Cubs: Seiya Suzuki scorching hot; belts a three-run moonshot

First impressions might not be everything, but, boy, making a good one sure doesn’t hurt things. Just ask new Chicago Cubs outfielder Seiya Suzuki, who continued his torrid start to the season on Sunday by hitting an absolute tank into the left-center field bleachers for his first big league home run.

Cubs beat writer Jordan Bastian broke down Suzuki’s first 10 plate appearances in the big leagues in a great tweet (check it out here) – noting he has swung and missed on one of the 46 pitches he’s seen so far. He’s shown himself to be a tremendously patient hitter, willing to wait out pitchers for a location he’s targeting instead of chasing.

As I’m writing this, Suzuki just wrapped up his 11th plate appearance – and saw seven more pitches en route to a walk here in the third inning. Oh, and he didn’t swing and miss at a single pitch from Freddy Peralta in this trip to the plate, either.

He has epitomized what we’ve seen from the entire lineup here in the first three games of the year: a much more disciplined, patient approach virtually every at-bat. The Cubs bats quickly wore down one of the most potent trio of starters in all baseball this weekend, putting the reigning NL Central champs on notice right out of the gates.

(After all, Chicago topped Milwaukee just four times all last year – and with a lead here on Sunday, could be three-quarters of the way there heading into Monday’s off-day).

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Now, as we all know, there’s a lot of baseball to be played. Odds are, Suzuki isn’t going to maintain his insane pace (I’d happily eat some crow here) – and the Cubs aren’t going to dominate like they have this weekend. But it’s been a really exciting start to this new era on the North Side and Suzuki has been a big part of it.