Cubs takeaways: What we learned as NLDS shifts to winner-take-all Game 5
CHICAGO — Not long after the Cubs suffered a painful loss in Game 2 of the NL Division Series, manager Craig Counsell sat in the interview room at American Family Field already turning the page on the defeat.
“It’s simple: We’ve got to just win pitches. We’ve got to win moments. You’ve got to stay with your process and your routines,” he said Monday. “It’s simple as that. We’ve got our work cut out for us, but it’s done by winning one pitch at a time and succeeding one pitch at a time.
“It’s going to be a fun environment, and we’re looking forward to Wednesday [at Wrigley Field], and our road back to Milwaukee starts on Wednesday afternoon.”
The path, indeed, will lead back to the Cream City.
The Cubs beat the Milwaukee Brewers 6-0 in Game 4 on Thursday night at Wrigley, fighting off elimination for the second night in a row and the third time this postseason. That forces a winner-take-all Game 5 on Saturday night at American Family Field for a berth in the NL Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Cubs hope to become the first team to overturn a 2-0 deficit in the Division Series since the New York Yankees did so in 2017 against Cleveland. The last NL team to do it was the San Francisco Giants in 2012 against the Cincinnati Reds.
Here are three takeaways from the win:
Happ breaks out — and makes Wrigley erupt
Freddy Peralta has owned Ian Happ in the regular season.
Like, absolutely dominated him.
Since Peralta ace first faced Happ in 2019, the Cubs’ left fielder has gone 2-for-32 (.063) with 14 strikeouts and one home run against him.
But Happ has flipped the script this October, and his biggest hit against Milwaukee’s ace came in the first inning Thursday.
Happ tattooed a 1-1 fastball up in the zone for a no-doubt, 420-foot, three-run homer to right field, sending the 41,770-strong crowd into a state of euphoria. And it capped an awesome sequence that highlights the importance of home-field advantage.
Nico Hoerner started the first-inning rally with a one-out single. Kyle Tucker then took the first two pitches outside, and the fans inside The Friendly Confines turned hostile — in a somewhat gentle manner.
The crowd slowly began a “FRED-DY, FRED-DY” chant to try to rattle Peralta. They rose with each pitch, turning into a roar when Tucker drew a four-pitch walk. It continued through Carson Kelly’s strikeout and began again when Happ came up to bat.
Matt Shaw added an RBI single in the sixth to give some relief to a crowd that had grown tense with a fragile three-run lead. Tucker caused Wrigley to shake with a seventh-inning homer — the first playoff homer by a Cubs DH in franchise history.
Michael Busch‘s fourth homer of the postseason — a solo shot in the eighth — put the finishing touches on the scoring.
It showcases just why home-field advantage can be so important and why teams value it so much.
Boyd’s bounce-back
A little over 24 hours before his Game 4 start, Matthew Boyd stood at his locker in the home clubhouse at Wrigley and spoke confidently.
“The big thing is just when the ball’s in my hand, I know what I’m going to do,” Boyd said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I know exactly what I’m going to do. I know what I expect of myself when I go out there and compete.”
The Cubs’ veteran left-hander had faith that his teammates would give him another opportunity to pitch in the NLDS and make up for his poor Game 1 performance, when he lasted just two-thirds of an inning in a 9-3 loss to the Brewers.
He reminded Cubs fans what he could do – and they showed their appreciation.
Boyd tossed 4.2 shutout innings Thursday, striking out six and keeping the pesky Brewers lineup at bay.
The Wrigley crowd gave Boyd a standing ovation as he walked off the mound, praising him for the effort. He easily has been the most valuable member of this Cubs rotation, as he’s made every start this season during an All-Star campaign.
But it’s two of Boyd’s three postseason starts that Cubs fans will remember. His 4.1 innings of one-run ball in Game 1 of the NL Wild Card Series against the San Diego Padres set the tone for the Cubs’ first-round win. His start Thursday in the elimination game extended their season and has them one win away from their first NLCS trip since 2017.
Winner-take-all mindset
The Cubs will face another winner-take-all game for the second consecutive series this postseason.
As in the first one against the Padres, the Cubs are keeping the same approach that has put them there.
“I really think it’s stay focused on the things that you always stay focused on, and nothing more than that,” Counsell said before Thursday’s game. “The game is too hard and there’s too much else going on. Stay in your own process. At times, that feels like, well, you’ve got to do something different. That doesn’t work.
“You’ve got to do the same thing. That’s how you keep getting good results, and that’s how you get consistency.”
It’s not sexy, nor the “rah-rah” speech that fans would want to hear from the manager. But baseball isn’t the type of game where trying harder guarantees more success. Swinging harder might affect your mechanics and cause you to miss pitches. Throwing harder could make you miss your target.
The Cubs have been stubborn about their routines and processes — and they won’t change that now.
