The game was teetering with two outs, a runner on second base, and Padres slugger Manny Machado walking to the plate. Cubs manager Craig Counsell had to choose whether to let left-hander Shota Imanaga pitch to him.
On one hand, intentionally walking Machado would give Imanaga a left-on-left matchup with Jackson Merrill. On the other, Imanaga had retired Machado once already Wednesday.
“Really, it was just confidence in Shota, plain and simple,” Counsell said after the Cubs’ 3-0 loss. “I thought he was pitching well. I thought he was throwing the ball really well. Unfortunately, he made a mistake.”
That mistake hung over the center of the plate, a splitter that missed up. And Machado ripped it over the left-field fence for a two-run homer.
“The result suggested we should have done something different,” Counsell said.
Deep dish. pic.twitter.com/3ahtGTkuxT
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) October 1, 2025
It wasn’t the only time Wednesday that Counsell pulled a lever that backfired. An offensive effort that included 11 strikeouts and just four hits magnified those moments.
The Cubs’ Game 2 loss evened the wild-card series and set up an elimination game Thursday.
“He’s one of the best,” said right-hander Colin Rea, who also played for Counsell in Milwaukee.”He’s been doing it for a while, and he’s got a good idea of what moves to make. And I think the variability that we have down on the bullpen allows him to make those moves and throw guys in there at the right times and give guys the best matchups to have success.
“And it didn’t work out today, but we’re right back at it tomorrow.”
A manager’s in-game decisions are rarely clear cut in the biggest moments of the biggest games. So, he has to evaluate himself based on process over the end result.
The back end of the bullpen flowed relatively smoothly Wednesday. In a scoreless four innings to close the game, left-hander Caleb Thielbar was the only reliever who allowed multiple baserunners.
Earlier on, however, Counsell made two major pitching decisions that contained some contradictory elements. Neither worked.
The first was using veteran right-handed reliever Andrew Kittredge as an opener in the first inning before bringing in Imanaga.
“Every out is so important in the postseason,” said Kittrege, who had experience opening games earlier in his career, with the Rays. “It’s not just late in games, it’s not just holding the lead in the middle. It’s every single one of them. So, from that standpoint, it does make a lot of sense [to use an opener]. It just comes down to executing at that point.”
The top of the Padres batting order, which has right-handed hitters Fernando Tatís Jr. and Machado on either side of left-handed contact hitter Luis Arraez, lends itself to a right-handed pitching matchup. That’s why Kittredge faced a similar pocket in the Cubs’ Game 1 victory, contributing a perfect inning.
It didn’t go as well on Wednesday. He allowed back-to-back singles to Tatís and Arraez. Then, after Kittredge struck out Machado and the Padres pulled off a double steal, San Diego pulled ahead on Jackson Merrill’s sacrifice fly.
“I was actually pretty happy with a lot of the pitches and where they ended up,” Kittredge said. “But they put good swings on it, and put me in a tough spot.”
He escaped without further damage. Imanaga then took the mound in the second inning and faced three left-handed hitters right away, retiring them in order.
No. 9 hitter Freddy Fermin was the first right-handed hitter Imanaga faced, resulting in a leadoff double. But then the left-hander set down the top of the order for another scoreless inning.
“Thinking about it more like a reliever,” Imanaga said through Japanese interpreter Edwin Stanberry. “I don’t know if there was a pitch count or anything like that, but going in, giving my 100%, and throwing as many pitches as I can.”
When the batting order turned to the top again, however, Imanaga ran into trouble. With one out in the fifth inning, Imanaga walked Tatís. Then Arraez moved him over with a sacrifice bunt.
Machado stepped into the batter’s box.
“He kind of owns me a little bit,” Machado said of Imanaga. “You look at the numbers, I don’t do too well.”
Going into Wednesday, Machado was 1-for-9 against Imanaga, with six strikeouts and a home run.
“Even the at-bat before, he threw me a really good [splitter] down and away,” Machado said. “He was trying to do the same thing, he just missed a little bit.”
Imanaga echoed his assessment.
“For me, it was just like, why did that happen?” Imanaga said. “It’s something I’m going to think about and make those adjustments.”
Game 3 on Thursday will determine whether those adjustments will come into play in his next playoff outing — or not until next season.
