Brewers 9, Cubs 3
Q. Craig, as a manager and you see your pitcher doesn't have very much from the beginning, what type of mode thought-wise do you go into right away? How different does it get for you right away?
CRAIG COUNSELL: Yeah, I mean, in games like this, I mean, that's why we had somebody up with 20-some pitches into the game. So you try to be aggressive. They did a great job in the first inning, man.
Bottom line, they had really good at-bats. They hit balls hard. They spoiled pitches. The Perkins at-bat was just a great at-bat. You've got to give him credit for that.
Matt made some pitches to him, and he spoiled him and ended up with a base hit that was a really, really good major league at-bat.
Obviously the error, they capitalized on the error, they capitalized on an extra out very well, and that cost us for sure.
Q. I was just going to ask a little bit more about that error and the impact it had after defense obviously was such a big factor in the previous series. Like you just said, the Brewers' ability to capitalize on it as well.
CRAIG COUNSELL: Yeah, I think that's the big thing is that they capitalized on it. Even with the error, if we get Ortiz out, it's 4-1 game. We walked Ortiz, which was costly, obviously.
Chourio hit a pretty good pitch; did a nice job. But, yeah, they capitalized on an extra out.
Q. You said you guys and Boyd were both thinking about this moment right after he came out of Game 1 of the Wild Card series. What made you guys think when you talked to the front office and everyone that this was going to be a good matchup for Boyd, pitching on three days' rest?
CRAIG COUNSELL: Yeah, like I said, I think we just didn't feel like the number of pitches that he threw on Tuesday, what he's done all season, been our best starting pitcher. Those two things.
Q. What Civale was able to give you and how that sets you up. Obviously were going to have the off day anyway, but how it sets up the bullpen and pitching staff moving forward?
CRAIG COUNSELL: Look, Aaron and Ben did a heck of a job. Super important. Our relievers are completely reset. We can work with Monday's game however we want to. Really, really important.
Both guys, when you're going to your third pitcher in the second inning, that could be really problematic, even with the off-days.
Aaron's outing, Ben's outing, especially Aaron's outing, really, really saved us.
Q. Craig, obviously it's one loss and not more than one loss, but just given how it went, does it change your view of the series at all, how you see your team, their team, and your chance to win?
CRAIG COUNSELL: I mean, we're down 1-0. 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.
Q. Even though he threw 58 pitches, is three days' rest always that dicey sort of situation no matter what because it's so unusual for pitchers? We usually see the stats don't look good after three days.
CRAIG COUNSELL: I mean, we picked Matt Boyd to pitch. I don't know what to say. He pitched. He pitched; it didn't go well. We've got to make decisions. We went with Matt. We're very comfortable -- I was very comfortable putting Matt Boyd on the mound today. The whole organization was comfortable putting Matt Boyd on the mound today.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports