MILWAUKEE — OK, so the Brewers got off to a halfway decent start in their best-of-five National League Division Series against the Cubs.
Back-to-back-to-back doubles by Jackson Chourio, Brice Turang and William Contreras out of the chute. A walk for Andrew Vaughn. An error on a routine play by Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner that led to four unearned runs. The fans at American Family Field booing and jeering at native son Craig Counsell so loudly as he walked to the mound to yank Cubs starter Matthew Boyd, the manager might as well have had “Benedict Arnold” stitched across the back of his jersey. So many at-bats in a six-run first-inning outburst, even Bernie Brewer got in a few hacks.
But other than that? Hey, it was anybody’s ballgame heading into the second inning of Game 1.
No, not really — not at all — but a little levity can’t hurt after a 9-3 Cubs defeat that was about as competitive as a stray Mars Cheese Castle curd against a Peterbilt truck.
These Brewers, they’re mighty good. These Cubs, they’ve got their hands more than full with an opponent that gets on base, runs like the wind, scores gobs of runs without needing the long ball, plays sparking defense, seizes on mistakes and, oh, yeah, pitches lights-out.
“I mean, we’re down 1-0,” Counsell said. “Nothing else changes besides that. It’s 1-0. I’m not sure we’d manage [Game 2] differently on Monday up 1-0, down 1-0. But we made it hard for ourselves. We’ve got to win three out of four now. They’ve got to win two out of four.”
Counsell’s math checks out. The decision between manager and front office to start Boyd on three days’ rest, on the other hand, is very much open to interpretation. Either way, being down 9-1 by the second inning of a playoff opener against a division rival might be the very definition of anticlimactic, not to mention embarrassing. When it’s that early and you’re already down a touchdown and a two-point conversion and on to your third pitcher, you’re really just wasting everybody’s time.
The only potential good news is the Brewers might have worn themselves out hitting the bejeezus out of the ball and sprinting around the bases.
“They obviously make you earn the outs,” shortstop Dansby Swanson said. “We’ve got to come back and be ready on Monday.”
It could have been worse, according to left fielder Ian Happ. A one-run loss might have been harder to take.
“I think [a blowout] will take less out of you,” he said. “The close ones hurt more.”
It didn’t appear that way watching Boyd suffer, after getting the early hook, through the completion of the first frame while he looked on from the dugout. Left arm propping his weight on a giant orange Gatorade jug, right hand on hip, cap off, sweaty hair mussed, Boyd looked only slightly less happy than a lost puppy with a bloated ERA. The picture of defeat, he was, in that rough moment.
Hoerner’s error was “the toughest thing to swallow” for a second baseman who’s almost always reliable.
“It really stings,” Hoerner said.
But even though more than one Cub admitted the first inning took the wind out of the team’s sails, Hoerner didn’t go there.
“Obviously, we’d rather be up 1-0 than down 1-0, but I still love our chances,” he said.
It was only one game, no matter the score. You believe that, right? Sure, you do.
In stark contrast to their champagne celebration after winning their wild-card series against the Padres at Wrigley Field, the Cubs were the lower-energy team in Game 1 against the NL Central champion Brewers. That stood out, and it wasn’t by accident.
Counsell’s successor, Pat Murphy, has the pulse of his team and the ear of his clubhouse to degrees that frankly seem all too rare in the big leagues. The message he imparted to players heading into this series:
“When the bell rings, you’re ready. You don’t get a couple rounds to figure out whether or not you want to fight.”
The Cubs were on the canvas before they knew it. Just how dangerous are these Brewers?
“Look at the regular-season record,” Happ said. “Best in baseball. They’re a good baseball team.”
It’s not easy to accept the possibility the big-market Cubs are punching above their weight class in this series. What an embarrassing thing that would be to find out the hard way in front of the world.
“We’ll come out in Game 2 and be ready,” Swanson said. “We don’t have any other choice.”