Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell looked for a new way to inject life into his team, which has been in an offensive malaise over the last two weeks.
So before Saturday’s game against the Houston Astros at Wrigley Field, Counsell rearranged his lineup, gave his longest-tenured player, Ian Happ, a day off amid his struggles and kept a pair of freshly called up prospects on the bench to start the game.
It produced a similar result to the previous 12 games, with the Cubs falling 3-0 for their seventh straight loss and 11th in 13. They’ve dropped five consecutive series in that span.
“I’m sure it’s going to happen a few times this year,” Pete Crow-Armstrong, Saturday’s leadoff hitter, said of the lineup juggling after the loss. “I appreciate (Counsell’s) willingness to shake it up a little bit, and he’s got a good lineup to do that with. Wherever I fall in the lineup, wherever anybody falls in the lineup, we’re just looking to capitalize a little bit better than we’ve been doing.”
Counsell alluded to lineup changes after Friday’s loss to the Astros, acknowledging the Cubs “were at that point, absolutely.” The changes, by Counsell’s standards, were a bit drastic.
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Nico Hoerner, who had made 44 of his 50 starts this season in the leadoff spot, hit fourth, the first time this season he hit there. Crow-Armstrong made his first start in the leadoff spot this season and just the 10th of his career. Michael Conforto took over in left field for Happ, hitting fifth.
“Shake-up was probably the thing we were after,” Counsell said before the loss. “What you’re doing when you do that is you’re just giving guys a different look in terms of when they’re going up there. Not a lot of thought.”
The results weren’t there. In fact, the offense looked as stymied as it has during the current 2-11 stretch. The Cubs mustered just three hits, had no at-bats with runners in scoring position and advanced only one baserunner past first base.
In Friday’s series-opening loss, the Cubs didn’t record a hit with runners in scoring position but had nine turns at the plate in those situations and stranded 11. Saturday, the opportunities just weren’t there.
Throw in Christian Walker’s two home runs against starter Colin Rea, and the Astros’ three-run lead in the third felt nearly insurmountable.
“Anytime you get seven innings from your starter, you’re thinking you’re in pretty good shape,” Counsell said. “But right now, what we’re doing offensively, it’s too much.”
The first eight batters in the new-look lineup went hitless, with Hoerner and designated hitter Moisés Ballesteros drawing walks but failing to advance past first. Dansby Swanson recorded the Cubs’ first hit when a two-out pop-up in the third dropped in the infield, and he advanced to third on a Crow-Armstrong single.
Crow-Armstrong was caught stealing to end the inning and thwart the the Cubs’ biggest scoring threat.
Despite those struggles, Counsell and the Cubs aren’t overly stressed about the slump they’ve been in the last two weeks.
“The challenge is to stay with that stuff when you’re not getting results,” he said. “We’ve struggled as a team for two weeks, and while frustrating, it’s still two weeks.
“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.”
The shake-ups weren’t limited to the lineup, with the Cubs recalling outfielder Kevin Alcántara from Triple-A Iowa and designating infielder Nicky Lopez for assignment to make room on the active roster. That came a day after they called up infield prospect Pedro Ramírez when Matt Shaw landed on the 10-day injured list with mid-back tightness.
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Both entered the game as pinch hitters. Alcántara struck out in the seventh hitting for Conforto, and Ramírez grounded out to second in place of catcher Miguel Amaya in the eighth.
“Honestly, I’m going to be ready for any moment that they give me an opportunity to help the team,” Alcántara said before the game. “Not just doing something on the field, but any personal motivation in the clubhouse and supporting them as much as I can because we’re all one team and we have to help each other.”
Regardless of the roster moves or lineups, though, there are only so many levers Counsell or the front office can pull. The players know they ultimately must perform to snap their offensive skid and return to winning.
“I don’t really think there’s many adjustments that need to be made from anybody’s process or swing or anything like that,” Crow-Armstrong said. “This just happens in baseball where teams have dry spells, and it’s kind of hard to explain when you look at a roster like this and a lineup like this.
“I can’t speak for everybody, but I would guess everybody finds peace in just showing up and doing their work and knowing that, most of the time, that’s really good for us and that works for us.”