If you’re a Pittsburgh Pirates fan, Game 3 of Cubs–Brewers doesn’t just feel like October baseball — it feels like rubbing salt in an old wound. On one side, a former first-rounder who blossomed the second he left town. On the other, a pitcher Pittsburgh once developed, endured, believed in, then moved on only to watch him settle into a dependable October arm someplace else. You don’t need a history book to feel the sting; you just need a box score and a memory.
This is the kind of matchup that turns a neutral series into a Pittsburgh think piece.