Cubs star Kyle Tucker fouled off the first two pitches he saw Tuesday — both splitters, one on the outer third of the plate and the other on the inner third.
When he’s locked in, Tucker usually drives at least one of those into play. Instead, mired in an offensive slump, he fell behind 0-2. He took a high fastball for ball one, then swung through another splitter at the bottom of the strike zone.
“I feel like I’m still swinging at the pitches I want and laying off the ones I don’t,” Tucker said this week. “The ones over the plate, I’m either fouling off or missing. That puts me in worse counts, and it just snowballs from there. I just need to figure out how to square those up.”
Tucker isn’t alone in his struggles. While Seiya Suzuki’s breakout on Wednesday powered the Cubs to a strong series-finale win over the Reds, the team has ranked in the bottom third of the majors in runs scored since the All-Star break.
Meanwhile, the Brewers have been rolling. After taking two of three from the Cubs last week, they ripped off a six-game win streak and capped a franchise-best 60-game stretch (44-16) on Tuesday. They entered Thursday with MLB’s best record (70-44) and a four-game lead over Chicago in the NL Central.
“This is a very good offensive baseball team,” manager Craig Counsell said of the Cubs’ lineup. “It will happen.”
Last year’s seven-week offensive collapse still looms in memory, but the Cubs acquired Tucker in the offseason precisely to avoid such a repeat — the type of hitter who can carry a team through a drought. First, though, he has to work his way out of his own.
Tucker posted just a .295 slugging percentage in July. His plate discipline kept his on-base percentage at .380, but it marked a sharp drop from his torrid start to the season.
“It sucks,” Tucker admitted. “But you’ve got another game the next day. Every at-bat, you’ve got to refocus, try to move runners, try to get them in. No matter how you’ve been doing, you just do what you can to win that game.”
Counsell gave Tucker Wednesday off ahead of Thursday’s team off day.
“He’s got very high expectations of himself,” Counsell said. “When he doesn’t meet them, he gets frustrated. This is just a mental break, nothing physical. I’m super confident he’s going to get it going again and have a great last 50 games.”
Tucker also dealt with a jammed finger in early June, missing two starts but still posting a .982 OPS that month.
“I know it bothered him for a while,” said president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer. “I don’t know if it still does or if it created bad habits from compensating, but small injuries like that can absolutely have an impact.”
Tucker, for his part, brushed it off.
“It’s fine,” he said. “I’ve got to do my job regardless of how I feel. I’m just trying to keep doing that as best I can.”
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