Chicago Cubs: What happened to the offense?

Cubs looking to find offensive flow again

On April 28, the Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-2, winning their fourth in a row and sending some fans into an internal frenzy. Now, the fans are still in a frenzy, but for other reasons. Since that win, the Cubs have scored a combined six runs in the four games since. That’s led to a 1-4 mark and a series loss to the league-worst Milwaukee Brewers. So where has the offense gone?

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Obviously, there will be times that teams go through stretches like this and it’s not a reason to go into a mass panic. First, the Cubs did run into a few good pitchers in this stretch, and ones that have done very well against the Cubs, specifically Gerrit Cole and Mike Fiers. So is this slump attributed to good pitching or poor hitting? Likely a little bit of both, but here are a few of the obvious things that have stood out in this mini-slump.

Patience

Or the lack thereof I suppose. This was a team that was taking a league-high in pitches per at-bat, making the opposing pitchers work hard just to get into the sixth inning. Plate discipline has gone out the window in the past four games. In the last four games, the Cubs have struck out 51 times. FIFTY ONE. They’ve also only drawn nine walks in that span. They still got on base in the last four games, but they failed to put the ball in play to move runners and score runs.

Jorge Soler and Kris Bryant have had their fair share of struggles. Bryant is expected to strike out a lot, and has actually impressed with his understanding of the strike zone early on. But Soler is a bit surprising. One of the things that set him apart was his ability to recognize pitches. Suddenly, the slider down and away is kryptonite. And the word is out, so Soler will need to make adjustments, and soon.

Is Stealing illegal?

The Cubs are still second in the league in stolen bases, which in itself is an amazing stat. But the prior issue of patience has directly affected the success on the basepaths. Skipper Joe Maddon loves to put runners in motion, sometimes to try to move runner first to third, other times to just force the opponent to make a play. It has become somewhat of the Cubs calling card this season, as Maddon has run with everyone.

But when you’re team suddenly can’t put the ball in play, that’s a recipe for disaster if you aren’t trying to steal with “speed” guys. So Maddon let off the gas on the basepaths. During the four-game win streak, the Cubs stole nine, were caught only twice. During this little skid, just one steal in three attempts. This is a direct correlation of what’s happening at the plate. Maddon can’t send runners if they’re going to strike out 10-15 times per game.

Defense affecting the offense

This has suddenly become an issue, and it’s frustrating to watch. Nothing stands out in my mind more than Anthony Rizzo casually going over to retrieve an errant throw, and having a fan–A FAN–yell at him that the runner was headed to third as he turned and fired a throw to nobody imparticular to allow the runner to score. We have picked apart Starlin Castro for less. Shame on you Rizzo.

They’ve committed two errors in three of the last four games. The only one they didn’t was the masterful game by Jon Lester and the bullpen in a 1-0 win. Basically, they didn’t have a chance to commit any. How is the offense affected by this? Pressure at-bats. The Cubs are clearly pressing at the plate (see strikeouts), due to poor defense putting them at a disadvantage. It all ties together for this tough stretch the team has had.

In Closing..Don’t Panic!

This is a talented team, with a great coaching staff. These are the sort of issues that we knew would rear their head this season. It’s a young team, and things like this will happen. While it’s frustrating to see the play of the last four games, falling into the “here we go again” mentality is misplaced. This isn’t a Cubs team that’s been overachieving that’s now falling back to the “norm”.

The Cubs will right the ship and get back on track offensively. This series in St. Louis would be a great place to start, as per usual, the Cardinals haven’t skipped a beat after losing Adam Wainwright for the season. But the Cubs are no longer going to lay down for the Cards.

#LetsGo

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