The Chicago Cubs deviated from their pattern of recent awfulness on Tuesday with two hard-fought, well-played victories in a double-header sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers at Wrigley Field. The wins close the gap in the NL Central Division to 7 games behind the division-leading Brewers.
Conspicuous by his absence from both games was the Cubs star right fielder Kyle Tucker, who is being given some time off by manager Craig Counsell to “reset” after a career-worst slump that has threatened to extend into the two-month range.
Since July 1, Tucker is hitting .189, with only 1 home run and 10 RBIs over that period of time. In August, he’s been even worse, posting a .148 average with just just 1 RBI. And, despite declarations by Cubs coaching and the front office that he’s making all the right decisions at the plate, the steady stream of weak ground balls to the right side of the infield says otherwise.
Brewers manager offers opinion on Kyle Tucker slump
In a recent appearance on 670 The Score in Chicago, Brewers manager Pat Murphy offered his theory on what’s wrong with the four-time All-Star.
“I think Tucker’s hurt,” said Murphy, who served as Counsell’s bench coach in Milwaukee.
“I don’t have any information, but Tucker’s not the same,” Murphy added.
“(Tucker’s) hurt, and he’s playing through it. He’s such a class kid that he probably doesn’t mention it to anyone. That kid, I don’t know him. But everything I hear, and watching him play the game, he’s first class.
“He wouldn’t complain if something’s bothering him because he doesn’t want an excuse. He feels that responsibility. But I would say there’s probably something physically going on there.”
Lingering injury?
The long-held theory is that Tucker’s June 1 finger injury may have led to a mechanical hiccup that later progressed to a mental hangup. The month of June, however, just happened to be his most productive month as a Cub before the full-on collapse beginning in July.
Tucker, himself, has claimed that he’s physically alright.
“I mean, it’s fine,” Tucker told reporters when asked about a possible lingering finger injury at the end of the first week of August. “I gotta do my job regardless of how I feel. I’ll just continue that the best I can…
“If I was chasing balls in the dirt or above my head all the time, then it’s a different story. It’s just a matter of making solid contact forward. That’s kind of where I’m at. At times, you’re going to foul off pitches or swing through pitches you think you should hit. That’s kind of where it’s been. I need to figure out how to put those in play and hit them harder.”
Tucker’s inability to point to the cause of his slump has continued through the present tense.
“I don’t know, I can’t really point to one thing,” Tucker recently told media. “If I could, I would have already fixed that.”
The Chicago Cubs have no answers
The situation also has Counsell puzzled. All the analytics point to Tucker doing the right things, but the results are just not there.
“The at-bats have borne this out,” Counsell told reporters. “Kyle’s still doing a pretty good job of swinging at the right pitches and getting himself to the places he wants. His first at-bat Sunday was kind of like the defining thing of what he’s feeling. Because he got himself to a 3-1 (count and) got a fastball where he wanted it. And hit a groundball.
“As a player, (you’re thinking): ‘I don’t know why that keeps happening. I did exactly what I wanted to do for four pitches. I did my job really well and got myself a pitch to hit, and I got the same result.’ Mechanically, what he’s trying to feel, what he wants to feel, it’s not happening when he gets in the box.
“The question we’re asking ourselves now is: ‘Does some time off kind of get him away from the thoughts that he’s going to have and then maybe create some new thoughts?’”
As Tucker and Cubs coaching searches for an answer, the team has no choice but to move forward, counting on recently promoted rookie Owen Caissie to fill at least some of the gap left from an absent Tucker.
Chicago Cubs’ Owen Caissie answers Craig Counsell’s challenge with 4 RBI day
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