Chicago Cubs: Ben Zobrist making strong push for the National League batting title

Chicago Cubs: Meet Ben Zobrist: Professional hitter

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When Zo has hit, he’s been hitting in bunches as he’s recorded 40 multi-hit games this season. He recorded two four-hit games back in July – both of which came against the St. Louis Cardinals.

What has really benefited Zobrist and allowed him to stay sharp has been the rest he’s gotten this season. To this point, the Cubs have played 157 games and Zobrist has only played in 134 of them. That has significantly cut down his at-bats but it has kept him fresh and rejuvenated allowing him to make the most of his opportunities. Just for comparison, Zobrist only has 435 at-bats on the year while Javier Baez leads the Cubs with 582 at-bats.

Due to Zobrist being well-rested this season, he is hitting the ball much harder than he has throughout his career. For his career, Zobrist makes hard contact 30.2 percent of the time. But this season his hard contact rate has skyrocketed to 35.7 percent, a new career-high.

The utility man also seems to have altered his approach at the plate this season. During his time as a Cub he has primarily been a pull hitter, but this season he is going the other way more. This year Zobrist has been hitting to the opposite field 22 percent of the time compared to 17.6 percent last season.