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NL DIVISION SERIES: CUBS VS BREWERS


October 10, 2025


Pat Murphy


Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA

American Family Field

Milwaukee Brewers

Workout Day Press Conference


Q. I was wondering if you were in position to announce any sort of pitching plans for tomorrow.

PAT MURPHY: Not quite yet. Not quite yet. I just met with the pitching coaches for an hour, went through a lot of different scenarios.

But yeah, we're going to meet again after. The guys are having a little informal workout. After that, we'll sit down and hash it out, and then tomorrow morning we'll probably get to the final answer.

Q. What can you tell us about Jacob Misiorowski, where he's at in this plan? Does it sort of build around where you want to fit him into this?

PAT MURPHY: When you're in this situation, when you've had the injuries we've had and all that kind of stuff, you've got to find a place. We know exactly -- those who follow it every day, we know exactly where Miz is at and what we'd like him to do, and I think he fits in the plan for sure.

Q. What's the message that you give your team in a situation like this coming off two losses, season on the line? How do you try to make sure that they stay as poised but also as loose as possible and not get caught up in the pressure?

PAT MURPHY: Well, I mean, there is nobody on our team except for Yelich and Peralta that's ever played an away playoff game. So they got their first taste of it in an unbelievable environment. It's a good learning experience for a young team. This is a team that's taken on all adversity.

Again, guys, to criticize this team for losing two games in Chicago in that environment as well as the Cubs played is how well they capitalized on every little thing, that's baseball.

This team hasn't had more than a four-game losing streak in two years. It's the greatest two years win total in Brewer history.

Now, they've done that without the big roster, without the big budget, without the free agent signings, without the trade deadline stuff. So respect this team.

Will they respond? They always do. I fully expect them to respond. That was a tough environment for two days for these young kids. They're very young.

Again, who on the team other than those two have been on the road for a playoff game. It's hard to do.

Q. I'm curious, with all the off-days and the workouts you've been able to have, get hands-on time with your team, have you learned anything about your club? Have you had a chance to digest things that your team does well or had a chance to reflect on that?

PAT MURPHY: Of course. Again, there's not one prognosticator that picked them over .500, so this team has overachieved all year. And this team had a dream, wanted to do something special for the fans of Milwaukee, for Bob Uecker, for each other.

How last year ended, they had a magical season last year that nobody expected. That's what the fans don't understand sometimes. They're critical, and that's their right.

But they're also important to us that they come out with the right attitude and help us out the way the Cubs' fans helped them and the way the Brewers' fans helped them in the first two days.

This is baseball. This is hard to do. We're the only small market team doing this. Get behind these guys. They're doing it for -- a lot of it for the first time, and they're well aware how hard it is to be in the position they are. Look at what they put themselves in this position.

So I'm proud -- I admire this team. I really do. I admire them. They have two games -- when the other team plays really good, one of the best teams in baseball, too, and that can happen.

I'm proud we're in the spot we're in. We're one game away from -- we're five wins away from the World Series. We'll just keep -- I learned a lot about this team, and one thing is it's resilient and they bounce back.

Think about this now: We haven't had more than a four-game losing streak in two years. Look at the roster, look at the injuries, look at the adversity. Look what this team has done. Look what these players have done. They've all stepped up.

Guys are on -- the fans are on Priester for not having a good -- come on, man. The guy was in Triple-A and it's not like he was a budding prospect that people are like, oh, my God, this is the guy to get. No, he's self-made. He's had an incredible year, and he had a little hiccup that's fairly understandable.

It's not like we're dealing with a veteran NFL club going into the postseason like, well, this will be the year. These guys don't even know about three years ago because most of them weren't here.

What I know about this team is they're resilient, for sure.

Q. You talked about just the record the last two years, the most wins I think you said in franchise history in two years. Along those lines, do you feel like in your opinion a playoff series victory is needed, wanted to further validate that effort?

PAT MURPHY: It would be great. Validate? You guys have the job to write and criticize and do what you've got to do; that's what you do. Validate? The validation comes from within. You know what you've done. The team knows what they've done.

I'm not looking to validate anything with anyone. I mean, it speaks for itself. Neither of these years were we picked over .500. Maybe we were last year a little bit. We won the league by ten games and we won this league by five games and we're trying to get to the World Series and win it, and so are 30 other teams or 29 other teams.

To be in the position we're in, there's no validation. I just want to do this very badly. I don't think it validates -- what does that mean? Are we not good because we didn't win a playoff series after we got a bye in the first round by having the best record in the league? That's got to count for something.

But I'm not going to think about that. I'm just going to plan on tomorrow and plan on winning.

Q. You've used the heard "all hands on deck" throughout this series. How much have the off-days helped with guys' availability coming into a Game 5 scenario tomorrow?

PAT MURPHY: It really does. It does help. But guys are still -- they're worn out from the season. They're young players, most of them, without a lot of experience. They're worn out.

