MILWAUKEE – Certainly, that was not what David Peterson wanted to happen with his first pitch in a Cubs uniform.
The newly acquired lefty’s first offering Saturday was lined out to center field for a leadoff homer, Jackson Chourio welcoming the longtime Met to a battle for the NL Central that the Brewers have owned in recent years.
If the Cubs are going to change that, they’ll need Peterson to deliver while they face an injury situation so bad that they have an entire rotation and their closer on the IL at the same time.
Despite the homer, Peterson’s first impression ended up being a good one. He allowed just two runs in 5 2/3 innings and departed with the lead, playing a big role in the Cubs’ 8-2 win.
“Obviously not how I wanted to start,” Peterson said. “But [my mindset was], ‘Give me another ball, and we’ll see how it goes.’”
“He gave us everything we could have hoped for tonight,” manager Craig Counsell said.
While Cubs fans were getting their first sampling of the David Peterson Experience, Cubs outfielder Michael Conforto had seen it plenty of times before, the two teammates again after spending plenty of time together with the Mets.
“I think it’s going to work out really well for him with this team,” Conforto said before Saturday’s game. “There’s a lot in the tank for him. Obviously, he was an All Star last year, so he’s shown what he can do. I’ve always felt he could be that premium left-handed starter.
“It’s a hard guy to prepare for, if he’s on and if he’s executing.”
Peterson’s reputation as a ground-ball inducer extraordinaire didn’t show up a ton in his first start with the Cubs, but he still managed to use his defense. He got a critical double-play ball that killed a Brewers rally in the fifth inning, and seven fly balls or line drives found Cubs defenders’ gloves.
Peterson went from a 2025 All Star to someone on the fringes of the Mets’ troubled starting staff to a much needed arm with the Cubs, meaning even a less-than-exciting debut wouldn’t have done anything to ding his status as a now depended-on piece of the pitching puzzle.
Though the Cubs targeted Peterson and discussed a trade with the Mets for weeks, it’s reached the point where the team needs “bodies,” as Counsell put it before the game while discussing more pitching injuries.
“The cumulative effect, you just start running out of pitchers in your organization that are ready to go,” he said. “We have, obviously, bodies. But the quality goes down. It has to go down. You don’t have that big a stockpile, I don’t think anybody does.
“We’re going to have to get through it. We’ll keep looking to try to get guys that can do the job.”
Latest pitching injury
The latest hurler to land on the IL was lefty reliever Hoby Milner, who had an appendectomy Saturday morning.
Milner’s absence, estimated to last four to six weeks, further stresses a bullpen that lost lefty Phil Maton a night earlier and will continue to be without closer Daniel Palencia until after the All-Star break.
That stress makes the juggling act Counsell will be doing in high-leverage moments late in games that much more difficult, a task already thrown into chaos by Wednesday’s doubleheader in New York.
“Guys are going to be in different roles,” Counsell said. “They expect, ‘Are you available today?’ And when the phone rings, it could be anybody. That’s how we’re going to continue to do it.”