He sat in the nosebleeds for the Cubs' historic World Series. Now Quinn Priester can end their year

“I was in the last row in the nosebleeds,” Priester said about that 2016 experience. “My mom and I had our backs against the chain-link fence up there drinking hot chocolate because it was late October in Chicago and it was freezing.”

Priester watched the Cubs beat Cleveland 3-2 that night to begin their rally from a 3-1 series deficit that earned them their first World Series title since 1908. Now he wants to make sure the Cubs don’t start a similar comeback.Milwaukee carries a 2-0 lead into Game 3 of this best-of-5 NL Division Series.

This start will mark Priester's postseason debut. Jameson Taillon is starting for the Cubs.

Priester went 13-3 with a 3.32 ERA during the regular season while winning 12 straight decisions at one point. According to Sportradar, that was the longest streak within a single year by any pitcher since Gerrit Cole won 16 consecutive decisions for Houston in 2019.

Until the Cincinnati Reds beat Priester 3-1 on Sept. 26, the Brewers had won 19 straight games in which Priester had pitched. That stretch included 16 starts and three appearances in which he had followed an opener.

“He’s been sensational for us,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said.

The Brewers needed starting pitching due to multiple injuries on April 7 when they acquired Priester from the Boston Red Sox for minor league outfielder Yophery Rodriguez, the 33rd pick in the 2025 draft and minor league pitcher John Holobetz.

Priester, the 18th overall selection in the 2018 draft, had a 6-9 record and 6.23 ERA in 21 career appearances with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Red Sox at the time of the trade.

“I had followed him for years,” Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold said. “Obviously when guys come up to the big leagues, especially as pitchers, they don’t always have success immediately, but we thought there were some really good ingredients there.”

Priester quickly warmed up to the idea of pitching in Milwaukee.

“I was really surprised,” Priester said. “I felt like I was kind of in the mix for the rotation in Boston. I certainly felt like I had a shot at it. When I did get traded, I was super excited for the opportunity. Being close to home was super exciting for me and my fiancée, being able to see family. And obviously, being in Pittsburgh, every year, you’d see how well the Brewers seemed to play.”

Priester wasn’t as familiar at the time with the Brewers’ reputation for getting the best out of pitchers who hadn’t encountered much success before arriving in Milwaukee. He’d develop into the latest example.

The turning point came against the team he faces Wednesday.

Priester gave up seven runs over 4 1/3 innings in a 10-0 loss to the Cubs on May 2, raising his ERA to 5.79. That immediately followed a start in which he allowed five runs over five innings in a 6-5 loss at St. Louis.

“That was the kind of the moment when I felt things needed to change,” Priester said. “What I was doing, it’s not like I wasn’t trying, but what I was trying just wasn’t working. And so I started to write some things down every day, came in with some goals, talked to all of our guys, started to go about the lineups a little bit differently.”

Priester pitched 24 more times the rest of the regular season and allowed more than three runs in just two of those appearances.

“The Cubs blistered this guy, and he wanted to continue pitching and his competitive nature came out, and actually the last couple innings of that outing he was pretty darned effective,” Murphy said. “I think that failure, if you will, for him, like, launched him into open ears, ‘OK, how do I figure this out?’ And we got the best version of him because of his competitive nature, and we got the best version of him going forward, and it’s been miraculous.”

Priester added a cutter this year that he now throws about 20% of the time to complement his sinker and slider, while he abandoned his four-seam fastball. Priester averages less than one strikeout per inning, but he has a knack for inducing ground balls and weak contact while working quickly.

He understands the raucous atmosphere he’s going to encounter Wednesday. When Priester was in the stands for that 2016 World Series game, Priester recalled how “Kris Bryant hit a homer and I thought the stadium was going to collapse.”

But he also enters this game with the confidence that comes from spending the last few months living up to all the expectations that accompanied his draft selection.

“I think it was just kind of a ticking time bomb waiting for a year like this to happen for him,” Brewers outfielder Sal Frelick said. “I’m super happy we got him when we did because I just kind of knew it was coming for him.”

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB