Not even a left-handed pitcher on the mound could slow down Michael Busch.
The Cubs’ first baseman has poor numbers against lefties this season, coming into Saturday’s game with a .462 OPS and only six hits against southpaws, compared to a terrific 1.005 OPS against right-handers.
No matter, not with the hot streak Busch is on right now.
“Sometimes, you’ve got to change it up, you’ve got to do something different,” manager Craig Counsell said before the game. “I thought today was the day, with the way Michael has been swinging the bat.”
Busch followed up his three-homer day Friday – part of the record-setting eight balls the Cubs sent into the Wrigley Field bleachers – with another homer in his first trip to the plate against Cardinals lefty Matthew Liberatore on Saturday. He finished with three hits, including a double in his second matchup with Liberatore, in his team’s 8-6 loss.
“He’s obviously swinging it really good,” Counsell said after the game. “Michael’s locked in, swinging it good.”
That’s putting it somewhat mildly.
Busch has started sizzling as the weather has warmed up, with a .410/.455/.787 slash line to go along with seven home runs in his last 17 games. Four of those homers have come in the last two days, and he has a trio of three-hit games in July, a month that is only five days old.
A seventh-inning strikeout Saturday snapped a streak of hits in seven consecutive plate appearances for Busch, two shy of the franchise record.
Counsell said earlier in the season that Busch sometimes produces quietly, though anyone with a decibel meter the last two days at Wrigley Field would argue that assessment as he had the home fans going crazy at least four different times.
But Busch’s production this year – he ranks third on the team with 56 RBIs, trailing only designated hitter Seiya Suzuki, baseball’s leader in the category, and center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong, an NL All-Star starter – has been a big reason why the Cubs’ lineup is so long and so dangerous.
“He’s turned into, really, a great offensive player,” Counsell said Friday. “Last year, it felt like there was ups and downs during the season. And this year, he’s lengthened out the ups and shortened the downs, essentially, and you end up with what you see through the first week of July.
“It’s a good hitter that’s continuing to get better.”
Busch’s bat
Just how much magic is in Busch’s bat right now?
It apparently doesn’t even matter who’s swinging it.
Third baseman Matt Shaw drove in the winning run with a sacrifice fly in Thursday night’s extra-inning victory over the Guardians, and he did it using Busch’s bat.
“I was checking out some bats the last two half innings,” Shaw said. “I hit a couple balls with my bat, didn’t feel great, felt a little soft. So I ended up borrowing Buschy’s bat for that last at-bat.
“I was like, ‘Thank you so much for letting me borrow your bat. This is huge.’”