But now at least they get a rest and they realize, hey, this is whoever can throw with the right mindset, you're in there.

In these series you see it all the time. You see other teams doing it. We don't have -- with losing Woody, lost Megill at the end there a little bit, losing Shelby Miller, we're a little decimated on the mound so we've had to be a little bit creative all season long.

We're going to try to do that again like we did in Game 2 probably.

Q. Craig and the Cubs are also not naming a starter publicly. Do you guys feel like you have a good handle on what you're going to see from them in terms of which arms they'll prioritize tomorrow?

PAT MURPHY: Yeah, I mean, you don't deviate too far. You do deviate if a guy is not throwing the ball well or you deviate a little bit or something, but we've got the ifs or buts. We probably know it's this guy or that guy.

But at the same time, we're ready for anything. That's what you have to be this time of year. You have to be ready.

The Cubs are -- again, they were picked to win the league. I keep saying that. They were picked to win the league two years in a row and they've got the team that can do it. They happened to be playing good over the last two games. If you evaluated the first two games you'd say, ooh, they're in trouble. They're a good team. They bounced back. It's our job to bounce back again and win this series and move forward.

But we know basically who the couple probabilities are; know what I mean?

Q. Are you guys putting extra focus on the first inning and how the Cubs have scored? Can you really drill down a little bit more on that as you prepare for Game 5?

PAT MURPHY: I think it's way more common than you think for pitchers to be vulnerable in the first inning. Everybody is geeked up, the atmosphere is way different. I think it's something that is noted.

Look at the Cubs starting pitchers in the first inning in our first two games. Then our starting pitchers in three of the four, I guess.

So yeah, it's something you definitely look at. There's not a whole lot you can do in terms of, like, changing the sequencing or whatever. If you throw a pitch down the middle it's got a chance to get hit.

Q. Murph, with Ashby throwing 32 yesterday, is he full go for tomorrow, or do you have to --

PAT MURPHY: Yeah, I think he's available. I think he's available. I think he'll most likely pitch. I mean, Uribe, Koenig, Megill, Ashby, Patrick, Miz. Those guys are going to probably pitch. Nobody is stressed out to be able to run the table.

We don't have a starter in place -- you've got to put your best guys out there, the guys you think can -- a lot of those guys are rookies. A lot of those guys are not very experienced, but that's how we've won all these games and come together.

Now we're playing in a way bigger environment, and it's a bigger task. But I'm confident that we'll have enough pitching.

Q. Murph, the off-days during a series like this obviously give you some more options just with guys physically and where they're at, but in a series like this where you're playing a higher pressure games, what role can those off-days play for guys mentally?

PAT MURPHY: I think we needed one today. We've been to Chicago many times. We have a heated rivalry between the two teams the last two years that I've been here doing this. I've been here 10; it's always been a huge rivalry. But the last two years, they were picked to win it, and we've won the division.

This year now they had a great year to be able to get in the playoffs, won their first Wild Card series. They hadn't won a series since 2017, so this was a big thing for them, breaking through.

I think having an off-day after those two games was good for our guys. I think everybody is pretty drained.

Q. Murph, what will be the signs when you arrive at the ballpark tomorrow to see your team, to see your coaching staff to say, yes, that was a good off day, that was what they needed to get them on the right track?

PAT MURPHY: Yeah, you'll feel the energy. The pit in your stomach is a good thing. That means something special can happen. When you have that, that means we can do it.

Again, this team, I just -- again, I wish the fans could look at this as the way I know this team, like what they've done to overachieve and what they've done to put themselves in this place is really special, and to get behind them and help them, instead of thinking, wow, we haven't won a playoff series, we deserve it.

Well, teams that are small-market teams that don't spend a lot and don't do all that kind of stuff, it's a rarity that they're consistent as we've been. So the whole organization needs to be applauded from ownership to the front office.

But mostly the players. The way they've gravitated to being in that hungry team, I think you'll see that tomorrow.

Q. William said if an Abner Uribe needs to start tomorrow then Abner will volunteer to start. What are the chances of something that would surprise the great collection of baseball minds that you have in front of you right now? Is anything like that being discussed --

PAT MURPHY: Is that official? Have you guys officially called yourselves "great baseball minds" collectively as the group?

Q. Jesse Rogers always says that.

PAT MURPHY: Well, Jesse would know better than that -- if Basallo gave you that tag, I'm not going with it.

Q. What are the odds something surprising -- are you guys talking about something you guys might think of as surprising to start that game tomorrow?

PAT MURPHY: I don't think it'll be surprising. I don't. I don't think it'll be surprising. All the options we're talking about is everybody that I've mentioned. You've got to have a plan in place that covers everything that happens.

Freddy gives up three in the first. How far can he go? You've still got a plan that you can't just exhaust Freddy in a 4-0 game and knowing that he's going to start Tuesday in the NLCS. You can't just ball him out there and risk injury. He had a little hip thing going on during the game that we knew about anyways.

