Brown gets taste of playoff atmosphere in 'electric' duel with Skubal

DETROIT -- Ben Brown hopes to experience a postseason atmosphere in the fall with this Cubs team. When he took the mound at Comerica Park on Friday night -- facing Tigers ace Tarik Skubal in front of a packed, rowdy audience -- the young starter could imagine this was an early taste of October.

“That was definitely the most high-leverage, intense game I’ve ever pitched in my life,” Brown said. “That was electric.”

And similar to a playoff game, one small misstep can wind up under the magnifying glass as a turning point. That certainly felt like the case in the Cubs’ 3-1 loss to Skubal and the American League-leading Tigers, who capitalized on a few key moments and made some spectacular plays in the field to claim the opener of this anticipated series with Chicago.

Even before Skubal threw the first pitch of the night’s contest -- one that drew an announced sellout crowd of 40,132 -- Cubs manager Craig Counsell spent a portion of his pregame media session fielding questions about the Tigers’ ace, Detroit’s resurgence and whether this felt like a bigger weekend than most with all the hype around it.

“Look, it’s a series in June,” Counsell said. “We’ve heard there’s going to be a lot of people here this weekend -- that’s fun. It’s fun for our players. They love that. It’s a challenge against a good team -- we love that. But other than that, it’s three games. And that’s how you’ve got to treat it.”

In a second strong outing in a row, Brown was up to the challenge.

The Cubs righty struck out seven across seven innings and limited the Tigers to two runs, but that was damage enough opposite Skubal. The reigning AL Cy Young Award winner trimmed his ERA to 2.16 on the season with 7 2/3 innings in which he struck out six, walked none and allowed only one run.

When Kyle Tucker drove a pitch into the right-center gap in the sixth inning for an RBI double for Chicago’s lone run, it snapped a 21-inning scoreless streak for Skubal. The lefty allowed a season-high eight hits as well, but there was no solace in that silver lining.

“That’s what you kind of grow up dreaming about -- going up against another ace,” Brown said. “Being able to do that is really awesome, just keeping the team in the ballgame. But ultimately, I made some mistakes and we lost. We’ve got to regroup.”

One costly mistake arrived in the fifth inning.

After the speedy Pete Crow-Armstrong led off with a single, Dansby Swanson pulled a pitch from Skubal into the left-field corner for a double. Crow-Armstrong raced around to third and began slowing into the base. At the same moment, Cubs third-base coach Quintin Berry was watching left fielder Riley Greene and began waving the runner home.

Crow-Armstrong saw the green light and sped up again -- just as Berry then motioned for him to stop. The Cubs outfielder tried to scramble back to third base, but the Tigers completed a swift relay to nab Crow-Armstrong in time.

“I’d rather my coach be aggressive than not,” Crow-Armstrong said. “The play was behind me, so I didn’t really know what was going on. So, I put my trust in him, and I’ll do it the rest of the year as well.”

Added Counsell: “If Q could do it over, I think he’d probably just try to keep his eyes on Pete a little bit in addition. He’s trying to -- you’ve got to keep eyes on both people. He thought there was maybe a chance to score him if Pete’s coming. Pete saw it the other way, right?”

It was a gift Skubal did not expect to receive.

"It was great,” Skubal said. “Now you feel like you can kind of MacGyver and get out of it.”

Skubal set down the next two batters to escape that jam. Detroit’s defense stopped Chicago at a few other key points.

In the second inning, Crow-Armstrong slashed a Skubal pitch to deep left, where Greene made a leaping grab at the wall. With the Cubs trailing, 2-1, in the eighth inning, Tigers right fielder Kerry Carpenter made a jumping catch at the wall to rob Seiya Suzuki of a potential extra-base hit with two outs and two runners aboard.

“Credit to them,” Counsell said. “Good pitcher on the mound, and you make five really good plays? That’s going to be tough.”

It was a good test for players like Brown who have not been on the October stage.

“I’ve never been in the playoffs before,” he said. “But I can’t imagine it feeling much different than that.”