Column: Matchup between managers David Ross and Craig Counsell adds some spice to the Chicago Cubs-Milwaukee Brewers rivalry

There might not have been an obvious turning point to the Chicago Cubs’ season.

But the extra-inning win in Milwaukee on the Fourth of July, which ended with manager David Ross’s profane postgame rant about the closing of the roof at American Family Field, was probably as good a place as any to start.

“It’s really un-American to shut the roof on the Fourth of July,” Ross said the next day. “I don’t know who does that. It was a beautiful day.”

The Cubs were seven games under .500 at 38-45 entering the holiday. They went 31-16 over their next 47 games, a .660 winning percentage that catapulted them into a wild-card spot and kept them within spitting distance of first place, four games behind the Brewers in the National League Central entering Monday’s showdown at Wrigley Field.

It was another beautiful day as Cubs starter Jameson Taillon faced Brewers left-hander Wade Miley in the opening game of a key three-game series.

Sister Jean of Loyola University threw out the ceremonial first pitch before giving way to Taillon, who looked like he didn’t have the same stuff as the 104-year-old nun, giving up a leadoff home run to Christian Yelich on the third pitch and another two-run shot in the inning to Mark Canha, putting the Cubs in a quick 4-0 hole.

The Cubs entered the series with as much confidence as they’ve shown all season but faced a red-hot Brewers team riding an eight-game streak that left them a season-high 16 games over .500.

“That core of starters has been there since ’19 or ’20ish,” Cubs left fielder Ian Happ said. “All those guys have been throwing, so they’ve done a great job with the core. Obviously, Wade was here and we know him well. What he’s been through this year has been fantastic. They’ve always done a good job with the bullpen.”

There was no roof controversy to speak of, naturally, because there was no roof. Instead of serving as a walking, talking piñata for angry Cubs fans for the team’s underachieving ways, as he did over the first three months, Ross was suddenly enjoying the fruits of managing a contending team on the upswing.

The last time he was in this kind of position was September 2020, when no one was in the stands and the Cubs were heading to the playoffs in the pandemic-shortened season.

Ross still gets criticized on social media for his lineups and pitching decisions, but it’s hard to argue with the team’s success and his contribution to the turnaround.

He has handled the bullpen deftly for the most part, moving Michael Fulmer from the closer’s role early on and settling in with Adbert Alzolay. He helped get Christopher Morel and Seiya Suzuki out of prolonged slumps with well-timed “timeouts” on the bench, made the right call to cut the playing time of struggling veterans like Eric Hosmer and Trey Mancini, and moved starter Drew Smyly to the bullpen not once, but twice.

Now the onus is on Ross to get the Cubs into the postseason with two rookie starters in Javier Assad and Jordan Wicks, a first-time closer in Alzolay, and a team that suddenly looks like it has shed the inconsistencies that led to a roller coaster ride from April through June. Marcus Stroman was back in Chicago being checked by doctors, but his status remains doubtful for the stretch run after suffering the mysterious fractured right rib cartilage.

If Ross manages to get a team that was 10 games under .500 into October, even his harshest critics will be hard-pressed to deny him credit. But if they fall short, he’ll be an easy target on social media.

Ross’ counterpart, Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell, has already proven he knows how to get the Brewers through the rigors of a pennant race. He guided the Brewers to the playoffs four straight seasons from 2018-21 before missing out last year, then regrouped again with another team that has relied heavily on its three highly respected starters — Corbin Burnes, Brandon Woodruff and Freddy Peralta — and closer Devin Williams.

Counsell, the longest-tenured National League manager in his ninth season, decided before the season began that he’d go into the final year of his contract without discussing an extension. That could make him one of the coveted free-agent managers in November, and one who would look awfully sharp wearing black and white on the South Side of Chicago.

But Counsell could take time off for personal reasons, and his relationship with Brewers management and owner Mark Attanasio remains strong, so it’s not as if he’s being forced to look elsewhere.

“It’s up to Craig,” Attanasio told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. “We’d love to have him here, obviously for a jillion reasons.”

Counsell declined to talk about his future Monday, focusing on the present task of getting the Brewers back into October again. Like Ross, Counsell also has taken plenty of heat in Milwaukee over the years from a fan base frustrated over the fact the Brewers haven’t been to a World Series since 1982, when they played in the American League.

“The thing that you respect from across the way is a former player, who was in the front office and got a chance to be a part of rebuilding something over there,” Ross said of Counsell before the game. “(They were) not very good for a couple of years. I can see that and relate to that.

“And then to put a stamp on things and been pretty consistent winning in what I guess you would call a small market. So I think there is a lot of credit to be given (for) that. Now I’m going to try and go out and kick his butt.”

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