You've got to be mindful of a lot of things when you're making your decisions at these times.

Q. What did you think of the Dodger game, Murph?

PAT MURPHY: And you think playoff baseball isn't different? Is it made for experienced players and people that have been through it? That kid is a young kid. He's been great. He's been up there three or four years. But my heart went out to him. Yeah, he just lost it for a second, and that's what happens.

That's why for me, the tournament, the playoffs, anybody has got a chance once you get here, and I'm just proud our club is here. All the other clubs that are here were kind of expected in the National League. It's kind of cool being the team that nobody picked from the beginning, and let's finish it out. That's the big thing.

Q. Did you get any of your hitters -- our understanding is today is optional. Did you give any of the hitters instruction, advice on what you want? Brice Turang, do you want him to come in and hit a bunch or stay away, something like that?

PAT MURPHY: When you have like an ongoing thing with players, it's not like, oh, I've got a great idea for you today, change your hands. Adjustments in hitters don't get made that way. It's more about confidence. It's more about pitch selection. It's more about -- Brice had a great first game here. That ball last night in a different atmosphere might go out of the ballpark. He's not far away from -- it's a four-game thing.

Look at Ohtani. One of the greatest -- maybe the MVP, right? Look what he's doing.

It's tough to be critical. We believe in Brice and we believe in our players. But we'll go through thick and then with them, and that means ups and downs. Yeah, you get around the cage. We had an optional workout and every player showed up. That's kind of cool, right? We gave them an optional workout, had to travel back from Chicago, a lot of -- we got out late last night like you guys did, optional practice, and everybody showed. Kinda cool.

Baseball is different. How you practice baseball and how you get ready, it's just different.

Q. Are you going to hit Yelich lead-off again?

PAT MURPHY: Tomorrow? No, I don't think so.

Q. Is that because of who you think they're pitching?

PAT MURPHY: Could be. Yeah, could be. You want your best hitters to hit the most. How you configure it is how you don't want to trap yourself later in the game. You've got to consider what guys would be pinch-hit for, if any, in what situation.

There's a lot to it. A lot to it. That's an element that when you see the powerhouse teams don't have to do that. The powerhouse offenses don't have to do that. But we sometimes have to reconfigure based on strength and weaknesses, things like that.

Q. Murph, what have you thought about how Megill has looked in the snippets that he's pitched in the series?

PAT MURPHY: I think it's coming along. I do. I think it's coming along. I think you'll see that -- it was a scary moment when he had the flexor. His brother had the flexor. His brother had just had Tommy John. It's a scary moment.

His career is at stake and the way we eased him into it, and he pitched against Cincinnati at the end and it was okay; not his normal stuff. His next outing was a little bit better. I think he's in a pretty good spot. Those potential injuries, just like Chourio's hamstring, it's a delicate thing. If it takes away from your focus on the next pitch, it's dangerous.

Q. Murph, are you surprised or is there an intention maybe just the games, the way they went, that you don't have a stolen base this series? Can you break down the running game of how hard it is to do something the games might have dictated in the postseason?

PAT MURPHY: We did have a stolen base. Yelich stole third base in the first game. Defensive indifference? How can that be? Wait a second. It's like any other play; if you steal third base, no matter what -- first and third and you allow the guy to go to second because you don't cover, it's still a stolen base. It's ridiculous. We stole a base already, so you're wrong.

Q. Well, one stolen base, Murph; are you surprised where that number is at? How does that work in the postseason?

PAT MURPHY: They've got guys that can really hold runners, and when you're down three or four runs or don't have certain guys on base, we haven't been in that opportunity.

I've told you all year, the threat to steal is as important as anything else. What that causes can create a lot of havoc, and you can't ever measure that. How do we know how we measure that if it made a pitcher hurry his pitch and leave it in the middle, whatever it might be. You can't measure that.

Q. You guys have had a lot of relievers who have worked a lot during this series. The Cubs have gotten multiple looks at some of these guys now. How does that factor into the equation as you're looking at tomorrow and how things might line up?

PAT MURPHY: Yeah, it does. It factors in. But we haven't done anything that -- we've pitched everybody on our staff. You know, we've gotten multiple looks at some of their high-leverage relievers, too. It's all about making pitches, though. If you've seen a guy 100 times and he makes a pitch, that's what it's about. If he uses the same sequencing against you, that wouldn't be smart, but it's about making a pitch.

So if I throw the ball down the middle, it doesn't matter if you've seen me once or you've seen me whatever, the calibration is there. But I think that it does factor in for sure. Seeing a guy more than once or twice. But we've seen Pomeranz three times, we've seen Thielbar twice, we've seen Palencia three times, we've seen Keller twice or three times. It's both ways.

They got a little momentum that hopefully this day off and being in our home park will even out a little bit, and it'll be a great game. I'm certain of it.

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