Chicago Cubs dejected, but defiant after NLDS loss: 'We owe more playoff baseball to this fan base'

“I think it’s the five games we played at Wrigley Field in the playoffs kind of tells you what means so much to it,” manager Craig Counsell told reporters. “I think it meant so much to our players to do that, to provide that for our fans. And that’s what you do: You honor the uniform; you honor the place. That’s like not the results goal, but that’s always like what our job is to do, is to do those two things.

“And we did that. We didn’t get it done today, and that hurts. Man, it doesn’t feel good, but I think when you zoom back a little bit, we did some good things as well…I’m disappointed, I’m sad. I think this team did a lot to honor the Chicago Cub uniform.”

PCA on the sting of losing and sad goodbyes

Pete Crow-Armstrong, the team’s 23-year-old burgeoning superstar, spoke to reporters after the game, red-eyed, holding back tears, with his voice trembling with emotion. Equal parts upset over the loss, the disappointment of the Cubs fans, and having to say goodbye to some outgoing 2025 teammates, he spoke from the heart.

“We all go hug each other and stuff, but I don’t think that really does a full year’s justice,” Crow-Armstrong said. “That will be the toughest part moving forward, kind of understanding that it may not be the same faces in here next year, and that’s gonna suck…

“We owe more playoff baseball to this fan base.”

The motivation in this elimination

Lefty starter Matthew Boyd, who bounced back from a horrendous Game One drubbing to lead the team to victory in Game Four, put being a Cub into perspective. He vowed to use the sting of Saturday’s loss as motivation for next year.

“I think when you get to put on those pinstripes, it’s really special and it’s something you realize it’s bigger than you,” Boyd told reporters. “I think we all collectively know that. From spring training, Couns reminded us of that, and I believe we left it all out on the field.

“We came up short, we’re going to get better from it, but we did leave it all out on the field. We gave it everything we got. We’re going to use that experience to get to where we want to go next year and do everything we can to avoid this feeling next season.”

Lefty starter Shota Imanaga, still smarting from two poor postseason outings, echoed Boyd’s vow to take this negative and make it a positive.

“Feel that pain of that loss and carry that into the offseason and use that,” Imanaga said via interpreter Edwin Stanberry. “So for me, it’s just I feel that, and I don’t want to forget that feeling, and that’s going to help me build to become a better player.”

Crow-Armstrong showcased the right mindset in his closing words to the press on Saturday night.

He vowed to carry with him all of the positive moments of this postseason and use that as motivation to grab at those highs year after year.

“Those were two of the best games of my life,” he said of the two NLDS games against the Brewers at a raucous Wrigley Field. “I think that that’s just, again, more motivation to be able to do it year in and year out.”