Rozner: No time for Cubs to stew in this one

This has been building for weeks, this Brewers run at the Cubs.

It's been building and building toward this crescendo, the Cubs dancing about the ring, trying to stay ahead on points, hoping not to get nailed, but knowing all along the knockout punch was right there at any moment.

The rope-a-dope almost got them through the final round.

Almost.

But it wasn't just that the visitors walked into Wrigley Field Monday afternoon offering little respect and no fear and bloodied the Cubs' collective noses. The Brewers also walked away with the Cubs' division title.

And it was the way in which they did it that was so unpalatable.

No, they're not afraid of the Big Bad Cubs anymore. In fact, much like the Cubs took down the Pirates and Cardinals as upstarts in 2015, the Brewers seem to have little regard for a team that's averaged 97 wins the last four years.

Even worse, the Cubs - whose fans are known for traveling so well - had to hear it from thousands of Milwaukee fans who made the trip south.

Ouch.

It was about as insulting as it could get, with National League MVP Christian Yelich sticking it to Javy Baez and the Cubs, and then the Brewers had the ultimate party, jumping and screaming and whooping it up on the Cubs' own turf.

They celebrated in the tiny visitor's clubhouse and then brought it back out onto the field, taking pictures and watching their kids run the bases.

More than two hours after the game, their clubhouse and bus were being serenaded from outside the park with loud chants of, "Let's go Brewers! Let's Go Brewers!"

Yes, go Brewers. Go back to Milwaukee and take two days off and wait to see who survives the Coin Flip Game Tuesday night at Wrigley Field.

"That's a really good team over there," said Brewers GM David Stearns, showing an abundance of class. "I was sitting with a bunch of the guys in my group and we looked up and it's 1-1 in the seventh inning.

"I turned around and said, 'Big shocker. Tie game, seventh inning, Brewers-Cubs.' That's the way it's been all year.

"If we see them again, it's going to be that way in the division series. But right now we're going to enjoy this."

That's small consolation for the North Siders after a crushing 3-1 defeat, that they might see the Brewers again. A Cubs victory Tuesday would mean another shot at them, that series beginning Thursday in Milwaukee.

"It's not fun. We'd prefer the other route," said Cubs manager Joe Maddon. "We have to lick our wounds, come back tomorrow and we'll get another shot at it."

This time, no one could blame it on Maddon, who managed the game perfectly.

What he couldn't do, what was so eminently predictable, was match the Cubs' bullpen with the Brewers' dominant relief corps, and in the process of losing Game 163 the Cubs also burned through anyone worth a spit cup who resides under the left-field bleachers.

It'll be the right guy on the mound Tuesday night in Jon Lester, and also available will be Cole Hamels, who threw 104 pitches in a fine outing Saturday, a 2-1 loss to St. Louis that ultimately cost the Cubs the division title.

"We feel great about tomorrow," said Kris Bryant. "We have Jon on the mound. He's a big-game pitcher. He knows the magnitude of the situation and you can't ask for a better guy to go out and pitch in a one-game playoff."

The Cubs got a good one out of Jose Quintana Monday, but after Jesse Chavez pitched 2 scoreless, the likes of Justin Wilson, Steve Cishek and Brandon Kintzler could not compete with the likes of Corey Knebel and Josh Hader.

The Cubs managed only 3 hits, a total matched by Yelich and surpassed by Orlando Arcia, while Baez struck out twice, once to end the sixth with two on and two out and the game tied at 1-1.

For Cubs players, management and fans, it was about as unpleasant a day as they could have, despite a well-played and brilliant Game 163.

"We're not dead in the water. We have another opportunity," Maddon said, remaining upbeat. "I've been involved with wild card teams that have gone all the way. It happens.

"So you just have to throw this away very quickly. You can't let it negatively affect your thought process. It shouldn't. Tough game. They got more runs than we did.

"We just have to move on and get ready for tomorrow. There's no lamenting. There's no crying."

Not in baseball and certainly not when there's another baseball game to be played.

On to Game 164.