Friday marked the first game in Craig Counsell’s managerial career where he was facing off against the Milwaukee Brewers.

After 1,332 regular season games and 19 postseason games on the top step of the dugout as the Brewers’ manager, Counsell was on the other side of the rivalry Friday afternoon at Wrigley Field.

The questions were inevitable and Counsell’s first answer was very on-brand for him prior to the contest:

“We’re just trying to win a baseball game,” Counsell said.

His team was unable to grant that wish in front of 33,557 fans at “The Friendly Confines” as the Cubs lost 3-1 to the Brewers.

The Cubs initially jumped out to a 1-0 lead before a bullpen collapse in the top of the 8th inning.

Adbert Alzolay came on to relieve Richard Lovelady with 1 out and gave up 4 singles and 3 stolen bases that led to a 3-run rally for the Brewers. All 3 stolen bases came around to score on singles just out of reach of the Cubs infield.

It was another difficult outing for Alzolay, who began the year as the team’s closer but was removed in mid-April after continued struggles. He is now 1-4 with a 5.54 ERA and 5 blown saves on the season.

Counsell did not have many options in his bullpen Friday with top relievers Héctor Neris and Yency Almonte having worked back-to-back games on Wednesday and Thursday. Keegan Thompson and Daniel Palencia both threw an inning on Thursday and historically have not thrown on back-to-back days often throughout their career.

That left Alzolay, Mark Leiter Jr. and Colten Brewer to get the final 5 outs after Lovelady. 

Hayden Wesneski was brilliant in his 2nd start of the year, tossing 6.1 shutout innings and racking up 8 strikeouts.

In 4 outings in the big leagues, Wesneski is sporting a 0.54 ERA and 0.78 WHIP across 15.1 innings, stepping up to fill a hole for his team.

Wesneski did not make the team out of Spring Training and his first big-league game came in Arizona on April 17 (4 shutout innings in relief). He was optioned back down after that game but was called back up a few days later and then thrust into the rotation last weekend when Jordan Wicks went down with a forearm injury.

Christopher Morel provided the initial burst of offense with a solo homer to center field in the 6th inning, a blast that cut through the teeth of 9 mph wind blowing straight in.

It was Morel’s 3rd homer this week as he continues to heat up.

But the Cubs couldn’t muster up any other offense throughout the game, stranding 5 runners and making a pair of outs on the basepaths.

As for the Brewers connection, Counsell downplayed the matchup.

“I think you spend most of your time trying to figure out how to beat the team,” Counsell said. “There are people there that I have really good relationships with. I miss people over there, absolutely. Because you have strong relationships with people.

“When you see people that you’ve spent a lot of time with and you miss them, that’s what brings the emotion to it.”

The Cubs host the Brewers the rest of the weekend and then will head to Milwaukee at the end of the month (May 27-30).