MILWAUKEE — The Chicago Cubs aren’t dwelling on any what-ifs from Game 1.
All the focus during Sunday’s workout at American Family Field centered on preparing for Game 2 at 8:08 p.m. Monday against the Milwaukee Brewers.
“It’s a loss and you kind of move on from it quickly,” manager Craig Counsell said Sunday of the 9-3 loss. “There’s no penalty — it’s one loss. It doesn’t count for more how you lose. We didn’t lose well, but sometimes, a close game could have cost us some pitching-type stuff, too. We lost and you move on and that’s how the clubhouse felt.”
To pull out a win Monday and ultimately win the National League Division Series, the Cubs feature three players who could play a big role in making that happen.
1. LHP Shota Imanaga
The Cubs can’t afford to lose Game 2 and head to Wrigley Field needing to sweep the next three games of the series to advance to the NL Championship Series. That means they need to get a quality start from Imanaga, who experienced mixed results over the final month of the regular season.
The Brewers showed Saturday how quickly and effectively they can ambush a pitcher, and the Cubs can’t afford to fall behind early again in front of what should be another rocking crowd at American Family Field on Monday night.
“I think all the hitters, they understand what they need to do, and I think that’s the Brewers’ offense,” Imanaga said through interpreter Edwin Stanberry on Sunday. “Even (Saturday), the next guy was up, the next guy was ready. So I think, for me, it’s just making sure to take it one out at a time and then thinking about that one out.”
Imanaga’s success will likely come down to whether he can limit home runs, and for any he does allow, that he doesn’t put runners on base before being taken deep. Sunday’s off day, combined with the lack of usage Saturday, has the Cubs’ high-leverage right-handed relievers coming into Monday’s game with three days of rest. It will allow Counsell to be aggressive with how quickly he can go to the bullpen, but for that formula to work like it did in Wednesday’s decisive Game 3 of the wild-card series, he will need at least 12 outs from Imanaga.
2. DH Kyle Tucker
The Cubs’ offense is at its best when Kyle Tucker is hitting like, well, Kyle Tucker. They haven’t seen that version much in the last couple of months.
He showed encouraging signs during the Cubs’ West Coast trip at the end of August until his left calf strain popped up and sidelined him for roughly three weeks. Getting game action in the final three regular-season games was important, and overall he’s felt pretty good. That hasn’t translated to huge production in the postseason just yet. Tucker collected three singles in the wild-card series then went hitless with a walk Saturday against Milwaukee.
More slug from Tucker makes the Cubs lineup much more dangerous.
“When Kyle has been in the lineup, it adds another left-handed bat, you get to throw that in the top of the order,” Pete Crow-Armstrong said last week. “But talking about a professional baseball player, he’s a pro, too. I think you know you’re going to get a good at-bat out of him every time he goes up there. I just think the opportunities he creates just by being in the lineup is big, and then yeah, I just think it adds a lot of depth and chance to our lineup.”
Expect to see Tucker in the designated hitter spot again Monday for Game 2. Counsell said Sunday that while things could change in having Tucker play right field, which he hasn’t since sustaining the injury Sept. 2, right now the manager sees no reason to do that.
3. 3B Matt Shaw
The last week of the regular season had been an encouraging offensive stretch for third baseman Matt Shaw.
Shaw went 8-for-25 (.320) in his final seven games heading into the playoffs, featuring two doubles, one triple and two home runs. It felt like Shaw was building some momentum. And then came San Diego’s tough arms and the Brewers’ best starter, Freddy Peralta. Shaw enters Game 2 0-for-8 with five strikeouts in the postseason, though he tallied two walks in Saturday’s Game 1 loss.
Counsell cautioned against making quick judgments on Shaw’s postseason offensive performance given the small sample size, though he added: “He had some poor at-bats against the Padres.” Counsell thought the two walks were a positive sign and pointed out the great defense play he made in the ninth inning of their Game 3 win in the wild-card series.
“Was it the stuff, sun, whatever, shadows? He had some poor at-bats, you’ve got to kind of own up to that,” Counsell said of Shaw’s wild-card series. “In four games so far, hasn’t done much offensively, yes, and we need every bit of every person’s contribution for sure. But optimistic he can get it going.”
Shaw knows he needs to get going out of the No. 9 spot in the order for the Cubs’ offense to produce at its best.
“I feel like anyone at any time can step up and get those big hits, so hopefully we can start rolling kind of as a bunch a little bit more, myself included in that,” Shaw said Friday.