Takeaways from Brewers’ 9-3 win over Cubs in Game 1 of playoff series
JR Radcliffe joins Dominique Yates to recap the Milwaukee Brewers’ 9-3 win over the Chicago Cubs in Game 1 of their best-of-five playoff series.
The chain of events that brought Aaron Civale back to the mound at American Family Field didn’t cover much terrain, geographically, but it sure had some twists and turns.
Civale, who spent the first two-plus months of the season with the Milwaukee Brewers, wound up pitching in the team’s playoff opener, only this time it was against the Brewers in a bullpen-saving performance for the Chicago Cubs.
The Brewers will certainly take the outcome, a 9-3 win that gave them a 1-0 series lead over Chicago in the National League Division Series. But Civale’s 4â…“ innings of scoreless baseball could wind up as a pivot point if things go sideways for the Brewers from here.
“It’s not the first time I’ve pitched against a former team,” Civale said. “Obviously, it’s a good crowd here. They did a good job of bringing in fans and bringing some energy, so I’m just trying to take that and use it. Sometimes crowds like that for moments like this, everything’s kind of a low hum. You just have to find that little zone and stay in there.”
The Cubs were floundering when Civale was already the third pitcher used by Chicago before the second inning was over. But though he gave up an infield single to Jackson Chourio that plated a run and made it 9-1, Civale faced just one over the minimum over the next 14 batters.
“When you’re out there, it’s just righties and lefties,” he said of facing his former team. “There’s a lot of prep that goes into what the catchers are working on before the game, so I’m just trying to trust the decisions that they’re making and focus on executing. There’s comfortability with the stadium, the mound, the crowd. Other than that, it’s just going out there competing and pitching.”
Civale had never pitched out of the bullpen in the regular season when the the Brewers told him he’d be sent to the bullpen in June, a necessary maneuver with Jacob Misiorowski getting promoted to the big-league team. He had, however, worked three strong innings in Game 1 of last year’s NL Wild Card Series, saving the bullpen from worse in an 8-4 loss.
Civale asked for a trade and got it, though it was a different Chicago team that got involved.
Civale posted a 5.37 ERA in 13 starts for the White Sox before they waived him, then the Cubs brought him in, and now he’s been on the postseason roster for both Chicago series. He even recorded two outs on the player he was traded to the White Sox for, Brewers first baseman Andrew Vaughn.
Decision to start Matthew Boyd on short rest backfires
That Civale was needed for so much bulk work ties into how poorly it went for starter Matthew Boyd, who didn’t make it out of the first inning. After throwing 58 pitches on Sept. 30 in the Cubs’ wild-card opener, Chicago elected to start Boyd on short rest. He was tagged for six runs, though four were unearned after a rare error from second baseman Nico Hoerner.
“I think we just didn’t feel like the number of pitches that he threw on Tuesday, what he’s done all season, been our best starting pitcher. Those two things,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said of the decision to start him.
“We picked Matt Boyd to pitch. I don’t know what to say. He pitched; it didn’t go well. We’ve got to make decisions. We went with Matt. … I was very comfortable putting Matt Boyd on the mound today. The whole organization was comfortable putting Matt Boyd on the mound today.”
Boyd allowed doubles on three consecutive pitches to the first three batters of the game: Chourio, Brice Turang and William Contreras. Just like that, the Brewers had a 2-1 lead, answering immediately after Michael Busch led off the game with a home run for the Cubs.
Andrew Vaughn walked, Sal Frelick reached on a soft liner on the infield when it glanced off Hoerner’s glove, allowing two more runs to score. And then Blake Perkins battled through an 11-pitch at-bat to single and make it 4-1. The Brewers tacked on two more runs on a Chourio single against Michael Soroka.
“They had a plan and more than anything, I think I could have just done a little better on those pitches that they did hit,” Boyd said. “The Chourio one found a hole, but the other two caught so much plate. The pitches could have been just better execution. They came out and had a plan for them, so hats off to them.
“You never know what run is going to win or lose a ballgame. They had an approach, went out an executed, they got me on that. Your job is just to continue to keep the game there. Hats off to Perkins, he battled me there, and that ultimately was it for me.”
Said Counsell, “Bottom line, they had really good at-bats. They hit balls hard. They spoiled pitches. The Perkins at-bat was just a great at-bat. You’ve got to give him credit for that.”
Hoerner might very well win a Gold Glove at second base, but he made a huge error
There’s a decent chance Turang, who won the Platinum Glove for the overall best defender in the National League last year, might not even win the Gold Glove at second base this year. Hoerner has been excellent, but his misplay on Frelick’s lofted liner in the first loomed large.
“Definitely off the bat, that’s always my first instinct is to get the lead out, then it was hit softer than I expected, so then the play is at first, and I didn’t catch the ball,” Hoerner said.
“It’s hard to predict win or loss based on plays in the first inning, but (I need to) just get an out like you do most of the time on that play that I missed, help Matty’s chances to get out of that inning with two runs and settle in like we’ve seen him do so many times this year. Obviously, that play had not just win and loss implications, but the entire use of the pitching staff and everything like that.”
And still, the Cubs will take a little bit of solace in the six shutout innings after the disastrous start.
“If you separated that game we played into two halves, we won the second half, so just trying to carry some of that momentum moving forward,” Civale said.