‘We’ve acquired drained gamers’ at shut of 17 video games in 17 days, however Cubs have thrived throughout difficult stretch

KANSAS CITY – Pete Crow-Armstrong is maybe baseball’s finest defender.

But for the second time in 4 video games, the Cubs’ MVP candidate was not in his normal spot heart area however DH’ing, off his ft as soon as extra because the workforce involves the tip of a stretch of 17 video games in 17 days.

“We’ve got tired players, for sure,” supervisor Craig Counsell mentioned earlier than Saturday’s recreation, a 6-3 loss to the Royals.

It’s a frightening stretch for any workforce, however within the face of such a bodily problem, the Cubs have thrived, going 11-5 with one recreation remaining earlier than Monday’s off day.

The Cubs got here into Saturday tops within the NL with a .770 OPS, 144 hits and 81 runs scored because the stretch started July 24.

Their beginning pitching was notably spectacular, with a 2.65 ERA that ranked second within the NL. Remove Jameson Taillon’s seven-run clunker in his ultimate recreation with the Cubs, and that quantity was all the way down to 2.03, second finest in baseball.

In the thick of all of it, the Cubs went by an eventful commerce deadline, which noticed an aggressive entrance workplace attempt to finest place them for a deep October run, and a raucous sweep of the juggernaut Dodgers.

“This was 17 in a row. For most teams, that’s their longest stretch of the season,” Counsell mentioned. “It happened at a time in the season where the trade deadline’s around it, which creates a lot around the team. Some hot weather in multiple cities that you play in, you always worry about it.

“We’ve handled the first 15 games exceptionally well, especially our starting pitching has been outstanding for this stretch and, to me, the key to this. That’s what can go wrong in [a stretch like this] more than anything, [impacting the bullpen], and they’ve been excellent.”

Happ will get ahold of 1

Left fielder Ian Happ has been struggling on the plate, coming into Saturday hitting simply .162 with a sub-.300 on-base share and just one dwelling run in his earlier 34 video games. A four-strikeout recreation Friday was notably ugly.

But he acquired off the schneid Saturday, snapping an 0-for-22 stretch on the dish by homering for the primary time since July 20, later including a double.

“For us to be the best team we can be,” Counsell mentioned earlier than the sport, “we need Ian Happ to be a good player.”

That the dinger got here off a righty received’t make his splits any much less dramatic; he got here into Saturday with a .798 OPS towards right-handers versus a .517 OPS towards left-handers.

But it was a constructive outcome for an vital Cubs hitter.

“A very good night, he’ll sleep good,” Counsell mentioned after the sport. “Hopefully, we’re getting the good Ian back. It’s been frustrating for him, but this is a good hitter, this is a guy who’s having a good year against right-handed pitching. He’s going to do good things for us.”

Holmes rusty in return

Newly acquired right-hander Clay Holmes made his Cubs debut Saturday, his first time on a significant league mound since May 15, when he went on the injured listing with a fractured fibula.

It didn’t go too nice, with Holmes tagged for 4 runs in 4 innings of labor.

A short outing was not completely surprising, given the lengthy layoff.

“It took a lot of work to get back to this point, and it definitely felt good to be back in a big league game,” Holmes mentioned. “Obviously, that’s not the full goal. You want to be back and helping this team win games. I just wasn’t quite sharp enough tonight.”