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Kyle Tucker hitting a home run against the Athletics

Chicago Cubs star Kyle Tucker broke out of his slump Friday and Saturday against the Los Angeles Angels, going a combined 4-for-9 over the two games with three home runs and six runs batted in. Cubs Manager Craig Counsell was asked about Tuckers’ performance after Saturday’s game and stood up for his player after he received some backlash during the slump.

“I think this was coming, this is the nature of the game,” Counsell said. “We don’t want slumps, we hate slumps, they’re mentally exhausting to go through, but they happen. Kyle will be better moving forward because of this. It’s part of the game, it happens and you’ve got to get through it. He’s a great player and he works hard to figure it out and get back on track. We needed him to do it and he’s done so.”

In his previous eight games, Tucker had a line of 2-for-28, and was benched for a game against the Milwaukee Brewers to give him a reset. He answered the bell with a resounding thump after his skid and now seems to have his mojo back.

Tucker is a Huge Part of Chicago’s Success This Season

After spending his first seven seasons with the Houston Astros, Tucker signed a one-year deal with the Cubs in the offseason, worth $16.5 million dollars. With a roster that Cubs management thought was ready to contend, they went out and made a splash by signing him and he has delivered as a perfect compliment power piece to an already powerful lineup.

Tucker has a 4.4 WAR, good for second on the team below young phenom Pete Crow-Armstrong and reliable second baseman Nico Hoerner. Tucker’s 21 home runs are fourth best on the team. He was named an all-star starter back in July.

He also has 24 stolen bases and has been a reliable outfielder with just two errors on the season.

Can the Cubs Catch the Brewers in the NL Central Race?

The Milwaukee Brewers have exploded out of nowhere to overtake what most thought was the Cubs division to lose at the beginning of the season. However, after their monstrous 14 game winning streak, the Brewers dropped 3 of 5 to the Cubs, who have given Milwaukee some of it’s best competition this season.

Though the Cubs are six games back of the Brewers at the moment, Chicago plays the second easiest remaining schedule in the MLB, with 10 of their remaining 32 games coming against the truly abysmal Colorado Rockies and Chicago White Sox. The Brewers on the other hand have a gauntlet in the final month, taking on the Toronto Blue Jays, Philadelphia Phillies and San Diego Padres three times each and playing a St. Louis Cardinals team that is fighting tooth and nail to eke into the playoffs six times.

It’ll be an uphill battle for the Cubs to mount enough wins to catch Milwaukee, but crazier things have happened. Either way, it does feel like the Cubs and Brewers are set on a collision course to meet each other in the playoffs at some point for a series that will be in contention for one of the best matchups of the year.

Matt Skillings Matt Skillings is a Boston based sports journalist and a graduate of UMass Amherst, where he majored in journalism and communication. Matt covered the UMass men’s ice hockey team for three years for the Massachusetts Daily Collegian. He was also a media intern for the Harwich Mariners of the Cape Cod Baseball League for two summers. Matt has additional bylines with the New England Hockey Journal, the Boston Globe and MassLive. More about Matt Skillings