There’s a dizzying contrast between the drama of the moment, with the Cubs teetering on the brink of elimination, and the players determined to steady the ship.
‘‘At the end of the day, we just need to win a game,’’ right-hander Jameson Taillon said late Monday, sitting in front of his locker in a quiet clubhouse after the Cubs’ second consecutive loss to the Brewers in the National League Division Series. ‘‘I know that’s boring, but you can’t worry about winning the second and the third if you don’t win the first.’’
Come to think of it, boring might be exactly what the Cubs need from their starting pitching as they face an 0-2 deficit in the best-of-five NLDS.
Their first two losses were characterized by early implosions from their starters. Matthew Boyd didn’t make it out of the first inning, and Shota Imanaga swiftly blew a three-run lead.
On Wednesday, Taillon will be the man the Cubs will trust with the ball as they try not to think about the steep climb that awaits them.
‘‘We put ourselves in a hole in this series, no question about it,’’ manager Craig Counsell said. ‘‘We get to decide how the story ends.’’
In the current playoff format, of the 34 teams that have lost the first two division-series games on the road, only three have come back to advance to the league championship series, according to MLB.com. Twenty of those teams have been swept.
‘‘We’ve got to get our starters into the game,’’ Counsell said after the Cubs’ 7-3 loss Monday. ‘‘That has to happen, especially if you’re going to try to win three games in four days. We’re going to have to get our starters into the game. Jamo is tasked with it on Wednesday, and [we’re] looking forward to handing him the ball.’’
That has been the blueprint for the games the Cubs have won this postseason because of their meager scoring.
The Cubs have yet to score more than three runs in these playoffs, continuing a streak that dates to 2017. That 13-game run of low scoring is a major-league postseason record.
In the first two games of the NLDS, the Cubs’ offense repeated an even more specific pattern: They struck first, then failed to keep up with the Brewers’ response.
Monday was an extreme, with Seiya Suzuki launching a three-run home run in the first inning before the Cubs managed only two hits the rest of the game.
‘‘We’ve got to find a way to just create more pressure,’’ Counsell said. ‘‘And that’s baserunners, hits, walks. We’ve got to have more pressure and make innings and pitching decisions much tougher on the other side.’’
The Cubs’ offense needs to generate the excitement. Look at the electric performances the Brewers’ offense put on in the first two games, manufacturing a barrage of early runs in the opener and outslugging the Cubs with men on base in Game 2.
In the games the Cubs have won in these playoffs, they’ve relied on strong starting pitching to set the tone.
In Game 1 of the wild-card series against the Padres, Boyd’s 4⅓ innings of one-run ball set up the back end of the bullpen for a strong finish, ensuring that back-to-back solo homers and a sacrifice fly would be enough to win the game.
Then in Game 3 of the wild-card series, Taillon tossed four scoreless innings and limited the Padres’ offense to two hits.
‘‘I don’t need to be out there pounding my chest,’’ Taillon said of his response to the heightened atmosphere. ‘‘That’s not my game. Try not to let it take over what I’m doing emotionally. Just go out there and execute pitches.’’
The path forward in terms of starting pitching gets murkier after Taillon. Will the Cubs trust Boyd and Imanaga after their last appearances? Thanks to a conservative approach at the trade deadline and injuries to Justin Steele and Cade Horton, do they have a better option?
Or maybe they won’t make it past Wednesday.
It isn’t all up to Taillon, of course, but he’ll shoulder the responsibility of pointing the ship in the right direction.
‘‘It’s obviously an important game,’’ Taillon said. ‘‘But just do the same routine, the same boring process, prepare the same way, take my notes and watch video the same way, warm up the same way before the game. And then just go out and compete my butt off and see where it takes us.’’
If he can pull that off, ‘‘boring’’ won’t seem so ho-hum.
