Boyd gets ambushed in Cubs' playoff loss to Brewers

Michael Mcloone - USA Today Sports

Dustin Riese · Senior Writer · 20 hours ago

MILWAUKEE - In one of the more highly anticipated playoff series in quite some time, the Chicago Cubs kicked off their best-of-five Divisional Series with their Central Division Rival, the Milwaukee Brewers, at American Family Field. Since these teams began playing each other in the late 1990s, this is the first time they have met in the playoffs, unless you count Game 163 when the Brewers claimed the Central Division over the Cubs.

In what was expected to be a pitchers' duel with Aces Freddy Peralta and Matthew Boyd on the mound, it turned into an ambush as the Brewers jumped on Boyd for six first-inning runs to set the tone in what was a 9-3 Brewers victory. Starting Boyd was a questionable decision, given he was on short rest, but to start Boyd and leave Javier Assad off the roster is a question that Craig Counsell will have to answer later down the road.

For the Cubs to have any shot at beating the Brewers in this series, they need their offense to show up in order to take some pressure off their pitching staff. What better way to get things rolling than by watching Michael Busch unload for a leadoff homer to put the Cubs in front 1-0. Apart from that, Peralta and the Brewers' arms kept the Cubs offense in check as the right-hander struck out nine across 5 2/3 innings of two-run baseball.

Anytime you can give Boyd the lead before he even takes the mound, the Cubs are typically in great shape, but this was one of those rare cases where he wasn't at his best and the Brewers made him pay. Three batters into the bottom of the first, and it was the Brewers taking the lead for good, 2-1, as Jackson Chourio, Brice Turang, and William Contreras all connected for doubles.

Following a one-out walk to Andrew Vaughn to load the bases, it was a rare error from Nico Hoerner that not only allowed for a third run to score, but seemed to open the floodgates for what ended up being a six-run inning for the Brewers. Boyd came close to escaping with only three runs allowed, but it was Blake Perkins' single that made things 4-1, which was the end of the road for the left-hander.

Michael Soroka took over from there and promptly walked the first hitter he faced before Chourio came through with his second hit of the inning to push the Brewers' lead to 6-1. Had they not scored the rest of the way, that would've been enough for the Brewers to win this game, but their offense was just getting started as Soroka didn't have his best stuff on the day.

Already with six runs in the game, Milwaukee continued to keep the pressure on in the second as a trio of singles loaded the bases with no outs. Once again, it was the Cubs' pitching positioning themselves to escape a jam only to have Caleb Durbin add a fourth single to bring home two more runs. Soroka, was unable to get through the second, yielding to Aaron Civale to close things out. Chourio greeted Civale with his third hit in two innings, making this a 9-1 game before leaving the game due to hamstring tightness, which will be something to watch as the series progresses.

As bad as things have gone for Civale this season, he deserves a ton of credit for the job he did in this one, as the Brewers failed to score another run the rest of the way. Civale played a massive role in that by tossing 4 1/3 scoreless innings before handing things off to Ben Brown the rest of the way. At the very least, the Cubs managed to save some of their bullpen arms that were used a ton during the wildcard round, as they will be counted on in close games.

When the Cubs are at their best, they are not only playing great defense, but are relying on the long ball to pick up most of their runs. Three homers accounted for three of the Cubs' six runs against the Padres, and the long ball accounted for all of the Cubs' runs on Saturday.

Unfortunately, all three homers were solo shots with Ian Happ adding a solo shot off Peralta in the sixth and Nico Hoerner tacking on an additional one in the eighth to make this a 9-3 game. That would be all the closer the Cubs would get, as they now get a day off on Sunday to regroup and will look to even things up on Monday.