Pressure’s on Cubs, Brewers with NLCS berth at stake. But who’s feeling it more?

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MILWAUKEE —  In late July, Milwaukee Brewers mainstay Christian Yelich had a sly grin on his face when a couple of Chicago reporters asked about the rivalry with the Cubs.

“It kind of feels like we’re just playing with house money,” he said that night. “They’re supposed to win the division. They’re supposed to have high expectations. … So if they don’t win the division, I’m sure it’ll be pretty disappointing.”

The teams were tied, or close to it, when he said it. This was before the trade deadline and before the Brewers reeled off 14 straight wins, sending the Cubs from a virtual tie atop the NL Central to a nine-game deficit in the span of a fortnight.

The Cubs, of course, didn’t win the division. They finished five games behind the Brewers. While this playoff berth is the Cubs’ first in a full season since 2018, Milwaukee has won the Central four of the past five years. They also won it in 2018 when they beat the Cubs in a one-game tiebreaker at Wrigley Field. Milwaukee made it to the NLCS that season. In their more recent appearances, they’ve lost twice in the wild-card series and once in the NLDS.

So now, with the Cubs and Brewers playing a best-of-five NLDS starting Saturday in Milwaukee, maybe the pressure has shifted. Maybe now it’s on the Brewers. The Cubs are just a plucky wild-card team, after all.

The Brewers need to show they didn’t just have another good regular season. Beating up on the Cubs and their old manager, Craig Counsell, again would show the rest of baseball that they’re for real and not just a contender from April through September. It’s very possible that happens again.

It’s also possible that in a short series, the Cubs’ bats come alive and the series doesn’t even go the distance. We’re ready for anything.

While neither of these teams are burdened by World Series expectations, not with the Phillies and Dodgers on the other side of the bracket, it’s not like the Cubs are playing with “house money.” They have a skittish fan base that expects them to win, especially against the small-market Brewers. Cubs president Jed Hoyer traded a pretty good prospect for one year of Kyle Tucker. And the year isn’t 2032.

Given ownership’s seeming reticence to spend, I feel like there’s almost more pressure on the Cubs in the offseason than in the postseason.

Though most of baseball is focused on the other NLDS, fans in Chicago and Milwaukee are certainly going to be locked in. Brewers fans are resting their lungs to yell at Counsell, while Cubs fans are taking out small-business loans to afford tickets and beer at a Wrigley Field playoff game. The atmosphere at both ballparks is going to be memorable as the rivalry takes on a new air.

“I think, at least from my perspective, kind of being on both sides of it, I think the regular-season matchups are awesome,” Counsell said. “It’s a lot of fun. … A lot of times there’s extra energy from fans, and there’s fans from both teams in the building. That’s always made it a lot of fun.

“These are two cities that are close together, very close. I think each city’s residents have thoughts about each other’s residents. Harmless, obviously. But yeah, so the proximity of the cities makes it fun, no doubt about it, and the proximity makes rivalries, too, and teams being good makes rivalries.”

“This game was representative of who we are. We played great defense, our bullpen, everybody took their turn, and then we closed it out.” #Cubs Craig Counsell on their game 3 win over the #Padres in the NLWC. #Postseason pic.twitter.com/JnvPBflmuP

— Tina Nguyen (@ttinanguyen) October 3, 2025

The Brewers are very disciplined, especially offensively under Counsell’s successor (and mentor) Pat Murphy. The Cubs are an elite defensive team. These games will be low-scoring, much as they were in the Cubs’ series against San Diego, in which Chicago scored six total runs in its two victories.

That means Counsell and Murphy will be important in the context of the series, but it’s not like they’re playing.

That’s part of the reason why Counsell wants no part of talking about himself being in the middle of the rivalry — “I think we’re over that part,” he said Friday — and Yelich had a good, well-rehearsed line about a baseball manager’s limited effect.

“It’s not like Couns has exotic blitz packages or has a good play-action pass game,” he said. “I have a lot of respect for him. I think he’s great at what he does. But we’re not going to have to worry about the two-high safety look from Couns.”

Don’t be fooled, though. The Brewers are giddy with the chance to show up the manager who left them for more money and supposedly a better team in Chicago. At Friday’s workout, they played possibly the worst batting-practice playlist ever for the Cubs’ turn. At least one Milwaukee reporter told a couple of us this was done to needle Counsell, who hates yacht rock and the like.

Have you ever heard John Denver’s “Annie’s Song” at a baseball game before? Or The Hollies’ “The Air That I Breathe”? I almost threw my laptop through the window, but then the playlist switched to Fleetwood Mac’s “Rhiannon,” which is at least good music to write to, if not take BP.

When we’re back in American Family Field for a 1:08 p.m. (CT) game Saturday, the noise won’t be quite so soothing. It’s going to be loud and it’s going to be tense.

But in his pre-practice availability, Counsell didn’t bite on the idea of pressure flipping between the teams in this rivalry.

“I think we’re past that right now,” he said. “It’s gotten so small, man. You do your job, you’ve got one game and it’s everything to win it, and if you don’t, you walk away really disappointed. You’re going to have another game, but that’s where your focus is down to. It’s like very small moments. It’s tomorrow at 1; that’s it. There’s no outside noise right now. It’s tomorrow at 1. That’s like a foreign language you’re speaking right there to me right now. Tomorrow at 1. That’s it.”

That is the beauty of a playoff series, even a best-of-five with three potential days off. There’s little time to think or plan or worry.

But there is, of course, pressure, and it’s not all internal. Years ago, I was talking to former Cubs pitcher Ryan Dempster about his disastrous playoff start in 2008, and he said, yes, he absolutely was thinking about the fans and the Cubs’ long playoff drought.

The best playoff performers do what Counsell said: They make everything small.

“I’m sure you can make a narrative however you want … as far as pressure goes,” Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner said. “I think every player at this point is feeling pressure, excitement, however you want to phrase it. … It’s exciting to play a team that you’ve been compared to and been alongside for a while, and playoffs is the absolute best way to go about that.”

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