ATLANTA -- Living through his players’ joy is where Cubs manager Craig Counsell finds reminders of his love of the game, even when things aren’t going well.
In Tuesday’s 5-2 loss against the Braves at Truist Park, he found one of those moments through Alex Bregman in the fourth inning.
“It was definitely the bright spot offensively today,” Counsell said. “I thought Alex had some good at-bats, swung the bat good and looked good.”
Bregman came into the night slashing .160/.300/.200 (8-for-50) with two extra-base hits over his past 14 games, but one encouraging sign through his season to this point has been his ability to continue hitting the ball hard. His 44.2% hard-hit rate entering Tuesday was above his career average (38.7%) and the MLB average (37%), a trend that continued against Atlanta.
After grounding out in the first on the first pitch he saw, the third baseman waited until his second appearance at the plate and worked a full count before sending a solo shot, his fourth of homer the season, into the Cubs’ bullpen in left field to tie the game at 1 in the top of the fourth.
After seeing three straight sliders down and away, Bregman got an elevated four-seam fastball and drove it a Statcast-projected 374 feet at a 100.4 mph exit velocity. Unfortunately for the Cubs, that home run represented their only hit on the night.
“Honestly, it was just staying closed. I've been kind of flying open,” Bregman said of his batting stance. “So I was just thinking about staying closed, staying connected, being early and those kinds of things.
“Probably should have been a little bit more focused on the pitch and everything like that, but it was a little internal. Just trying to take a good swing at a pitch to hit, and ended up squaring one up there. So hopefully, as those mechanics start trending in the right direction and cleaning up, it's a lot more of an external thought.”
Chicago had been held scoreless for 23 consecutive innings prior to that, going back to its series against the Rangers.
Braves starter Grant Holmes then issued three walks -- including two on four pitches -- to load the bases before a forceout by Moisés Ballesteros scored Ian Happ. A three-pitch strikeout of Dansby Swanson ended the threat. That was all the Cubs were able to pull together, as they struck out nine times against Braves pitching.
“Offensively, we did something for one inning. That just wasn't enough,” Counsell said. “And six baserunners tonight [is] not enough. So that's the game.”
“I want to be able to hit the ball in the air hard and swing at good pitches, and [I] haven't done my best job of that this year,” Bregman said. “So I'm trying to figure out what the root cause is, address it, and then just repeat the good over and over again for the next 130 days, or however many games we have left.”
Atlanta took the lead in the bottom of the fifth off a go-ahead two-run home run from Mike Yastrzemski, which followed a leadoff homer by Austin Riley. An RBI single by Matt Olson scored Drake Baldwin, who doubled earlier in the inning.
Despite dropping their opener against the team with the best record in the Majors and losing their third straight, the Cubs (27-15) still sit atop the NL Central. It's the second time this season Chicago has followed a 10-game winning streak with three straight losses.