CHICAGO - What started as a pinch-me moment for Quinn Priester ended in immense disappointment for both the right-hander and the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday night, Oct. 8.
Pitching in the very ballpark he attended games as a youngster growing up in Chicago's Northwest suburbs, Priester was unable to even complete the first inning, and that nightmare scenario ultimately cost he and his team a chance to close out the Chicago Cubs in Game 3 of the teams' National League Division Series matchup at Wrigley Field.
The Cubs scored four times against Priester and Nick Mears and despite a game effort from their bullpen the rest of the way the Brewers proved unable to respond in a 4-3 loss, setting the stage for Game 4 on Thursday, Oct. 8 at 8:08 p.m.
Priester managed to record only two outs on 39 pitches before being pulled by manager Pat Murphy. He allowed three hits - including a leadoff home run by Michael Busch - all four runs and two walks while striking out only one in the shortest start of his career.
Five other pitchers were called into duty behind Priester, including who had been considered Milwaukee's potential Game 4 starter in José Quintana, and they combined to keep Chicago scoreless the rest of the way.
Jake Bauers homered and drove in two of Milwaukee's three runs but failed to come through in a clutch two-out, bases-loaded situation in the eighth inning.
Christian Yelich ripped Jameson Taillon's second pitch down the first-base line for a double and after Brice Turang worked a walk two batters later, Milwaukee was in business.
William Contreras followed with a popup on the infield that had an expected batting average of .000 off the bat, but first baseman Busch lost the ball in the sun and it dropped on the grass for a single with Turang scampering to second safely with nobody covering the base.
Umpires did not call Contreras out on the infield fly rule on the play.
"The basic thing that we look for is ordinary effort," umpire supervisor Larry Young explained. "That's in the rule book. We don’t make that determination until the ball has reached its apex - the height - and then starts to come down. When the ball went up, initially everybody thought it was going to be ordinary effort, even the batter.
"He wasn’t too sure if he was going to run, then he started to run. When it reached the height, the umpires determined that the first baseman wasn’t going to make a play on it, the middle infielder (Nico Hoerner) raced over and he wasn’t going to make a play on it, so ordinary effort went out the window at that point."
Sal Frelick, up next, sent a sacrifice fly to left with Yelich scoring to give Milwaukee the quick lead.
It lasted all of six pitches.
Busch greeted Priester with a homer to right – his second of the series, making him the first player to ever accomplish the feat in the postseason – and things only got worse from there for the Brewers’ breakout star of 2025.
Hoerner followed with a single and Kyle Tucker walked, with a tremendous sliding catch in the right-field corner by Frelick on a Seiya Suzuki drive saving Priester momentarily. An Ian Happ walk then loaded the bases, and Pete Crow-Armstrong followed by ripping a two-run single to right that ended Priester’s day after just 39 pitches.
Mears entered and struck out Carson Kelly, but not before uncorking a wild pitch that scored Happ to make it 4-1. Dansby Swanson then walked, but Mears finally got Matt Shaw swinging to retire the Cubs.
All told, the inning lasted 41 minutes with the Brewers needing to throw 53 pitches in total to complete it.
Quintana, on the injured list since Sept. 17 and pitching for first time since Sept. 14, entered the game to start the second and retired nine of the 12 batters he faced – a much-needed stanching of momentum built up by Chicago’s offense to that point.
In between, Milwaukee’s offense reawakened a bit by reeling off a trio of one-out singles in succession with Bauers stroking his to center to score Frelick and advance Durbin to third.
Things went haywire from there, as Durbin got caught in a rundown between third and home on Brandon Lockridge’s bunt to a charging Busch and was eventually tagged out. Bauers advanced to third on the play, but Joey Ortiz grounded out and the Brewers had to settle for a 4-2 deficit.
Grant Anderson erased a leadoff single in the fifth with a pickoff, then mitigated a two-out Swanson single when Shaw fouled out to Contreras.
Andrew Kittredge, Chicago’s fourth pitcher, was ambushed by a first-pitch-swinging Bauers to open the seventh, and his drive found the left-field bleachers to pull Milwaukee to within 4-3.
It was the second postseason homer in as many years with the Brewers for Bauers, who got the start at first base over Andrew Vaughn in a matchup-centric decision with the right-handed Taillon opening the game on the mound for the Cubs.
But just as quickly as the good vibes emanated, they dissipated with Isaac Collins coming off the bench to strike out, Blake Perkins grounding out and Christian Yelich tapping back to Kittredge.
Chad Patrick cleaned up Jared Koenig’s mess to post a scoreless seventh, then Jackson Chourio opened the eighth with liner to left-center that turned into a double when a diving attempt by Crow-Armstrong came up short. Chourio, still clearly less than 100% with his tender right hamstring, slid in safe just ahead of the throw in to second.
Contreras walked; then after Frelick beat out a potential double-play grounder; Durbin walked to load the bases. Caleb Thielbar was replaced by Brad Keller at that point with the guy Milwaukee would seemingly want at the plate in a clutch situation - Bauers - only to have him strike out on four pitches and drop the Brewers to 2 for 9 with runners in scoring position.