CHICAGO – The lineup that Cubs manager Craig Counsell rolled out on Saturday afternoon had a much different look from what has been his typical alignment. Pete Crow-Armstrong was shifted into the leadoff spot. Nico Hoerner hit cleanup for the first time in four years. Ian Happ was on the bench.
This was Counsell’s attempt to just mix things up a bit in the name of jolting a Cubs offense that went from one of baseball’s hottest groups to ice cold over the past two weeks. Not much changed in terms of results in a 3-0 loss to the Astros at Wrigley Field, stretching Chicago’s losing streak to seven games.
“I think ‘shakeup’ was probably the thing we were just after,” Counsell said. “What you’re doing when you do that is you’re just kind of giving guys a different look in terms of when they’re going up there. Not a lot of thought.”
The lineup “shakeup” came with the promotion of prospects Kevin Alcántara (Pipeline’s No. 5 Cubs prospect) and Pedro Ramírez (No. 2 and No. 85 on the Top 100) in the past two days. From the front office to the manager’s office, the North Siders are certainly trying to inject some energy into a team that has slipped into a concerning lull of late.
A major aspect of the offensive troubles has been situational hitting, and things did not improve in the latest defeat. The Cubs put the leadoff man aboard in both the second and third innings – only to see the runners erased via a double play. Crow-Armstrong was also caught stealing second to end the third, stranding Dansby Swanson on third base.
Astros starter Kai-Wei Teng went six innings, limiting the Cubs to two hits and three walks and ending with six strikeouts. And while Chicago managed three hits in total in the loss, the team finished with no at-bats with runners in scoring position. The Cubs hit just .118 (6-for-51) with RISP in the previous six games combined.
Crow-Armstrong said Counsell’s decision to go with a new-look lineup made sense, given the team’s recent performance.
“No need to fix what ain’t broken, if we’re doing what we were doing a week ago,” Crow-Armstrong said. “Whatever the lineup is, we’ve got to do a better job of capitalizing with guys on base, or picking spots to run. But I appreciate his willingness to shake it up a little bit. He’s got a good lineup to do that with.”
Cubs right-hander Colin Rea gave the club seven solid innings, but the lack of offense created little margin for error. Rea allowed four hits, including two home runs to Christian Walker – a two-run shot in the first and a solo blast in the fourth – that accounted for Houston’s scoring.
“On a day when we did zero offensively, that wasn’t going to be enough,” Counsell said. “I think any time you get seven innings from your starter, you’re thinking you’re in pretty good shape. But right now, with what we’re doing offensively, it’s too much.”
What is perplexing right now is the dramatic swing in team-wide performance.
Over the past 13 games, the Cubs have gone 2-11 with 33 runs (2.5 per game) while being shut out four times and scoring two runs or fewer nine times. In that period, the North Siders have hit .131 with a .464 OPS with runners in scoring position. Across the previous 25 games, Chicago had two 10-game winning streaks, went 21-4, averaged 6.2 runs per game and turned in a .773 OPS with RISP.
“This team’s too good to let this go on very much longer,” Crow-Armstrong said. “I don’t think there’s many adjustments that need to be made from anybody’s process or swing or anything like that. I think this just happens in baseball, where teams kind of have dry spells, and it’s kind of hard to explain when you look at a roster like this and a lineup like this.”
And while Counsell took the step of shaking up the lineup – including giving Happ (hitting .148 in his previous 17 games) a mental break – the manager kept things in perspective.
“This is two weeks,” Counsell said. “We’ve struggled as a team for two weeks here and, while frustrating, it’s still two weeks, you know? We’re going to come out of this. It’s going to be fine. We’re a good baseball team. It’s all going to happen. But while you go through it, you’ve got to sit in some discomfort with it. And that doesn’t feel good.”