Chicago Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant finds that extended rough patches feel differently to the team these days.
For starters, they put the clubhouse “more on edge,” he said.
“But it’s not a bad thing at all,” Bryant added. “I think that’s kind of what (team president) Theo (Epstein) addressed in the offseason, when he said he wanted us to have more urgency. We’re not being complacent. We’re not being, ‘Oh, we’re the Cubs; we won the World Series and we made the playoffs this many times in a row.’ No, we lose and we’re pissed off, and that’s the way it should be.”
Sputtering through a 2-5 road trip that continues with Saturday night’s visit to the Chicago White Sox, the Cubs will look to restore some better vibes while keeping pace in a tight National League Central race.
Entering play Friday, the five clubs in the division were separated by just 3 1/2 games, with the Cubs tied with the Milwaukee Brewers atop the NL Central.
“Listen, we’re lucky,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. “We’re all lucky right now that nobody’s just run away with this thing.”
Proximity was a theme in the Cubs’ most recent game, a lopsided score notwithstanding. In the fourth inning of an eventual 11-3 victory against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago shortstop Javier Baez nearly was hit twice by high and inside pitches from Pirates starter Jordan Lyles.
The sequence incensed Maddon, who began shouting at the Pirates from the dugout and was ejected by home plate umpire Joe West. Maddon then charged from the dugout toward the Pirates’ dugout before West restrained him. Maddon attempted a spin move to avoid West’s blockade for good measure.
“That’s the first time I’ve seen Joe that mad,” Cubs catcher Willson Contreras said.
The Cubs and White Sox split a pair of meetings at Wrigley Field in late June. Saturday’s scheduled pitching matchup is a rematch of a 7-3 Cubs’ victory on June 19 in which Cubs left-hander Jon Lester (7-6, 3.89 ERA) defeated White Sox righty Lucas Giolito (11-2, 2.72 ERA).
Lester is 10-6 with a 4.16 ERA in 18 career starts against the White Sox, including 1-0 with a 4.76 ERA in 2019. Giolito enters with a 1-2 record and 7.56 ERA in three career starts against the Cubs. His earlier loss at Wrigley Field this season was one of the rare blemishes during an All-Star campaign, as Giolito allowed six runs and seven hits in 4 1/3 innings.
The White Sox are 6-6 since that game and are two games under .500 for the season. Improved play at Guaranteed Rate Field, where they are 13-6 in their past 19 games, has helped the club approach the break-even mark.
“We’re pleased with where we’re at right now,” White Sox general manager Rick Hahn said. “We feel like we’re getting a lot closer to where we need to be.”
White Sox center fielder Leury Garcia notched his second four-hit game of the season during Thursday’s 11-5 home loss to the Detroit Tigers. He is batting .301 with nine multi-hit efforts in his past 13 games.