CHICAGO — Ben Brown won’t start Saturday during what should be his normal turn in the Cubs’ rotation. That duty, instead, will fall to left-handed reliever Drew Pomeranz.

That doesn’t mean Brown no longer will play a role in the second game of the series against the Cincinnati Reds. It’s also doesn’t mean he’s no longer in the rotation anymore.

It’s another attempt by the Cubs to try to reinvigorate the young pitcher for whom they still have high hopes.

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“We’re just trying to win the game,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said before Friday’s 6-2 loss to the Reds at Wrigley Field. “The best way to win the game, we think, is to consider an opener tomorrow.”

So, if Brown still figures to cover bulk innings Saturday, why not just have him go from the jump and why burn a leverage arm that could be valuable later in a potentially close game?

Part of the reason is Brown’s first-inning woes. He has allowed 11 runs on 14 hits in his 10 first innings this season — that’s a whopping 9.90 ERA and 2.20 WHIP.

And the first-inning results aren’t all that’s worrisome. It’s the stuff, too.

“My last outing, my average heater was over 96 miles an hour,” Brown said Friday. “My average heater to the first three batters throwing strikes I was under 95 [mph]. So, I’m trying to throw as hard as I can, and I’m throwing it slower. And then when I can finally get comfortable and something goes my way, then you start seeing my stuff start to play.”

But each time, the damage had been done by then.

Brown walked the first two hitters of the game on nine pitches in his last outing May 29. He then allowed three singles to the next five hitters, and the Reds turned a 2-run deficit into a 4-2 lead. Brown allowed back-to-back home runs to lead off his prior outing May 19 against the Miami Marlins, with both blasts coming on three-ball counts.

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“I’m getting so excited, so pumped up to pitch, I’m losing sight of what I do best,” Brown said. “And it’s like a mental [thing] not being able to throw strikes. There’s a real dynamic to the first inning of baseball games that is different than other innings.

“So, I have been working a lot with coaches and trainers, just trying to navigate throughout the process to make it a little bit easier for me.”

Those slow starts have a trickle-down effect, too. Yes, it eats up Brown’s pitch count and doesn’t allow him to pitch deep into games, but hitters see more of his pitches and have a better idea of what they’re up against the second and third time seeing him. Facing the Reds — who have a .755 OPS against righties, the fifth-best mark in baseball — in back-to-back starts could compound that, too.

“So, the focus is really what’s going on in the first and how do we adjust from there,” Brown said.

The Cubs can’t afford early deficits as they try to win every game. Yes, their offense is potent enough that they can put up runs, but they don’t want to play from behind all the time.

OK then, but why not just send Brown to the minor leagues and have him work on those first-inning jitters in an environment that isn’t as high stakes as the majors? Well, part of that is a necessity.

The Cubs spent the offseason building their pitching depth, but it’s already been heavily tested. Sixty percent of their projected Opening Day rotation (Justin Steele, Shota Imanaga and Javier Assad) is all on the injured list, and that trio has pitched just 67.1 of the 511.2 innings the Cubs have thrown this season. That’s just 13.1 percent of the innings thrown this season. And there’s no clear help down at Triple-A Iowa, as Jordan Wicks, one of the starters on the Cubs’ 40-man roster, is on the I-Cubs’ injured list.

The Cubs need Brown.

And that means working to get him back on track so he can be a serviceable member of their rotation. And he’s shown flashes of that. He shut out the potent Los Angeles Dodgers over six innings April 12, and threw six shutout frames against the Milwaukee Brewers on May 2.

Now it’s about correcting those early game woes — a natural progression for young starters.

“The hardest innings for a starter are going to be the first inning and the sixth or the seventh, right?” Counsell said. “That’s what we always see. The first inning really because … you haven’t been on the mound, in competition for five days, you’re facing probably the top hitters in their lineup, and it requires you to kind of lock in immediately against the other team’s best hitters.

“It’s a normal thing. I think you tend to examine routine a little bit when you struggle with it, and that’s an easier place, frankly, to make some tweaks than maybe adding a changeup. It’s easier to think about some adjustments there.”

That’s why the Cubs are optimistic they can get Brown back on track. Employing an opener — something Counsell didn’t rule out doing for more of Brown’s starts — could help him moving forward.

“Without putting too much pressure on it, when I go out there in the first inning, my first inning of pitching, I’m not going to be in panic mode. I think that’s step one,” Brown said. “There’s a little bit of an anomaly here. I’m going to be OK; I’ve done it my entire career. And then it’s like, ‘Hey, what are some things we can do to kind of tone down the intensity?’ ”