MILWAUKEE — After a lopsided National League Division Series opener, the rival Cubs and Brewers must wait out an uncharacteristically long layover ahead of Monday’s Game 2 at American Family Field.
While Chicago will use the time to regroup and reset a taxed bullpen after the Brewers’ 9-3 series-opening win, Milwaukee will hope momentum carries over and Jackson Chourio heals quickly.
“We had those off-days; we were ready to go,” Brewers second baseman Brice Turang said. “We were all talking about it days before, how excited we were and how great it was going to be. Setting the tone is a big part of it, and we were excited to get out there. And we’ll take that and move on to the next game; try to set the tone in that one, too.”
In postseason history, teams to win Game 1 in any best-of-five series have gone on to win the series 113 of 156 times (72.4%). In Division Series with the current 2-2-1 format, teams to win Game 1 at home have advanced 40 of 54 times (74.1%).
“We’re down 1-0,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “Nothing else changes besides that. It’s 1-0. I’m not sure we’d manage the game differently on Monday up 1-0 or down 1-0, so I’m not sure it does. We made it harder for ourselves. We’ve got to win three out of four now; they’ve got to win two out of four. Other than that, we’ve got to do more. We pitched well for the last six innings. We didn’t pitch well early. That’s it.”
Here’s everything you need to know about Game 2:
When is the game and how can I watch it?
Game 2 will be on Monday, with first pitch scheduled for 8:08 CT on TBS, truTV and HBO Max.
All series are available in the US on MLB.TV with authentication to a participating Pay TV provider. Games also are available live internationally, although not in Canada. Sportsnet is MLB’s exclusive English language broadcaster in Canada for every Postseason game, while TVA Sports will be covering the entire AL Postseason and the World Series in French and Broadcaster RDS will cover the entire NL Postseason in French.
Who are the starting pitchers?
Cubs: Counsell has waited until absolutely necessary to name his starters throughout the playoffs so far, but we know now that lefty Shota Imanaga (9-8, 3.73 ERA) is the pick. He worked four innings after an opener in Game 2 of the Wild Card Series against the Padres on Wednesday.
Imanaga, who will be on four days’ rest, had a 2.40 ERA in his first 13 outings this season, but that ERA rose to 5.17 in his last dozen turns for the Cubs. That second stretch included 20 of the 31 home runs he yielded this season — including 12 in his final six games. Against San Diego, Imanaga also gave up a home run in a 3-0 loss.
Brewers: Who doesn’t like a little gamesmanship between old friends? Like Counsell, Brewers manager Pat Murphy waited until Sunday’s workout day to name his Game 2 starter even though Freddy Peralta had just pitched into the sixth inning of Game 1, leaving the staff in excellent shape with an off-day ahead of Game 2. It will be left-hander Aaron Ashby as an opener, after Ashby covered four outs on only 16 pitches in Game 1. That won’t be foreign to Ashby, who originally made it to Milwaukee as a starter, and reported to Spring Training this season with hopes of being a starter, only to be derailed in the early part of the season by an oblique injury.
Lefty Jose Quintana (11-7, 3.96 ERA) is ready to return from a right calf injury and is another option for Game 2 if the Brewers want to hold Priester for Game 3 at Wrigley Field. Or, the Brewers could use an opener like rookie left-hander Robert Gasser, who was something of a surprise on the NLDS roster considering he’d made only two abbreviated starts in the Majors since returning from Tommy John surgery.
What might the starting lineups look like?
Cubs: Counsell used the same lineup for all three games of the Wild Card Series and made a slight tweak for Game 1 against the Brewers. Ian Happ was dropped to fifth from third and Kyle Tucker was bumped up to third from fourth. That allowed Seiya Suzuki to move into the cleanup spot.
Brewers: Since the lefty Imanaga is starting for Chicago, if Chourio is cleared to play in Game 2, then the Brewers could run out the same lineup as they posted against Cubs lefty Matthew Boyd for Game 1. Murphy said that if Chourio can’t go, then rookie Isaac Collins would likely crack the lineup in his place.
How will the bullpens line up after the starter?
Cubs: Right-handers Aaron Civale (4 1/3 innings) and Ben Brown (two innings) did Counsell a huge favor in Saturday’s Game 1 defeat. By covering the final 19 outs, the pitchers allowed the Cubs manager to avoid using his main leverage arms in the NLDS opener. With off-days on either side of Game 1, that meant the bulk of the bullpen gets a three-day rest period in the wake of the high-intensity Wild Card round.
Brewers: The Brewers will be at full strength thanks to the five-day layoff between the end of the regular season and Saturday’s Game 1, plus the extra off day on Sunday. Aaron Ashby had the heaviest workload in the opening game, but he only needed 16 pitches for four outs and will serve as the opener on Monday.
Jared Koenig threw 17 pitches and Nick Mears threw 20. The Brewers will probably want to get co-closers Trevor Megill and Abner Uribe some work in Game 2 given their long layoff, and that there is yet another day off before the series shifts to Chicago for Game 3.
Cubs: Tucker missed three-plus weeks in September due to a left calf strain and has stayed in the DH role since returning for the final homestand of the regular season. With Suzuki holding down right field well enough, Counsell has been able to keep Tucker in the limited role as the star outfielder continues to get his legs back under him.
The Cubs’ manager said ahead of the NLDS that Tucker was “getting close” to being available for the outfield, if it makes sense. … Righty Cade Horton (15-day injured list, right rib fracture) has been ruled out for the NLDS. His status for the rest of October is unclear.
Brewers: Chourio’s status remains unclear after an MRI on his tight right hamstring proved inconclusive. Murphy said he hadn’t suffered a serious hamstring strain, but added that the injury could certainly limit him, and his availability for the rest of the series depends on how he fares during workouts in advance of Game 2.
“We’re going to kind of see how he feels,” Murphy said on Sunday. “He’s going to go through some testing, and if he feels anything, we’re going to shut it down.”
Who is hot and who is not?
Cubs: Busch led off Game 1 with a home run, marking his sixth homer to begin a game this season. It also marked back-to-back games with a homer for the first baseman, who had eight blasts and a .923 slugging percentage in his last 15 regular-season games. … Happ and Hoerner also cleared the fence in the Game 1 loss. In four playoff games, Hoerner has hit .333 (5-for-15). … Shaw drew two walks in Game 1 in Milwaukee but is still searching for his first hit of the postseason (0-for-8).
Brewers: Turang tallied two more hits in Game 1 after hitting .321 with 12 homers and 37 RBIs in his final 52 games of the regular season. But he wasn’t alone in contributing to the Brewers’ win; the first eight batters of Milwaukee’s lineup each had a hit, with four players (Chourio, Turang, Contreras and Perkins) logging multiple hits.
And Durbin became the first Brewers player with multiple RBIs in his first career postseason game with the team since Erik Kratz in Game 2 of the 2018 NLDS. Yelich also did it in Game 1 of that same NLDS.
Anything else fans might want to know?
