Catcher Carson Kelly offered solid advice for the pitching staff after the Chicago Cubs forced a decisive fifth game of their National League Division Series against the Milwaukee Brewers.
“Everybody get a good night’s sleep,” Kelly said Thursday after the 6-0 victory in Game 4 at Wrigley Field. “Because we’re all going to need you.”
The fifth and final game of the Cubs-Brewers division series takes place Saturday evening at American Family Field in Milwaukee (7:08 p.m., TBS).
As of early Friday evening, the Cubs had not settled on a starting pitcher.
“This is a game where we’re going to have everybody available, maybe with the exception of Matt Boyd — everyone’s going to be available,” manager Craig Counsell said during a videoconference call Friday. “It’s cliche here, but we’ve got 11 pitchers to figure out how to get 27 outs. That’s how we’re treating it.
“We’re certainly going to need the bullpen formula that we’ve used (featuring a mixture of Drew Pomeranz, Daniel Palencia, Andrew Kittredge, Caleb Thielbar and Brad Keller). we’re going to have to get half the outs from not those five guys, right? And that’s how we’re looking at it and that’s what we’re going to have to get.”
Counsell shot down the possibility of Cade Horton finding a way back for Saturday but noted the right-hander — who’s recovering from a right rib fracture — had a positive day while participating in a bullpen session.
“He threw an up-down bullpen — he threw an inning, sat and then went out and threw another inning,” Counsell said. “Everything went really well. How he feels post and how he feels tomorrow are really important, but the actual throwing session went really well.”
The Brewers also were going through their pitching plans as of Friday evening.
“I just met with the pitching coaches for an hour, went through a lot of different scenarios,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said in a videoconference call Friday. “We’re going to meet again after, have a little informal workout. After that, we’ll sit down and hash it out and tomorrow morning we’ll probably get to the final answer.”
Murphy said the schedule — with off days after Games 1, 2 and 4 — has been helpful in terms of having pitchers available for Game 5.
“They’re young players, most of them without a lot of experience,” Murphy said. “They’re worn out, but now at least they get a rest and they realize, ‘Hey, this is whoever can throw with the right mindset, you’re in there.’ ”
Counsell figures the Brewers will apply a similar strategy to the one the Cubs have in mind.
“I think they’re looking at it the same way we are,” he said. “They may have a couple guys down because they’ve had a couple guys pitch a little more, but we know we’re going to see (Jacob) Misiorowski, we know we’re going to see (Abner) Uribe, (Jared) Koenig, (Trevor) Megill.
“You kind of plan on seeing those guys, those are their top guys. And everybody else is available, I’m sure. In a scenario like this, it’s a bunch of that. And our job is to make it hard on those guys, affect the plan and put them in bad situations.”
Murphy said when it comes to the Cubs’ pitching plans, the Brewers have the “ifs or buts” in place.
“We probably know it’s this guy or that guy, but at the same time we’re ready for anything,” Murphy said. “That’s what you have to be this time of year.”
After losing the first two games of the series in Milwaukee, the Cubs responded with two wins at home to set up Game 5.
“We’ve been resilient all season, that’s just something we’ve been really consistent with and something that we continue to do and that’s a huge part of who we are,” Cubs third baseman Matt Shaw said Thursday.
Now comes the win-or-go-home scenario.
“They obviously have been a great team all year, as we have been too,” Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson said Thursday. “It’s just going to be an all-out competition. It’s going to be everything they’ve got, everything we’ve got.
“We’ve just got to continue to play good ball, we’ve got to continue to pitch, play defense and have timely hitting. And I think we’re well-suited to go up there and play good ball, and we’ve just got to do it.”
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