MILWAUKEE — In Seiya Suzuki’s first game back from an energy-sapping illness, his legs wobbled. He struggled to see the ball. But he knew he was running out of time to build confidence into the postseason.
Days later, he snapped into a version of himself that topped even his impressive early-season hot streaks. He hit five home runs in the last four games of the regular season and extended the streak into Game 1 of the wild-card series against the Padres — a franchise first.
“I’ve heard that once the postseason starts, everybody kind of shifts into another gear,” he had said in the final weeks of the season. “So I’m excited for watching everybody do that and try to do that myself.”
If that shift is ever going to come for the Cubs’ offense, now is the time.
The Cubs’ loss to the Brewers in the National League Division Series opener was the game equivalent of body aches and fatigue. It was all but over after two innings, leaving the Cubs to cut their losses and turn to multi-inning relievers Aaron Civale and Ben Brown to save the rest of the bullpen.
The flip has to be quick to give the Cubs their best chance to advance. In a best-of-five series, going down 0-2 intensifies the need for almost-perfection.
When they returned to the clubhouse after the game Saturday, team leader Dansby Swanson and playoff veteran Justin Turner said a few words.
“It doesn’t matter what the final score is, it’s one loss,” Turner said, recapping his message. “And wanted to shout out and recognize Civale and Benny Brown for what they did and how big that was for our bullpen, allowing us to reset, giving those guys who were used a ton in the wild-card series three full days of rest before we roll into [Monday] night’s game.”
Turner had 86 games of postseason experience to back up that big-picture, silver-lining stance.
He is no stranger to losing the first game of a series — and worse. In 2020, he and the Dodgers fell behind three games to one against the Braves in the NL Championship Series. They won the next three to advance to the World Series and win the whole thing.
“It’s just talking about simplifying it and winning one pitch at a time,” Turner said. “And don’t look at the entirety of the season and needing to win three games. We don’t need to win three games; we need to win one game. And if we can take care of today, then we’ll show up tomorrow, and we’ll figure out a way to take care of tomorrow. But I think that’s the important message.”
Turner, though he hasn’t appeared for the Cubs this postseason, has been a steadying force behind the scenes.
After the Cubs’ Game 2 wild-card loss last week, he walked into the clubhouse and said, “Whoever said it was going to be easy?”
The Cubs bounced back in Game 3 to advance to the NLDS.
The team made resilience part of its identity in the regular season. The Cubs hadn’t lost more than three games in a row until late September, when they went on a five-game skid. In the next game after a loss, they had a 46-24 record, the best in the majors.
“This time of year is not easy,” Swanson said recently. “It presents challenges. There’s always punches getting thrown in every direction, from team to team — metaphorically speaking. That’s what this time of year is about. It’s about responding and finding a way to make things happen, whether it’s going well or not.”
So far, the NLDS is not going well for the Cubs.
Scoring spikes are harder to come by in the postseason when facing the best teams’ best pitchers every game — although, in typical Brewers fashion, they piled on Saturday by capitalizing on an error and without a home run.
The best version of this Cubs offense does something similar: apply consistent pressure on opposing teams to get them to crack with the added threat of the long ball.
But this postseason, the Cubs have been in the middle of the pack in on-base percentage (.282) and had the highest strikeout rate (35.3%) of any of the 12 playoff teams.
The Cubs’ pitching certainly has to be better than it was in the first two innings against Milwaukee in Game 1. But the offense also has another gear it has yet to shift into.
No better way to wipe away that Game 1 shellacking.
“We didn’t lose well, but a close game could have cost us some pitching-type stuff, too,” manager Craig Counsell said Sunday. “We lost, and you move on, and that’s how the clubhouse felt.”
