Chicago Cubs’ Cody Bellinger jogs to first but is forced out during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves, Wednesday, May 22, 2024, in Chicago.
Erin Hooley/AP Photos
No Cub had reached base safely until the sixth inning, when Ian Happ poked a line drive into left field for a leadoff double to break up Braves lefty Max Fried’s perfect game bid.
“He was just competitive from pitch one,” Happ said of Fried, who went on to throw a complete game. “He’s got a good mix, a lot of different pitches that he can land in the strike zone. Didn’t fall behind in many counts. … He was just on the attack. He had really good stuff tonight.”
For the Cubs, a 9-2 loss to the Braves prolonged a May funk on offense.
“It just seemed like there was a stretch where we were running into all the ones twos and threes, and that happens,” Cubs hitting coach Dustin Kelly said of opposing pitchers in a conversation with the Sun-Times last week. “And then it doesn’t help when you have a couple of guys that are out of the lineup. But I think that’s just kind of the way that a long season goes. You can get really caught up into looking at these small little samples of a six- or eight-game stretch, where over the course of 162, it probably levels out.”
The message has been similar to the hitters. And Fried was certainly another tough starter to face.
Still, this month, the drop-off in offense has been notable.
The Cubs played 26 games before they were shutout for the first time, and in that span, they failed to score multiple runs only once, against the Dodgers with Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the mound to start.
The Cubs have played another 24 games since. They’ve been shutout twice and managed just one run three more times.
“We’ve had a month where we struggled, really,” president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said this week. “I think that April was a pretty good month for us offensively. May so far has been a struggle, especially with guys in scoring position has been a challenge. I think some of that is playing short-handed at times, and some of that is guys we count on have been struggling. But candidly, at this moment, I’m not overly concerned, given the way we swung the bats in April.”
He pointed out that, when he spoke before the game Tuesday, the Cubs had a better OPS (.671) and had scored more runs (63) in May than the Braves (.665, 51) — albeit a narrow lead.
“I don’t think anyone’s overly concerned with the Braves offense,” Hoyer said. “These are the things that happen over a long season.”
The Cubs were without lineup staples Seiya Suzuki, Cody Bellinger, Dansby Swanson and Nico Hoerner for stretches this month due to injury. The offense returned to full strength Tuesday as Swanson and Hoerner rejoined the lineup.
“We’re getting two players that are normally in our lineup back, and that should help,” Counsell said then. “Is that the solution? Is it the answer? I don’t think anybody would say that’s the answer. But it’s going to help.”
Happ was one of those guys that the Cubs “count on,” as Hoyer put it, who was struggling. But he’s shown promising signs this series, with hard contact and doubles on back-to-back days. He went 2-for-3 on Wednesday.
“Ian is a player that is a central part of this offense, for sure,” Counsell said, “and a player that, if this is the start of a good stretch, that’s a good thing for us, for sure.”
On the flip side, the formerly surging Suzuki has gone hitless for four straight games.
“We’ve seen awkward swings,” Counsell said, “and then you miss the pitch you have to hit.”
In the end, the Cubs only managed three hits off Fried, who threw a complete game for the second time this season.
“Max Fried was damn near perfect tonight,” said Cubs starter Justin Steele, who allowed five runs in 6 ⅓ innings. “He was really good tonight. And just being on the other side of watching it, you have to tip your cap, admire it, take it for what it is, and on to the next day.”