KANSAS CITY – Pete Crow-Armstrong is perhaps baseball’s best defender.
But for the second time in four games, the Cubs’ MVP candidate was not in his usual spot center field but DH’ing, off his feet once more as the team comes to the end of a stretch of 17 games in 17 days.
“We’ve got tired players, for sure,” manager Craig Counsell said before Saturday’s game, a 6-3 loss to the Royals.
It’s a daunting stretch for any team, but in the face of such a physical challenge, the Cubs have thrived, going 11-5 with one game remaining before Monday’s off day.
The Cubs came into Saturday tops in the NL with a .770 OPS, 144 hits and 81 runs scored since the stretch began July 24.
Their starting pitching was particularly impressive, with a 2.65 ERA that ranked second in the NL. Remove Jameson Taillon’s seven-run clunker in his final game with the Cubs, and that number was down to 2.03, second best in baseball.
In the thick of it all, the Cubs went through an eventful trade deadline, which saw an aggressive front office try to best position them for a deep October run, and a raucous sweep of the juggernaut Dodgers.
“This was 17 in a row. For most teams, that’s their longest stretch of the season,” Counsell said. “It happened at a time in the season where the trade deadline’s around it, which creates a lot around the team. Some hot weather in multiple cities that you play in, you always worry about it.
“We’ve handled the first 15 games exceptionally well, especially our starting pitching has been outstanding for this stretch and, to me, the key to this. That’s what can go wrong in [a stretch like this] more than anything, [impacting the bullpen], and they’ve been excellent.”
Happ gets ahold of one
Left fielder Ian Happ has been struggling at the plate, coming into Saturday hitting just .162 with a sub-.300 on-base percentage and only one home run in his previous 34 games. A four-strikeout game Friday was particularly ugly.
But he got off the schneid Saturday, snapping an 0-for-22 stretch at the dish by homering for the first time since July 20.
That the dinger came off a righty won’t make his splits any less dramatic; he came into Saturday with a .798 OPS against right-handers versus a .517 OPS against left-handers.
But it was a positive result for an important Cubs hitter.
“Ian’s going through a tough stretch,” Counsell said. “I know there’s more really good streaks where he could carry the team hitting left-handed, and he has done that at times this year. That’s going to happen again.
“For us to be the best team we can be, we need Ian Happ to be a good player. That’s the most important thing.”
Holmes rusty in return
Newly acquired right-hander Clay Holmes made his Cubs debut Saturday, his first time in a big league game since May 15, when he went on the injured list with a fractured fibula.
It didn’t go too great, with Holmes tagged for four runs in four innings of work.
A brief outing was not entirely unexpected, given the long layoff.
“I don’t think any player really hits their stride the first [game back from an extended absence],” Counsell said. “He has been out for three months. He hasn’t been in this compete mode for a while, and that part, we’ve got to quicken it up as much as we can but it’s probably going to take a little time.”