MILWAUKEE — Nothing changes for the Chicago Cubs right now.

Losing 9-3 in the NLDS opener hurts, for sure. Especially against a heated divisional rival like the Milwaukee Brewers.

But the Cubs don’t need to go back to the drawing board. They don’t need to rethink their whole strategy for the NLDS.

“It stings today,” second baseman Nico Hoerner said. “All losses do — especially in the postseason. I don’t think it changes our work tomorrow or for our game on Monday.

“Obviously we have a little bit of time, which is kind of strange in the middle of all this. But the task remains the same and the group’s confidence is incredibly high, even though today wasn’t what we wanted.”

Of course the Cubs hoped to enter American Family Field this week riding high off the momentum of a thrilling NL Wild Card Series win and pick up a couple of victories from the Brewers.

For about 10 minutes Saturday afternoon, it looked like they might be able to do exactly that, when Michael Busch led off Game 1 with a home run.

But the Brewers blitzed Cubs starter Matthew Boyd and an error helped open up a six-run bottom of the first inning.

The Cubs lost by six, but it only counts as one loss. It’s not like soccer, where playoffs are sometimes decided by the combined score of two games — in other words, the Cubs would have to make up the deficit in the next game.

“The beauty of this time of year is one loss counts as one loss,” Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson said. “Was kind of making the joke to everybody that this is not Champions League. It’s not an aggregate type of situation.

“I don’t know how many of [them] understood that. I think it’s a an easy way to, kind of like, flush it and move on and be ready for Monday.”

Going up 2-0 would have been nice for the Cubs, sure. But in reality, winning one of two in Milwaukee sets the team up in a good position.

If the Cubs can get back in the win column in Game 2 Monday night, it would suddenly turn the NLDS into a best-of-three series — and the Cubs would hold homefield advantage. Wednesday and Thursday are slated to be at Wrigley Field with a potential Game 5 back in Milwaukee next Saturday.

“We’re down 1-0,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “Nothing else changes besides that. It’s 1-0. I’m not sure we’d manage the game differently on Monday up 1-0 or down 1-0.

“We made it harder for ourselves. We’ve got to win three out of four now; they’ve got to win two out of four. Other than that, we’ve got to do more. We pitched well for the last six innings. We didn’t pitch well early. That’s it.”

The Brewers scored all nine of their runs in the first two innings Saturday.

Aaron Civale and Ben Brown came out of the bullpen and combined to keep the Brewers lineup at bay after the second inning, tossing 6.1 shutout frames.

That afforded the rest of the Cubs pitching staff the day off — which may be flying under the radar but carries a potentially big trickle-down effect. The Cubs’ bullpen was taxed heavily in the wild-card series and now a lot of the team’s top relievers like Andrew Kittredge and Daniel Palencia can have three straight days off before Monday’s Game 2.

“Huge,” Ian Happ said. “Those guys put in a ton of work in that Padres series, so for [Civale] to go out there and eat up all those innings, give those guys a chance to rest for a few days is gonna be huge.”

It also allows Boyd to recover, as he ended up throwing only 30 pitches Saturday.

He could be lined up to start a potential Game 4 Thursday on regular rest, with four days off between outings.

The Cubs will hold an optional workout Sunday as a team before gearing up for Game 2 Monday night at 8:08 CT.

“We’ll always take a day off when we can get it,” Boyd said. “We’re a hungry group. We’re all excited to get back out here and even up the series in Game 1.”