It won't get any more difficult than that.
Hector Gomez homered and tripled for the first time in his career, the Milwaukee Brewers rallied for three in the eighth, and Craig Counsell won his managerial debut with a come-from-behind 4-3 victory over the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers and ace Clayton Kershaw on Monday.
"It's a very special day," an emotional Counsell told reporters after the game. "Those guys wrote a pretty good story tonight. It wasn't looking good early."
Counsell, who was introduced as the club's manager less than 24 hours after the team fired Ron Roenicke, entered the series opener with no previous manager experience.
It didn't show.
Counsell demonstrated a knack for in-game decision-making by pinch-hitting Gerardo Parra for reliever Neal Cotts with his team trailing 3-0 in the sixth inning. Parra promptly delivered the second of back-to-back triples to plate Gomez before the club rallied for three more in the eighth, including the go-ahead run on a broken-bat infield single, to secure Counsell his first career win.
(Courtesy: MLB.com)
Counsell, who took a front-office position with the Brewers after his playing career ended following the 2011 campaign, is expected to receive a three-year deal.
"They made the first one memorable," Counsell said. "The first thing you notice is they're having fun in there right now. We should enjoy that."
Gomez, meanwhile, not only hit the first homer and triple of his career, he also became the first player to collect both in the same game off Kershaw.
"I wanted to hit my first home run off a big name in the big leagues," he said.
Roenicke was fired Sunday night after overseeing a 7-18 start for the Brewers that included losses in 13 of their first 15 games. The 58-year-old skipper compiled a 341-331 record across five seasons, but failed to guide Milwaukee to a finish higher than third since winning 96 games in his first year at the helm.
