Craig Counsell's Mystifying Monday Screwup Continues a Troubling Trend

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There's really no excuse for it. You can make one, but you're just going to tie yourself into knots and sound silly. Blame can be shifted to the offense, who didn't do enough to win the average game, but this wasn't an average game—and it was very much a playoff-like game, the likes of which the Cubs need to be practicing winning. Craig Counsell can offer rationalizations for his choice to let Matthew Boyd start the eighth inning Monday afternoon, but even he must not believe them. He simply failed at his job, at a pivotal moment.

Boyd and the Cubs held a 2-1 lead in the middle of the eighth inning of their Labor Day tilt with the division-leading Brewers. It was a taut and exciting game, thanks to a boisterous holiday crowd and all the emotions tied up in every encounter between these neighboring teams since Counsell defected from Milwaukee to Chicago. The eighth, ninth and top spots in the Brewers lineup were due, and Boyd had thrown 87 pitches. Ryan Zeferjahn was ready in the Chicago bullpen.

Counsell, however, has managed like he's terrified of his own instincts when facing the Brewers over the last two seasons, and he made another mistake born of that hesitation. Despite Boyd preparing to face Garrett Mitchell and Joey Ortiz for the third time and try to get an out in the eighth for the first time all year, Counsell left him in, eschewing (for the moment) Zeferjahn.

That's not who Counsell is, as a manager. He's dealt with a shaky bullpen all season, and Zeferjahn is as suspect as anyone the team has relied on in high-leverage situations during that time, but he's also pitched well lately. He would have offered a vastly different look than Boyd to Mitchell and Ortiz (or, if it came to that, pinch-hitter Jake Bauers), who had already seen the tiring veteran southpaw twice. This is simple stuff. No version of Counsell that existed before he came to Chicago—and, really, no version of him who has ever managed against any team other than the Brewers—sends out his starter to pitch in that situation, but when facing his former team and his former mentor, Counsell hasn't been himself.

It was a fatal error. Boyd knew he couldn't sneak a fastball past Mitchell, and didn't try, but after getting ahead 1-2, he couldn't land either his changeup or his slider anywhere near the zone. He issued a leadoff walk that conveyed the emptiness of the tank as much in the way it happened as in the fact of it. Counsell stuck with him, though, to face Ortiz. After touching 94 early in the outing and sitting 92-93 through the middle innings, he dipped to 90.4 on one fastball to the Brewers' No. 9 hitter—and even then, he wasn't able to hit the zone with it. Ortiz did the hurler a small favor by fouling off two 2-2 pitches that weren't strikes, but when Boyd then hung a curveball in the zone, the quick-twitch righty batter laced it into the corner for a double. Finally, Counsell made his move. It was too late, and far too little.

Put in no position to succeed, Zeferjahn failed. He started Jackson Chourio with two fine sinkers to get ahead 0-2, but his sweeper wasn't competitive. When forced to come back over the plate with a fastball, he threw one just above the top of the zone, but it was another sinker—that's his new M.O., even if it's not conducive to missing bats (as he needed to do in that crucial situation)—and Chourio got on top of it with ease. The inning unraveled from there, with Jacob Webb unable to do any more to stop the bleeding than Zeferjahn had done.

It's easy to dismiss Counsell's role in the meltdown, given that Zeferjahn was the clear choice to pitch in Boyd's stead to begin the inning and that he didn't get the job done, but context is everything. Had he entered with a clean inning and Mitchell been his man, there's a good chance Zeferjahn would have gotten that out. He might have then had to face Bauers—that pinch-hit opportunity was probably what scared Counsell out of going right to his reliever—but that matchup would have been preferable to asking Boyd to slog through a third showdown with Ortiz.

The times-through-the-order penalty is Sabermetrics 101, and Counsell demonstrated a comprehensive understanding of it when he managed Milwaukee. The situation screamed for Zeferjahn to start the frame. Had he done so, even if he'd gotten to Chourio with one on and one out, he would have had far more options for getting him out than he had under the circumstances in which he actually entered: tying run on third, go-ahead run on second, no outs, no margin for error. All of that is to say nothing of the mismanagement of personalities and emotions. Zeferjahn needed the clear mind and the confidence of getting the ball with the bases empty, or at least with some space between his back and the wall. His manager denied him that. He also let down his de facto ace, by forgetting that the only thing separating a pitcher who's cruising from one who's bruised is time.

Counsell is not, by and large, a bad manager. However, he's been ruthlessly beaten by Pat Murphy in every important game the two have played against one another over the last three seasons, and Monday ensured what was already obvious to everyone: the Brewers will cruise to a fourth straight NL Central title. Meanwhile, the Cubs fell back behind the Phillies in the scramble for the right to host the Wild Card Series. It was a huge loss, on a day when Boyd was masterful and Pete Crow-Armstrong was sensational, with two stolen bases and a home run in a game the team would lose 4-3. You can't pay top dollar for a manager, firing a skipper under contract for the express purpose of making the upgrade, and watch him flop this way. Together, Counsell and Hoyer continue to disappoint Cubs fans who believe the team's aspiration should be to return to the World Series.

For that matter, they disappoint others, too—the ones who notice that the only one of the original 16 big-league teams not to enjoy a decade of dominance in their league or division since the integration of the game is the one who dominates the league's third-biggest market. Monday was a sad reminder that, while Crow-Armstrong has made this season a joyous one at many turns, ownership's satisfaction with padding their pockets and slouching toward October every year remains unshaken. Hoyer is in no danger of losing his job. Neither is Counsell. But neither has done enough to make the Second City's first team more than a second-class citizen in their own division. Hoyer continues to be outdone by Matt Arnold. Counsell continues to be outfoxed by Murphy. And Milwaukee continues to make Chicago look like, well, Milwaukee. David has felled Goliath so many times that the story has worn as smooth as the stones in his sling.