Brewers fans windmill dunk on Craig Counsell, Cubs after explosive Game 1 start

A leadoff home run from Chicago Cubs first baseman Michael Busch in the top of the first inning appeared to set an ominous tone for the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 1 of the NLDS. This Brewers team has developed a reputation for coming apart in the postseason; all that soft contact does not, traditionally, play well in October.

But Freddy Peralta slammed the door on Chicago the rest of that inning and handed it to the Brewers offense with only a one-run deficit. Milwaukee began their half of the frame with three straight doubles to take the lead. And then the wheels came off for Matthew Boyd, as Chicago's All-Star ace couldn't even get through the first inning.

Chicago went down 6-1 after the first inning. Then it was 9-1 after the second inning. It was just a surgical dismantling from the Brewers offense: Chicago needed three pitchers (three!) to get through two frames, and that's after burning the candle on both ends, so to speak, with hefty bullpen usage in the Wild Card. There simply was no worse imaginable start for Craig Counsell's club as MLB's highest-paid manager faces his former team. You know, the one he left for the explicit purpose of winning more games in October.

Naturally ... Brewers fans are enjoying this one.

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Brewers fans dunk on Craig Counsell and Cubs after disastrous Game 1 start

Need I continue?

Counsell is in absolute hell. Every cut to the Cubs dugout shows him going through a different stage of the grief process. I'm not going to say he's rethinking all his life choices leading up to this precise moment, but ... well, how could he not?

When Counsell left the Brewers in sudden and shocking fashion two years ago, he expressed his desire for a new challenge — meaning, he was excited for the resources available to him in Chicago that were simply not an option in Milwaukee. The Cubs spend more money! The Cubs are a marquee destination! Meanwhile, here is Michael Soroka, Jed Hoyer's biggest trade deadline addition, giving the Cubs three outs (and three earned runs) out of the bullpen in relief of Boyd.

The problem with joining the Cubs in pursuit of "resources" is that Chicago's ownership is notoriously cheap and Hoyer attacks every trade deadline with the most timid energy imaginable. The man does not take risks. Like, almost ever. And when he does, you end up with Kyle Tucker on an expiring contract, no hopes for an extension and a depth chart so thin it might shatter in a light breeze.

Chicago still has four more games to get back into this series. It's not over. One bad game does not define a team's season, nor their capacity for something great. The Cubs' offense is the real deal. The defense — normally — is pretty airtight. It's not like the Brewers are signed, sealed and delivered to the NLCS already. But man, this was a brutal start and a sobering moment for Counsell, who won't hear the end of it if Milwaukee finally breaks through in October against him.