CLEVELAND -- Ian Happ has been doing this long enough to understand that stretches of rough plate appearances happen and the next swing might very well offer the cure. That does not mean the veteran Cubs outfielder is not also dealing with an inner monologue spewing doubts.
“You’ve got to try your best to stay in the moment,” Happ said. “This game, it can eat you alive. It’s tough.”
Sunday was one of those hard days for Happ, who admittedly was already feeling like he was mired in a spell of pitch-recognition troubles. That is a challenging starting point when the day features a doubleheader against the Guardians’ solid pitching staff in cold and windy conditions at Progressive Field.
In Game 2 of the twin bill, Happ snapped out of a mini-slump in a big way, launching a go-ahead homer in the eighth inning. He followed that with a run-scoring single in the ninth. It was not enough to avoid the 6-5 loss to Cleveland -- resulting in a split of the doubleheader -- but it was a better finish to the day for Happ, personally.
“That’s our game,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “I mean, it’s not always going to look great. You’re going to go through times when it’s not pretty, but the next at-bat is a chance to change things and make an impact on the game. Ian’s been through that and he did it today.”
Happ’s trip to Cleveland began with an 0-for-11 skid in the batter’s box. That included one stretch with seven consecutive strikeouts and nine punchouts in a span of 10 at-bats. Happ ended the seven straight strikeouts in the sixth inning, when he slashed a Matt Festa pitch to left field for a flyout.
Then in the eighth, when the Cubs and Guardians were caught in a 3-3 tie, Happ crushed a 1-0 fastball from reliever Shawn Armstrong deep to right with an exit velocity of 107.5 mph. It marked his fourth homer of the season, and the third of the day for the Cubs, following blasts from Matt Shaw and Dansby Swanson earlier in the game.
To show how it’s still very early in the season, consider that Happ had a robust .765 slugging percentage four games into the year after a run of three games in a row with a blast. When he walked to the plate in the eighth inning of Chicago’s ninth game, that slugging percentage had plummeted to .429.
“A lot of it is a timing thing,” Happ said. “You’re swinging and missing or chasing, and you feel like you want to see the ball better. And a lot of times, that leads to being late and it gets worse. It’s really hard to convince yourself to be early and to really get yourself moving when you’re struggling.
“And that’s one of the things throughout my career that I’ve battled, is trying to be earlier and kind of committing to that.”
Happ’s recent drought was representative of the Cubs as a whole, too.
The North Siders were limited to one run in Friday’s loss to the Guardians and, while they pulled off a 1-0 win in Sunday’s opening game, the Cubs were just 2-for-28 in that contest. That came after Chicago’s offense had bouts of being hot and cold in the season-opening homestand, which included some extreme weather conditions.
During the doubleheader, the wind was a major factor in Game 1, but calmed throughout the day. Chicago’s lineup also gathered steam throughout the evening.
“This group’s going to be fine,” Happ said. “You play a couple games there at Wrigley that were just brutal, and then credit to [Cleveland], they pitched the ball well. … We’re really confident in this group. We’re really confident that we’re going to score a bunch of runs and it’s going to show up soon.”
The issue in Sunday’s second game was that the bullpen was unable to hold the lead for the Cubs at a couple of turns.
Lefty Shota Imanaga worked into the sixth and exited with a 3-0 advantage -- only to see the Guardians rally for three runs after Ben Brown took over. After Happ’s shot in the eighth put the Cubs back in front, reliever Jacob Webb struggled and opened the door for another three-run push for Cleveland.
The Cubs attempted one last comeback in the ninth against closer Cade Smith, but Happ’s RBI single to center was as far as the final push went.
“I just kept trying to make adjustments,” Happ said, “to get myself to a place where I could recognize the pitch. Those last two at-bats were better.”