ST. PETERSBURG -- To succeed at the plate, they say you’ve got to hit ‘em where they ain’t.
And right now, the Cubs’ offense ain’t.
Chicago entered Monday’s series opener against the Rays with a 46.0% hard-hit rate, second-best in baseball. They stung the ball time and time again against Tampa Bay, too. But those balls often found leather instead of grass en route to a 6-4 loss at Tropicana Field.
The defeat marks the first time all season the Cubs dropped back-to-back games. They had alternated wins and losses through their first nine games. They have scored 17 runs over their past six contests, six of which came from their April 1 win over the Angels.
The Cubs had six hard-hit balls -- 95 mph or harder -- that were turned into outs by Tampa Bay. Four of those batted balls had an expected batting average better than .470, including Matt Shaw’s flyout to the center-field track to end the top of the sixth inning that stranded a runner in scoring position in a 4-3 game.
The Rays’ Jonathan Aranda added two insurance runs with a homer off Phil Maton in the bottom of the seventh.