Well, that was unpleasant.
The eighth inning on Friday at Wrigley Field, that is.
The first-place Brewers rose up. The second-place Cubs fell apart. The home fans booed a reliever, Adbert Alzolay, who can’t get out of his own way. A gray, misty day turned nice and then, suddenly, not so nice at all.
It was the kind of game that keeps a manager up at night.
“It didn’t go well,” Craig Counsell said.
In the division rivals’ first meeting of the season, the Cubs took the field for the top of the frame with a 1-0 lead only to get so much sand kicked in their faces by the first-place Brewers, they ended up buried up to their eyeballs. The Brewers scored three runs on four singles — all but one of them softly hit — and went on to win 3-1, but it was the manner in which they took control that left an impression.
A team that ranks in the top five in baseball in a host of offensive categories — average, on-base percentage, slugging, home runs, runs scored, stolen bases — scrapped at the plate for four consecutive hits against the faltering Alzolay, with each of the four batters then swiping second. Jackson Chourio, William Contreras, Willy Adames and Jake Bauers made the whole procession look so routine and effortless, they might as well have been boarding the No. 22 Clark bus and swiping Ventra cards at rush hour.
There can’t have been too many innings in Counsell’s nine seasons as manager in Milwaukee when a Brewers team toyed more with the Cubs or made them look less prepared.
And if any longtime watchers of these teams didn’t know which manager was in which dugout, they might have assumed the hotshot with the richest contract ever for a big-league skipper was still on the visitors’ side.
These Brewers — even without the winningest manager in franchise history — might be a rival to reckon with once again, just saying.
“They’re playing well,” Counsell said. “Offensively, they’ve done a really good job of scoring runs. That’s probably what you take notice of most.”
It was Counsell’s debut against his former team, an occasion in itself. He didn’t exactly fuel the rivalry narrative heading into the series, though, saying, “Nobody’s an enemy. This is just baseball competition.” Not that Counsell would have any reason for hard feelings against the Brewers. He’s the one who ditched his hometown for the Friendly Confines, where $40 million was awaiting him.
But it also was supposed to be the first chance for Counsell and successor Pat Murphy, his longtime pal, to go nose-to-nose as peers. Murphy coached Counsell at Notre Dame and was his bench coach in Milwaukee from 2016 to 2023. Unfortunately, Murphy’s two-game suspension after a highly contentious game against the Rays on Tuesday got in the way; associate manager Rickie Weeks steered the ship for a second game in a row. The big pregame handshake or hug at home plate between Counsell and Murphy, assuming there is one, will have to wait for Saturday.
“You miss people for sure,” Counsell said. “I miss people over there, absolutely, because you have strong relationships with people.”
At the top of that list is Murphy, 65, who said yes to a scrawny Counsell, 53, when the latter was a teenager hoping to get to join a Fighting Irish program that was far from a powerhouse. After the Brewers made Counsell a first-time manager, he asked Murphy to join his staff and be a mentor. As Murphy generously tells it, it was Counsell, a leader with real gifts, who became the mentor in the relationship.
No doubt, though, the Brewers have spent the first weeks of the season making themselves — and Murphy — look good. They’re 12-3 in day games, best in baseball. They’re 13-4 on the road, best in baseball. They’ve already spent 23 days in first place.
“ ‘Counse’ is awesome, an amazing manager — he got that contract over here for a reason — but ‘Murph’ is really good at what he does, too,” said Christian Yelich, the star outfielder who’s on the injured list with a troublesome back. “Murph has been in baseball forever. He has done everything, knows everyone in the game and knows players extremely well. You can’t fool with Murph. He knows. He knows what winning players look like, who they are, and that’s what he wants and expects from people. He sees right through it if you’re not. It’s loose and fun with this team, but it’s not like the standard is any lower than it was.”
Murphy doesn’t see the Cubs as the “enemy,” either.
“I don’t think there’s a bitterness or animosity toward anyone,” he told reporters. “I think guys want to compete in a big game. There will be a lot of people going nuts. Everybody wants to be a part of that stuff.”
It was a big one Friday, and the Brewers took it. Or did the Cubs give it away? It was a fair amount of both.
Over the long haul, the Cubs are supposed to have the managerial advantage over the Brewers. One team upgraded; the other downgraded. Right? We think?
But the Brewers are hot as brat grease, and now they’ve struck first in this year’s head-to-head series. To the naked eye, it seems losing Counsell hasn’t yet cost them a thing.
