Cubs star Kyle Tucker fouled off the first two pitches he saw Tuesday \u2014 a pair of splitters, one on the outer third of the plate and the other on the inner third.<\/p>\n
When he\u2019s in a groove, Tucker usually puts one of those in play. But instead, continuing to battle an offensive slump, he found himself in an 0-2 count. He watched the next pitch, a high fastball, but then whiffed on a third splitter at the bottom of the strike zone.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I\u2019m still swinging at the pitches I want to and taking the ones I don\u2019t want to swing at,\u201d he said this week. \u201cPitches over the plate, I just end up fouling off, or might swing and miss at times. And then I just end up getting in worse counts, and kind of just doesn\u2019t work out from there. But I still swing at the [right] pitches. I just need to figure out how to put those forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tucker isn\u2019t the only Cubs hitter in a rut. Though Seiya Suzuki\u2019s breakout performance Wednesday helped propel the Cubs to a strong offensive day in the series finale against the Reds, the Cubs have been in the bottom third of the majors in run-scoring since the All-Star break.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Brewers have been surging. After taking two out of three against the Cubs last week, they went on a six-game winning streak. On Tuesday, they put the finishing touches on their best 60-game stretch (44-16) in any season in franchise history. They entered Thursday with the best record in MLB (70-44) and a four-game lead on the Cubs in the NL Central.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a very good offensive baseball team,\u201d Cubs manager Craig Counsell said this week of pulling out of a collective slump. \u201cIt will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
The specter of last season\u2019s seven-week collective slump is hard to ignore. But the Cubs added Tucker, the caliber of hitter that can carry a team through a rut, this offseason in an effort to avoid repeating history.<\/p>\n
He just has to get out of his own offensive dip.<\/p>\n
Tucker posted a .295 slugging percentage in the month of July. His plate discipline still was getting him on base, at a .380 clip, but it was a dramatic drop-off from his torrid offensive start to the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt sucks,\u201d Tucker said. \u201cBut at the same time, we\u2019ve got another game the next day. So you\u2019ve got to, each at-bat, try to refocus and try and do what you want that at-bat, and do what you can to move runners over, try to get them in. So regardless of how you\u2019ve been doing over a stretch of time, you just try to do whatever you can to win that game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Counsell gave Tucker the day off Wednesday, leading into the Thursday off day.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got very high expectations of himself, and when he doesn\u2019t meet him, he\u2019s frustrated,\u201d Counsell said. \u201cSo this is just a mental break, nothing physical. Super confident that he\u2019s going to get it back going and he\u2019s going to have a great last 50 games.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tucker also battled through a jammed finger that kept him out of the starting lineup for two consecutive games in early June. Even playing through the discomfort, he recorded a .982 OPS that month.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know it did bother him for a while,\u201d president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said this week. \u201cI don\u2019t know whether it still bothers him, whether it created some bad habits along the way \u2014 compensating and things like that. But there\u2019s no question that when you look at his numbers, it\u2019s had an impact on him, for sure. Sometimes these small injuries, they can do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tucker downplayed the impact.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s fine,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve got to go to my job regardless of how I feel. So I\u2019m just trying to just continue that as best I can.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cubs avoided a sweep with a 6-1 victory Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Kittredge struck out three consecutive batters on nine pitches in the seventh inning in the Cubs\u2019 6-1 win against the Reds.<\/p>\n
Jen Pawol will work the bases in the Marlins-Braves doubleheader Saturday at Truist Park and the plate on Sunday, MLB said Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Tucker is still getting on base at a high clip, but he’s just missing pitches he normally drives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":74754,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\n