The Biggest Moments From The Cubs' NLDS Game 3 Win Over Milwaukee Brewers

Just as he did in the Wild Card series against the San Diego Padres, Crow-Armstrong showed the ability to make adjustments from game to game. The same held true for the Cubs as a whole — after striking out at least 11 times in each of their first five postseason games, they had just seven strikeouts in Game 3 as they kept their season alive with a 4-3 win.

"Huge hit at a huge time. Very clutch," Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. "Credit to them and what they did in the first inning to do just enough to win."

Keller gets huge strikeout in eighth

For the second straight game, Chicago's bats stopped working after the first inning, although the Cubs did have chances to add on. They wasted Seiya Suzuki's leadoff double in the third, then had two men on with one out in the seventh but failed to score.

Meanwhile, Milwaukee began clawing its way back as Jake Bauers, getting a spot start at first base, hit an RBI single off Jameson Taillon in the fourth. Bauers was at it again in the seventh, tagging an opposite-field solo homer off Andrew Kittredge, who retired the next three batters he faced before coming back out to start the eighth.

Counsell's decision to stick with Kittredge backfired as Jackson Chourio hit a leadoff double just out of Crow-Armstrong's reach. Left-hander Caleb Thielbar took over and retired two of the three batters he faced, then handed the ball to Brad Keller with runners at the corners and two outs.

Keller walked Caleb Durbin on four pitches to load the bases for Bauers. But after missing outside with a fastball for his fifth straight ball, Keller pumped another fastball and then a changeup through the zone to get ahead in the count. His 1-2 fastball was right over the middle of the plate, and although Bauers just got a piece of it, he foul-tipped the ball into Kelly's mitt for strike three.

Keller had been shaky in a second inning of work in the previous round against San Diego, but Counsell had reached the end of the line with his high-leverage bullpen arms, so Keller went back out to pitch the ninth and retired the Brewers in order, inducing a sharp groundout from Christian Yelich to end the game.

"It's hard to describe, but we live to fight another day," Keller said. "(My mindset was to) just attack them. We've got a really good defense behind us. I kind of feel like I got away from that my last couple outings, so I just tried to come in. I feel like I missed pretty tightly on Durbin, but the next guy, just go after him."