Is this week’s Cubs-Brewers clash for control of the National League Central just another series in mid-May?
“There’s definitely some big series in September,” Cubs outfielder Ian Happ said before the three-game set opened Monday night at Wrigley Field. “You maybe have a group coming in who you’re close to in the divisional race or close in the standings.
“But early in the season — I know there’s going to be a lot made of this series — it’s another series of baseball.”
The Cubs might think that way, but don’t tell the Brewers, who brought their big bats south to remind everyone they’re still the three-time reigning division champs. With a 9-3 pummeling of their rivals in the teams’ first meeting of the season, they struck a familiar blow — several, in fact — against Cubs starter Shota Imanaga, bringing to mind the beatdowns they handed out last October when they knocked out the Cubs.
In Game 2 of the NL Division Series, Imanaga allowed four runs and two homers and was gone after just eight outs. Monday was worse. The Japanese southpaw was tagged for eight runs and nine hits, including a pair of moonshot homers off the right-field video board. He lasted 4 „ innings, a rare 2026 clunker.
“Shota just didn’t have a good night,” manager Craig Counsell said. “He just didn’t have real good command — the command that he usually has. . . . It was, frankly, not being able to put the ball where he wanted to put it.”
Through an interpreter, Imanaga gave this assessment: “Overall, their game plan overcame my skills.”
Hasn’t that so often been the case for the small-market Brewers in their recent matchups with the Cubs? Even with the Cubs’ offseason spending and World Series goals, it was still Brewers on top.
“The Brewers are the team that’s won the division for the last three years — that’s what we want to do,” Counsell said. “Last year, they beat us, and they had a fabulous season. We’ve got to improve to get there.”
Fixing Phil
Reliever Phil Maton was perhaps the biggest addition as Jed Hoyer’s front office remade the Cubs’ bullpen last winter. But so far, he has been a big bugaboo on a pitching staff that already has no shortage of question marks.
Maton, whose two-year, $14.5 million contract makes him the highest-paid member of the relief corps, coughed up the go-ahead three-run homer Sunday in the eighth inning of the Cubs’ loss to the White Sox, his latest bumpy outing. It was the sixth time in 14 appearances this season he has allowed more than one run.
The 10-year veteran had figured to be reliable, with a 3.33 ERA across his previous four seasons. Instead, he has a 9.49 ERA midway through his second month as a Cub.
“I’m incredibly frustrated,” Maton said Monday. “You’re brought over here, and there’s a lot of responsibility to not only pitch well but get the game going in the right direction. And I feel there’s been lots of situations where Craig’s trusted me in tight ballgames and I just haven’t gotten it done. That’s the hardest part.”
Counsell said it’s a matter of restoring Maton’s confidence so he can deliver in the types of situations the Cubs envisioned when they added him.
“Phil got burned by some off-speed pitches earlier in the season, and it’s made him a little gun-shy with some of his best pitches,” Counsell said. “We’ve got to get him back to full confidence in his full repertoire.”
