Look at it this way.
The Cubs were going to have a tough time against Freddy Peralta in Game 1 regardless of which pitcher(s) manager Craig Counsell sent out to face the Brewers. It wasn’t going to be easy.
Then after Michael Busch gave the team a first-inning lead with a leadoff homer, Matthew Boyd and Michael Soroka gave the game away before the second inning was over. All of that added up to a 9-2 loss in Game 1 of the NL Division Series.
Here, have a look at Busch’s home run [VIDEO].
Well! That jazzed
up the Cubs fans in the crowd in Milwaukee — for a while, at least. More from BCB’s JohnW53:
Busch’s home run was the 35th by the first batter of a post-season game in MLB history.
Dexter Fowler was the only previous Cub to do it, in Game 7 of the 2016 World Series at Cleveland.
Bob Dernier led off the bottom of the first with a homer in Game 1 of the 1984 NL Championship Series.
Then Boyd had an awful first inning. The first three Brewers all hit doubles, producing a 2-1 Milwaukee lead.
You know, it could have ended there and a 2-1 game after one inning wouldn’t have been the end of the world. Unfortunately, after Boyd got Christian Yelich to ground out, Andrew Vaughn walked, putting runners on first and third.
Then Nico Hoerner made an error on a ground ball he should have had. It looked like Nico was thinking “double play” before he had the ball, and didn’t make sure he had it. William Contreras scored to make it 3-1. The next hitter, Caleb Durbin, struck out. So assuming sequencing remains the same, that would have ended the inning with the Cubs trailing only 2-1.
Instead, another single off Boyd made it 4-1 and Boyd’s afternoon was done. Michael Soroka entered and walked Joey Ortiz to load the bases. Jackson Chourio then singled to make it 6-1. About that six-run inning, from John:
This is just the fourth postseason game in which the Cubs have surrendered at least six runs in an inning.
The previous one was the infamous eight-run top of the eighth against the Marlins in Game 6 of the 2003 Championship Series that turned a 3-0 lead into an 8-3 loss.
The two earlier ones were in the World Series vs. the Athletics at Philadelphia, both in the seventh inning: six runs in Game 2 in 1910 that made the score 9-2, and 10 in Game 4 of 1929 that erased the Cubs’ 8-0 lead.
As if that wasn’t bad enough from Soroka, he allowed four hits and a walk in the second inning, plating two more Brewers runners before Counsell had seen enough and replaced him with Aaron Civale. Civale allowed a hit to the first batter he faced, scoring the ninth run of the game before Brice Turang struck out to end the inning.
Give Civale credit, he threw four more innings without allowing a run to at least in theory give the Cubs a chance to come back. That also kept any of the Cubs’ leverage relievers from having to throw in this game. More on Civale’s outing from John:
Aaron Civale’s 4.1 innings today were the most by a Cubs reliever in a post-season game in 90 years and one day. On Oct. 3, 1935, Fabian Kowalik threw the final 4.1 in an 8-3 loss at Detroit in Game 2 of the World Series.
The only other relief stints of at least 4.1 innings were 5.2 and 6.1 by Orval Overall in Games 5 and 6 of the 1906 Series, 5.0 by Harry McIntire in Game 1 of the 1910 Series and 6.2 by Jack Pfiester in Game 3 of the same series.
The score was still 9-1 when Ian Happ came to bat with two out in the sixth. He homered to center [VIDEO].
That baseball went a long way [VIDEO].
Nico added a third solo homer for the Cubs leading off the eighth [VIDEO].
I was a bit surprised to see Ben Brown enter the game in the seventh, because I figured he might be an opener for Shōta Imanaga in Game 2. I suppose, with the off day Sunday, he still could be. Brown threw two innings, allowing one hit and two walks, and struck out three. He threw 43 pitches (25 strikes). That might still make him available to open Monday’s game. As always, we await developments.
Here are a few final game notes from John:
This was the Cubs’ 127th post-season game since 1901. It was the 14th that they lost by at least six runs. All five by more than six were at home. This was the seventh of the nine by exactly six that was on the road. The last two were in 2016, both by 6-0: to the Dodgers in the NL Championship Series and to the Indians in the World Series.
…..
This was the 32nd post-season game in which the Cubs scored exactly three runs. It was the second in which they hit three solo homers. They won the first, 3-2, at home against the Dodgers in Game 4 of the 2017 Championship Series.The Cubs had hit exactly three home runs in six previous post-season games. They had lost the first two, Games 1 and 7 of the 2003 Championship Series vs. the Marlins, then had won the next four: Game 4 of the 2015 Division Series vs. the Cardinals, Games 6 and 7 of the 2016 World Series at Cleveland, and the 2017 game at Los Angeles.
…..
This was the 12th consecutive post-season game in which the Cubs scored no more than three runs, tying for the longest such streak in MLB history. The Dodgers set the record in 1916-41.Today’s game was the 16th of the 17 post-season games that the Cubs have played since 2017 in which they scored 0-3 runs. The only exception was their 9-8 win at Washington in Game 5 of the 2017 Division Series.
Besides the three solo homers, the only other offense generated by the Cubs were singles by Carson Kelly and Pete Crow-Armstrong, a walk by Kyle Tucker and two walks drawn by Matt Shaw. You’re not going to win many games doing that.
One Brewers note from this game:
Lastly, 100 BCB points for the song reference in the headline.
The way I look at this one: It’s a Game 1 loss in the other team’s ballpark — a park in which the Brewers went 52-29 this year. When playing a postseason series, if you can steal one game of the first two played on the road, you’re doing all right, and the Cubs still have a chance to do that. They will, obviously, look to re-group on Sunday’s off day and will play Game 2 Monday in Milwaukee. Game time Monday is 8:08 p.m. CT. TV coverage will be on TBS, truTV and streaming on HBO Max. Neither team had a starting pitcher listed at the time this recap posted, so we’ll have information on that here tomorrow.
It’s still a best-of-five series, not over yet. Go Cubs!
