Cubs looking to turn the page with series in Milwaukee
Scroll through the list of the Brewers’ pitching probables for the upcoming series against the Cubs and the task seems daunting.
Freddy Peralta on Monday. Brandon Woodruff on Tuesday. Corbin Burnes on Wednesday.
That comes after a series where the Cubs faced future hall-of-famer Clayton Kershaw, an ace in Walker Buehler and a red-hot Julio Urías.
“It’s baseball,” Patrick Wisdom said after Sunday’s 7-1 loss to Kershaw and the Dodgers.
But, while the schedule seems intimidating, the Cubs aren’t worried about who is on the bump.
“If you look at it in terms of ‘Oh, we got this guy?’ Then you’re kind of already defeated before you step in the box,” Wisdom said. “If you get excited to face these guys, you look forward to that challenge, then I think you can kinda handle the result, whatever it may be.”
A new series gives the Cubs the perfect opportunity to turn the page.
That’s the mentality the Cubs will have when they lineup Monday night in Milwaukee. And David Ross has faith his team will flip the switch, regardless of what might’ve happened in Los Angeles.
“We do a really good job of resetting,” Ross said.
For the Cubs, that means staying within their approach. If they start trying to change their methods to suit that pitcher, it could lead to trouble.
“I don’t think our approach has changed much throughout the season,” Ross said. “We got the personnel that goes out there and we try to let them be themselves and try to have the best at-bats they can have on a nightly basis.”
The change of scenery will help, too.
“Four o’clock games at Dodger Stadium were never a positive for anybody’s batting average and contact,” Ross said. “I played here, I came up here, those are usually gonna be tough days especially when those shadows kick in towards the end.”
Playing a three-game set against the Brewers is a chance to rejuvenate the offense, regardless of who’s on the mound.
“They’ve got a good staff, we know that,” Ross said. “They’ve got a good team, that’s why they’re in first place.
“We just have to go out there and compete and be ourselves, play our brand of baseball, play good defense, make pitches, have good at-bats, [be] fundamentally sound and see what happens at the end of the game.”