The National League Championship Series shifts back to Chicago's Wrigley Field for Game 3 on Tuesday night. The Cubs trail the Dodgers 2-0 in the best-of-seven series. It's not insurmountable, but it's a huge hill to climb to beat a team like the Dodgers four times in five games.
One thing the Cubs could do to start winning is to string some hits together. The offense for the most part has been terrible this entire postseason. Sure, they scored nine runs against the Nationals to take Game 5 of the NLDS, but there were some funky circumstances and they've only managed 20 total runs in seven games the entire postseason.
In the NLCS, there was a two-run Albert Almora home run and a solo Addison Russell shot. That's it.
This postseason, the Cubs are collectively hitting .162/.251/.262. In the regular season, the team slash line was .255/.338/.347. They were sixth in the NL in average, first in on-base percentage and fourth in slugging, good for third in OPS. Now they are hitting like they have nine pitchers in the lineup.
In seven postseason games, the Cubs have scored the same number of runs the Diamondbacks did in four. They have still scored fewer runs than the Nationals did in five.
Yes, we have to credit the Dodgers pitching staff and I did as much in Game 2 -- the staff as a whole is incredible. Yes, every starting pitcher the Cubs faced in the NLDS (Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg twice, Gio Gonzalez twice) will finish in the top five of NL Cy Young voting this season. Yes, the Cubs had an exhausting travel situation after Game 5 of the NLDS that included an extended, unplanned stop in Albuquerque for a medical emergency for Jose Quintana's wife (the team says she's OK now, for those who hadn't heard). As such, the team wasn't really rested in time for Game 1 of the NLCS.
Those are realities that sound like excuses. At some point, the Cubs are just going to have to score some runs to win games, or else they'll be swept just like in the 2015 NLCS, circumstances be damned. No one wants to hear excuses.
The problem right now is pretty much no one is going well. Manager Joe Maddon was asked about changing the offense, but there's not really too much to do.
"I am considering one or maybe two little items," Maddon said Monday. "But in general, this is who we are, like I said before. I have a ton of faith and trust in our guys, but if there's something we could do maybe to tweak it a little bit, we may try to do that. I haven't decided completely yet. Honestly, I'm going through discussions with different guys, just looking at some information kind of stuff."
As noted, there's only so much he can do. Everyone is going poorly. Every single position player.
It all starts with "Bryzzo" -- Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo -- and they were good in the first two games of the NLDS. Overall, though, Bryant is hitting .179 with just one walk and 13 strikeouts. Rizzo is hitting .154/.241/.308.
Cleanup man Willson Contreras homered in Game 2 of the NLDS, but overall he's 4 for 22 (.182) with just the one extra-base hit. He does have six walks, so his .357 OBP leads the team.
Jon Jay has settled into the leadoff spot and he's got a .333 OBP, but he's hitting just .222 with no extra-base hits.
Russell leads the team with three extra-base hits (in and of itself, that seems problematic), but he's hitting .208 with a .269 OBP. Almora has two big hits, but he's 3 for 13 overall (.231).
Jason Heyward and Javier Baez are incredible defensive players, but Heyward is 2 for 15 (.133) and Baez is a big ol' goose-egg for 19.
Part-timers like Kyle Schwarber and Ian Happ have big power, but they are a combined 1 for 12 (Schwarber's booming single off the wall in NLDS Game 5 was a big one, though).
Hey, give the Cubs credit here. It's been a collective effort in futility. It's fair to say no one has hit well in the postseason. Not one position player (both Jon Lester and Jose Quintana are 1 for 4, which would make them the team leaders in batting average at .250).
As noted in the Dodgers' pitching article, things aren't getting much easier for the Cubs, starting with Yu Darvish on the hill in Game 3. He'll be followed by a lights-out bullpen.
Circumstances or not, if this ineffectual offense doesn't change rather quickly and drastically, the defending champs will lose that title within a few days. The opposing pitching isn't going to help. It's on the Cubs to start hitting great pitching or the season is over.
