Craig Counsell was asked Saturday if he’s able to appreciate the “great story” that is the Brewers’ spectacular surge to an ever-increasing National League Central lead, a near-double-digit gap separating the Cubs from their skipper’s former charges up I-94.
“What’s so great about it?” Counsell said.
The baseball world, at large, might be enthralled by the Brewers’ constant winning. This is, after all, a team lacking a litany of highly paid stars on a franchise-record winning streak, owning the best record in baseball.
Not the Dodgers. Not the Yankees. The Brewers.
But the fun doesn’t extend to Wrigleyville, where fans have watched the Cubs plummet from a seemingly secure perch atop the division standings to a dangerously distant second place.
“They’re playing great,” Counsell said. “They haven’t lost since we played them [last].”
That the questions were potentially annoying was evident. But how annoying are those never-lose Brewers themselves?
Counsell has downplayed the Cubs’ lengthening offensive rut as nothing overly serious — a normal, if unfortunate, part of a baseball season. And center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong went as far as saying Friday, “I don’t think there’s any worry in the world.”
But surely, on some level, that their division rivals won’t stop winning is getting under the Cubs’ skin, right?
“The job is to try to win the division, that’s kind of the ultimate goal. They’re making that really difficult,” Counsell said. “So I guess from that perspective, yeah. They’re making that part of the goal really hard to get to. We only get 13 chances to affect it, though.”
The next five come next week, when the Brewers visit the North Side, a pivotal moment in the Central race.
Of course, the streakiness of a baseball season has a habit of changing expectations in a hurry. And all it will take to shake up the race again is for the Cubs’ bats to reheat and the Brewers to win at something less than a superhuman pace.
Until those things happen, though, it’s the Cubs fighting through a teamwide offensive slump, all while the team they’re trying to keep sight of won’t stop sprinting away.
‘Unsung hero’
Right-hander Brad Keller keeps contributing in big ways out of the Cubs’ bullpen, and his latest work earned him a specific plaudit from his manager.
Keller stepped in for an under-the-weather Daniel Palencia on Saturday, picking up the save — his first of the season and just the third of his big-league career — in the Cubs’ 3-1 win over the Pirates.
He struck out three of the four hitters he faced and lowered his season ERA to 2.48.
“If you’re not the closer, maybe, it doesn’t have a lot of fanfare on it. But Brad’s had an excellent season, a really valuable season for us,” Counsell said. “If there is such a thing as an unsung hero for this team so far, I would nominate Brad for that because he’s been a big part of it.”
“That’s awesome to hear,” Keller said. “That’s special and means a lot to me. Coming into the year, I didn’t really know what was going to happen this year.”