MILWAUKEE — Don’t be fooled by the crowd size, fan reaction and media attention devoted to the opener Thursday of a late-September showdown between the top two teams in the National League Central.
For the first-place Cubs, this was much less about whether they beat the second-place Brewers than about how 2015 NL Cy Young Award winner Jake Arrieta looked in his return from a hamstring injury, especially the way left-hander Jon Lester has looked this month since his own injury.
For the record, the Cubs won 5-3 on a two-run home run by Kris Bryant in the 10th to boost their lead in the NL Central to 4½ games and
reduce their magic number for clinching the division to six.
Arrieta had the right answers to the growing questions about the Cubs’ potential playoff rotation, looking healthy and working five strong innings on a limited pitch count.
One night after Lester raised eyebrows — and blood-pressure levels — in the organization with his worst of four shaky outings since a lat injury, Arrieta yielded a solo home run in the fourth among five hits and left with a 2-1 lead.
He showed good velocity (94 mph) and good command (one walk) to allay some fears about the late-season cracks in a rotation that was the backbone of the Cubs’ 2016 postseason and their second-half drive toward another playoff berth.
‘‘That was really encouraging to all of us,’’ said manager Joe Maddon, who envisioned a sixth inning for Arrieta until a longer fifth. ‘‘I didn’t know what to expect. An injury like that, taking some time off and then just coming right back into the swing of things, I thought he was really sharp. I thought his command was really good.
‘‘I was really surprised. I don’t mean that negatively toward him, but how good he looked tonight.’’
Arrieta might be critical to the Cubs’ chances to compete against teams such as the Nationals and Dodgers — assuming they reach the playoffs — if Lester doesn’t find a way to fix what has ailed him.
‘‘Jake had that first half that he didn’t want to have, and look at him now,’’ Bryant said.
Arrieta, the NL pitcher of the month for August, was 7-2 with a 1.69 ERA in July and August combined before his injury. After his outing, he said he felt no pain, ‘‘really no discomfort. I don’t see any reason that I won’t feel good tomorrow.
‘‘It’s just good to be back out there. These are big games, and I want to be as part of as many as I can, especially to try to clinch the division as quick as possible and then kind of line things up for us in October. But we’ve got to get there first.’’
If Thursday is an indication of what the Cubs can expect as they stretch him to full pitch counts in his last two regular-season starts, it might go a long way toward allowing the kind of patience with Lester Maddon preached.
Not to mention some other questions about the rotation. Newcomer Jose Quintana never has pitched in playoff pressure in his career. Tested veteran John Lackey, who will turn 39 next month, has managed nagging aches and pains through much of the season, and the Cubs have put him on a once-a-week starting schedule this month.
But the big one is Lester, a three-time World Series champion signed to be the horse of the rotation through multiple Octobers.
‘‘With any pitcher, you want to have that guy pitching at the top of his game going into October, there’s no question,’’ general manager Jed Hoyer said. ‘‘So the timing of [the] game [Wednesday] isn’t ideal. But we have two starts, and we’ll hope he bounces back from that.’’
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Email: gwittenmyer@suntimes.com
