You know when your boss shows up on an unannounced visit that things cannot be going well.
That’s exactly what happened yesterday during the Cubs 6-2 loss in San Diego when the team’s President of Baseball Operations made a surprise appearance to watch his team drop their fifth straight game and six of their last ten overall.
With yesterday’s loss, the team drops below the .500 mark yet again this season and this one stung quite a bit. The sting was a bit worse this time due to the fact the team was coming off a 7-2 home stand which was highlighted by taking three of four from their 2016 NLDS opponent, the San Francisco Giants. The Cubs bats woke up, their pitching seemingly was a bit better which led fans to believe that the REAL 2017 Cubs were here for good.
So much for that.
The Cubs have been absolutely destroyed on their West coast trip by both the red-hot Dodgers and the last place Padres. I could MAYBE understand getting swept by the Dodgers because they have been playing great baseball as of late but losing two of the first three to the f*cking Padres? There’s no excuse for that.
Jesse Rogers of ESPN highlighted one of the team’s many issues that have been contributing to their struggles.
The Cubs went 0-for-14 with runners in scoring position in the Dodgers series before going 2-for-17 in two games vs. the Padres.
Those shitty numbers have led the Cubs to find themselves dead last in the National League in hitting with runners in scoring position and second to last in hitting with men on base (.230).
The alarming statistics prompted Epstein to pop up on his team during one of his scouting visits in San Diego. He claimed it was for “moral support” and thought it was important to be around the team when they were struggling but even the usually calm Epstein showed signs of frustration.
“It’s a frustrating period whenever that gap exists as much as it has for this first third of the season…We just need a few guys to get going to make our offense very valuable. And we need time. … It’s on us to figure it out sooner rather than later.”
Epstein still reiterated that no drastic changes needed to be made quite yet and the Cubs offensive struggles should be able to be rectified by the guys they have on the 25-man roster. Meaning, none of the young stars should be getting sent down to the minor leagues…yet.
