Welcome to the Pinwheels and Ivy Podcast, Chicago’s #1 Cubs and White Sox podcast. Hosted by Matt Zawaski, Aldo Soto and Kevin Fiddler. Follow them on Twitter @SouthsideZo, @AldoSoto21 and @KFidds. Join the conversation live on stream every Wednesday night at 8 p.m. as the trio recap all the latest news and rumors about the Cubs and White Sox and cover the biggest stories around MLB. Download and listen to every episode on your preferred podcast app and follow the show on Twitter @PinwheelsIvyPod.

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Zo and Aldo were on live during Wednesday night’s Cubs vs. White Sox game and in one of the most tense moments of the matchup Seiya Suzuki couldn’t come through with runners at first and third in the eighth inning against reliever Matt Foster.

Suzuki was named NL Rookie of the Month a few days ago, but the right fielder is currently struggling along with the most of the Cubs hitters. He’s now 1 for his last 23, going back to last week’s series finale against the Braves and nothing showed his struggles more than his swing against Foster in that crucial situation Wednesday night.

Suzuki has elite plate discipline and when he was rolling in the first two weeks of the season it was rare to see him chase more than a few balls out of the strike zone in a game. Of course, as time passes teams have adjusted and Suzuki is beginning to not only expand his strike zone a bit more, but he’s swinging and missing more.

First image is heatmap of Seiya Suzuki's swings in his first 11 games (.500 BA/1.083 SLG on all swings). Second image is swings in last 13 games (.186 BA/.279 SLG on all swings).

His contact rate has been steady overall. Whiff% has ticked up as pitchers have altered attack. pic.twitter.com/Ym0T9J38gi

— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) May 5, 2022

Obviously by looking at that you can tell where pitchers are starting to challenge Suzuki. Fastballs. A lot more of them. Here’s a more detailed look.

Here, you can see how pitchers have changed focus of fastball location vs. Suzuki over the first month.

First image shows FB in his first 11 games. Next is FB location in his last 13 games (through May 4). pic.twitter.com/hkIGXEhMdf

— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) May 5, 2022

So, pitchers are attacking Suzuki with more fastballs and it also probably doesn’t help that he’s been taking a lot of first-pitch strikes. It kind of feels like Suzuki has been in an 0-2 count a lot of lately, having many defensive at-bats instead of him putting pressure on pitchers.

And you know, the Cubs have been facing better pitching the last two weeks, so that’s definitely a factor when you look at Suzuki’s current slump.

That was one of many topics we talked about during this week’s Pinwheels and Ivy Podcast. Not a lot of things are going great for the Cubs right now and it’s not going to get any easier as the upcoming schedule features three games against the Dodgers, which includes a double-header Saturday, then six games on the road against the Padres and Diamondbacks.