CHICAGO — While Shota Imanaga’s fading late-season performance is beginning to look all too familiar, Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell continues to back the Japanese lefty, hoping he can recapture some of his All-Star form.When a pitcher is in jeopardy of losing his job, Counsell typically acknowledges that those internal conversations are taking place before the club makes a swift personnel decision. Tellingly, the Cubs manager did not go there after Sunday’s 7-5 loss to the Cincinnati Reds, and he reaffirmed that plan during Monday’s pregame media briefing at Wrigley Field.“Shota’s going to make his next start,” Counsell said. “We’re going to continue to work on — like everybody — having him just be more effective. Be your best possible self, and as effective as you possibly can. That work never stops. We need Shota to be one of our guys.”On the last day of August, the Milwaukee Brewers visited the Friendly Confines for a four-game series that began Monday night with Chicago’s 17-3 victory. Milwaukee conceded in the middle of the game by having position player Andrew Vaughn throw two innings, watching him give up seven runs and three homers. It is always about the pitching — cultivating it, maintaining it and maximizing it.The Brewers are a reminder of how the Cubs shunned Imanaga at the end of last year’s playoff run. Rather than start him in an October elimination game in Milwaukee, the Cubs used Drew Pomeranz as an opener. Counsell then pieced together the next seven innings with five pitchers in an eventual 3-1 loss in Game 5 of the National League Division Series.It’s also important to remember what Counsell expressed at last year’s Winter Meetings: The Cubs expended so many pitching resources in the wild-card round and the Milwaukee series that, even if they had won the NLDS, it would have been extremely difficult to then beat the Los Angeles Dodgers and the American League champions in succession.As the Toronto Blue Jays tried to dethrone the defending World Series champs, they lost an 18-inning Game 3 at Dodger Stadium that drained both teams. Kevin Gausman, the big-game pitcher the Cubs acquired from Toronto this summer, started Game 6 on Halloween. The Blue Jays extended their season into November by pushing the Dodgers to the 11th inning of Game 7.