Jesse Rogers, ESPN Staff Writer 7y

Cubs continue roller-coaster ride on offense in loss to Marlins

MIAMI -- Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde have nothing on the Chicago Cubs' offense. One night it’s 11 runs, the next day it’s zero. What gives, Joe Maddon?

“We’re not pummeling the baseball,” the Cubs' manager said after Friday’s 2-0 loss to the Miami Marlins. “We had a nice night last night [but] as I talked about, it’s not time to get crazy, exaggeratedly happy about it.

"We have to continue to have good at-bats, and tonight we just didn’t.”

Many are wondering why the World Series champs are riding the roller coaster on offense. They may not be able to explain it, but we may be able to predict it and then analyze it. Actually, it’s pretty simple: The Cubs are great at the plate when they’re facing a left-handed pitcher. They’re terrible when the pitcher is a righty.

“When you look around the league, there’s a lot of power righty arms,” Kris Bryant said. “That guy today [Jose Urena] ran it up to 100 mph, with sink. You have those spells where you hit certain pitchers good, and it’s just a time we’re not hitting righties good.”

But that time has lasted the entire season, and the difference between the Cubs hitting against lefties as opposed to righties is striking. The Cubs rank first in the National League with an .818 OPS against lefties -- and it's no coincidence they had 11 runs when left-hander Jeff Locke started on Thursday.

Against righties, they rank 12th in OPS with a .726 mark. Their batting average against right-handers is .234, 15th -- dead last -- in the NL. The result is an 11-6 record against lefty starters and just a 26-30 mark when a righty starts. The Cubs are lamenting there aren’t more lefties in the league.

“Part of that is the chase factor,” Maddon said of his team's struggles against right-handers. “We have to stay in our strike zone.”

Maddon is tired of pointing out how young his hitters are, but his right-handed hitters are some of the younger players on the team. They’ve been susceptible to high fastballs and breaking pitches away. Urena used the latter strategy on Friday, and it worked.

“These guys need more at-bats to figure out what not to swing at,” Maddon said. “How to battle utilizing this [opposite] side of the field. If they don’t want to give you the pull side, then you have to do something else.”

The numbers prove his point. According to ESPN Stats & Information, the Cubs rank 26th in baseball in putting balls in play to the opposite field. Of course, they ranked 29th in that category last season, but last year’s offensive issues were masked by the Cubs’ starting staff. That’s not the case this year, as a great performance by John Lackey on Friday wasn't backed up with even a little offense.

“We have a lot of guys still learning,” Lackey said after giving up just one earned run. “But the talent is there. You like our chances in the end for those guys to do good stuff.”

If it’s a lefty starter, you love the Cubs’ chances. If it’s a righty, watch out, Mr. Hyde is bound to make an appearance.

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