The Cubs’ opening Division Series game against the Brewers on Saturday started off with a bang when Michael Busch hit a leadoff home run. The shine of that home run lasted less than an inning as the Brewers bats
hit Matthew Boyd on short rest hard and often. Admittedly, the game could have looked a lot different if Nico Hoerner doesn’t make that highly uncharacteristic error in the first inning, but it’s never fun to be down 9-1 at the end of two innings.
However, the game being out of reach early might have created a blessing in disguise for the Cubs. The Cubs bullpen was taxed heavily during a close three-game Wild Card Series against the Padres, and they will be crucial to any victory tonight. Check out this bullpen usage from last week:
Saturday’s early implosion allowed Craig Counsell to rest his A-bullpen guys for three full days heading into tonight’s game against the Brewers. The only pitchers who might not be available tonight are the guys who were taxed heavily in Saturday’s loss. Soroka threw 38 pitches, Ben Brown threw 43 pitches and Aaron Civale threw 55. Let’s be honest, neither of those players has really been in Counsell’s circle of trust just yet. It’s not a mistake that Soroka and Colin Rea threw during the Cubs loss to San Diego.
Having that A-bullpen rested could be particularly important with the Cubs relying on Shōta Imanaga tonight and likely looking at Jameson Taillon to start Wednesday’s late afternoon game at Wrigley Field.
Imanaga has started three games against the Brewers this season with mixed results. Here’s his line from each of those starts:
Each of these games certainly represented an outing the Cubs would be happy to get during the regular season. However, given their inability to score more than three runs in any postseason game so far, the team has to be hoping Imanaga and the bullpen can hold the Brewers to fewer runs and that the bats wake up a bit vs. opener Aaron Ashby and likely bulk guy Quinn Priester.
Ashby threw 1.1 innings in Saturday’s win giving up zero runs on zero hits and striking out one. He’s had three appearances against the Cubs the regular season, two of which were solid and one where the Cubs offense hit him pretty hard. While he did go 3.2 innings against the Cubs in a one-run, four-hit effort on August 19, that outing is also his longest outing since August 19. It would seem like the best case for the Brewers with Ashby opening is one time through the order and forcing the Cubs to use their weaker lineup against lefties sidelining the red hot Michael Busch for a few innings.
The Brewers likely want Ashby to pass the ball to Priester, who’s had an excellent season since joining the Brewers with a 3.32 ERA in 157.1 innings.
The Cubs were solid against Priester in the regular season. He only went more than five innings during one start on July 29 when he threw 5.2 innings against the Cubs. On May 2 the Cubs tagged Priester for seven earned runs in 4.1 innings. That said, the Northsiders only managed one run against Priester the most recent time they faced him on August 21. Priester only went 4.1 innings that day and did not qualify for the win. The bottom line is the Cubs will need to generate offense off the Ashby-Priester combination quickly. If both men go one full time through the order, manager Pat Murphy can turn things over to his elite bullpen and run production will be much more difficult for the Cubs.
It’s set up to be a real nailbiter in Milwaukee tonight, especially since Imanaga struggled in his last few starts down the stretch. He gave up multiple home runs in his last three starts during the regular season and a game-deciding home run to Manny Machado in Game 2 of the Wild Card Series. Craig Counsell discussed his decision to leave Imanaga in to face Machado as a moment of trusting his starter during the Wild Card Series. With his team down a game and wanting their best shot at a split series heading back to Chicago, here’s hoping Counsell is more likely to go to his well-rested A-bullpen early tonight.
