None of it has been nearly as bad as it was Wednesday after Chicago was blanked 3-0 by the San Diego Padres in Game 2 of the NL wild card series. Counsell came under fire leaving his left-handed pitcher Shota Imanaga in the game to face Manny Machado in the fifth inning.

The decision backfired when Machado homered off Imanaga to extend the Padres lead. After the game, Counsell defended his decision to stick with Imanaga rather than walking Machado or bringing in a right-handed pitcher.

“The result suggests that we should’ve done something different,” Counsell said via a post on X from MLB Network. “It was really just confidence in Shota though. Plain and simple there. I thought he was throwing the ball really well, but unfortunately he just made a mistake.”

Imanaga did pitch fairly well, going four innings while allowing three hits, two runs and three strikeouts. The one mistake, though, cost the Cubs two runs and put them in a hole that they weren’t able to climb out of.

The backlash toward Counsell was due to the fact that he had right-hander Mike Soroka warming in the bullpen during the at-bat between Machado and Imanaga. Also, there was left-hander batter in Jackson Merrill on deck behind Machado. Using the righty to pitch to Machado or intentionally walking him to get the left-on-left matchup to try and get out of the jam.

Chicago will now host Game 3 against San Diego on Thursday with the winner advancing to the NLDS to matchup against the team with the best record in the regular season, the Milwaukee Brewers.

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