none in the sixth against Ashby, who had thrown 32 pitches two nights earlier in a 6-0 Game 4 loss to Milwaukee. Michael Bush hit a leadoff single before Ashby hit Nico Horner with a pitch.
Ashby got Kyle Tucker to hit the first shot at 3-2. Patrick then came out of the bullpen and retired Suzuki on a fly to left before Ian Happ struck out while looking.
