A soft line drive into shallow left-center field isn’t the most crowd-pleasing way to start a rally, but for Cody Bellinger, it got the job done. Two batters later, Jared Young lined the first pitch he saw into the right-field corner for an RBI triple that tied the score.
The sequence indicated that the Cubs were on their way to addressing their issues against right-handed pitching by strengthening their left-handed hitting group. But it was only the second inning of what turned into a 3-1 loss to the Phillies on Thursday. The Cubs’ skid reached four games, a sign that they still have things to figure out if they want to go into the All-Star break on a positive note.
“It’s unfortunate,” said starter Kyle Hendricks, who limited the Phillies to three runs in seven innings. “We’d been playing so good. And then even going to London, it was a great trip, but dropping that second one and coming back, it’s just trying to get back in routine and back on our timing. Guys are working through their bodies feeling some different stuff.”
Along with the physical effects they’re battling after the London Series, mental mistakes killed two potential rallies that could have put the Cubs over the top.
“Not our smartest baseball,” manager Davis Ross said. “We’ll be better for it.”
The first gaffe came in the fourth inning. With two outs and runners on first and second, Nick Madrigal had a chance to cut the Phillies’ lead to one run. On the first pitch, he squared around for a sneaky bunt and pushed it right to Phillies first baseman Kody Clemens to end the inning.
“Nick just forgot how many outs there were,” Ross said.
The next inning, the Cubs again put runners on first and third. Christopher Morel, who has 13 home runs and went 2-for-3, laid down a sacrifice bunt, moving Nico Hoerner from first to second.
“I was trying to [drive in a run] and just help the team,” Morel said.
Instead, Phillies pitcher Taijuan Walker retired the next two batters, stranding both runners.
“Now he knows what’s expected of him,” Ross said. “Three-hole hitter, we want him to bang. But you can see why you love the kid so much, and the way his mind works, and how much he cares about winning. He’s still learning.”
A four-game skid isn’t going to sink the Cubs’ season. An inability to bounce back, however, could. And issues against right-handed pitching were a theme through the team’s May struggles, a stretch they can’t afford to repeat.
The Cubs roster skews toward the right-handed side with every-day players Dansby Swanson, Nico Hoerner and Seiya Suzuki. Their most-used third basemen — Patrick Wisdom and Madrigal — are right-handed.
So when the left-handed Bellinger went on the injured list last month, the Cubs felt his absence. Since his injury, the Cubs were batting .237 against right-handed pitching entering Thursday. By comparison, the team was batting .277 against lefties in that span.
The Cubs have seen a shift thanks to a few developments. Ross identified the Cubs’ series in San Francisco — when he shuffled the batting order and put Mike Tauchman, a left-handed batter, at the top — as a turning point. Tauchman had a .387 OPS entering Thursday.
Bellinger, after being sidelined for a month, went 2-for-19 in his first six games back. But on Thursday he extended his hitting streak to five games. And this week, the Cubs promoted rookie first baseman Jared Young to the majors for the second big-league stint of his career and first of the year.
“Those are gonna be important at-bats for us, those left-handed bats, for sure,” Ross said before the game. “We’ve done a nice job against lefties with all the right-handed bats. Things seem to be turning around a little bit from the left side for us.”
