MILWAUKEE — The Cubs sat in the visitors’ clubhouse at American Family Field, the pain of a season-ending, 3-1 loss to the rival Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Division Series still so raw.

Craig Counsell, the manager who guided the Cubs to 92 wins, their first postseason appearance in five years and their first playoff series win in eight years, spoke to the team, sharing a message that was heard, but might take a few days or even weeks to fully settle in.

“Couns was saying it feels like we made the city proud and wore the jersey well this year and really fought all the way to the end,” reliever Brad Keller said.

It’s hard to view the positives when an eight-month journey finishes nine wins short of the goal of hoisting the Commissioner’s Trophy. But it was a team that reminded Chicago why October baseball is so special, what playing in the playoffs can do for a city and a fanbase.

“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,” Counsell said after the loss. “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.”

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The players realized how much those games meant.

“Those were two of the best games of my life,” Pete Crow-Armstrong, the breakout star of 2025, said of the two NLDS games against the Brewers at Wrigley Field. “I think that that’s just, again, more motivation to be able to do it year in and year out.”

That was the kicker in Counsell’s message to the team.

Remember the sting.

Use it for motivation to improve in 2026.

“Feel that pain of that loss and carry that into the offseason and use that,” left-hander Shota Imanaga said through 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.”

For Imanaga, that means trying to return to the dominant force that took MLB by storm in his first season and a half. He picked up where he left off in 2024, but faded down the stretch as the home-run ball plagued him. His struggles were so pronounced that in the decisive Game 5, Imanaga warmed up multiple times and never pitched in the game, despite it being his turn in the rotation.

The time, though, to assess what went wrong and where the team needs to improve will come. But on Saturday, Counsell wanted to stress that what they had accomplished was still impressive and why it matters so much, even if the feeling is bitter.

And it’s what they hope makes the joys of the game taste that much sweeter.

“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,” Cubs left-hander Matthew Boyd said. “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.”