MILWAUKEE — For roughly 15 minutes Saturday afternoon at American Family Field, the Chicago Cubs were riding great vibes.
Michael Busch’s sixth leadoff home run this year gave the Cubs a quick lead against the Milwaukee Brewers and right-hander Freddy Peralta. The faction of Cubs fans among the crowd of 42,678 made themselves heard.
If only the game ended after the top of the first inning.
The Brewers blitzed left-hander Matthew Boyd for six runs in the bottom of the frame — hurt by an uncharacteristic fielding error by second baseman Nico Hoerner leading to four unearned runs — and ended his day after the veteran recorded only two outs. The Brewers tacked on three more runs in the second, and the Cubs couldn’t recover in a 9-3 loss in Game 1 of the National League Division Series.
Manager Craig Counsell felt comfortable turning to Boyd for the series-opening start because he had only thrown 58 pitches in his start Tuesday. Still, Counsell’s decision showed a lot of trust in Boyd, coming off his most regular-season innings since 2019 and not looking as crisp late in the season. Brewers manager Pat Murphy said before the game they had been preparing for the Cubs to start either Javier Assad, who ended up not being included on the roster, Colin Rea or Boyd on Saturday before learning late Friday that they had opted for Boyd.
The 34-year-old lefty produced the fourth postseason start of the less than one inning in Cubs history, all occurring before Major League Baseball had playoff rounds: Hank Borowy, who didn’t get an out in Game 7 of the 1945 World Series, Charlie Root, who also failed to record an out in Game 2 of the 1935 World Series, and Guy Bush, who exited with an injury after getting one out in Game 4 of the 1932 World Series.
Boyd left too many hittable pitches belt high and paid for it. He gave up three consecutive doubles as the Brewers immediately erased the Cubs’ lead to go ahead. They ultimately sent 11 batters to the plate in the first and knocked Boyd out of the game following Blake Perkins winning an 11-pitch at-bat that ended with an RBI single for a 4-1 lead.
Michael Soroka didn’t fare much better, allowing seven of the 10 batters he faced to reach while allowing three runs in the second as the Brewers put the Cubs in a 9-1 hole.
The Brewers’ relentless lineup saw Jackson Chourio record three hits in the first two innings before every Cub had even recorded his first plate appearance.
By the end of the second, the Cubs would need to figure out how to cover 18 more outs and keep the bullpen intact even with Sunday’s looming off day. Counsell acknowledged before the game that the bullpen was still feeling its usage playing three consecutive days in the wild card series. Former Brewers starter Aaron Civale tossed 4 1/3 scoreless inning, the longest such outing in the postseason in Cubs history.
Game 1 photos: Chicago Cubs at Milwaukee Brewers in NL Division Series
Solo home runs in the sixth and eighth innings by Ian Happ and Hoerner represented the Cubs’ only other runs. Three of their six hits in the loss came on home runs.
The nine runs the Cubs allowed marked one of their worst performances in a postseason game. Since 1945, the Cubs have surrendered more runs in the playoffs just twice: Game 5 of the 2017 NLCS against the Los Angeles Dodgers (11) and Game 2 of the 2008 NLDS against the Dodgers (10 runs).
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