The Cubs offense continues to falter in clutch moments

Share

The Cubs offense has lacked any true consistency all season, but with the division race beginning to tighten up and the team's track record in the second, the thought was the Cubs would start to pull away at this point. However, with Wednesday night's 9-0 stinker, the Cubs' NL Central lead will fall back to just 1.5 games over the Brewers. 

Through the Cubs last four series, the team has only managed to score 47 runs, an average of 3.91 runs per game compared to the 4.95 runs per game they've been averaging on the season thus far.

Outside of Javier Baez, Anthony Rizzo, Ben Zobrist, and recently David Bote, the Cubs offense has plenty of cold bats in their lineup. And when you factor in their best player in Kris Bryant hasn't swung a bat since before heading to the disabled list on July 26th, the Cubs need to get back on track before it's too late. 

But the strangest thing about the Cubs offense is they still lead the league in on-base percentage, are a top-five team in runs scored and RBI (lead the NL in both categories), are 2nd in the league batting average as well as walks, and lead the league in fWAR at 23.5. On paper, this Cubs offense should be one of the best in baseball and are currently the best in the National League but they still continue to have nights where nobody can do anything at the plate. 

Fangraph's "Clutch" stat, which measures how a team performs in high-leverage situations, for example hitting with runners in scoring position with two outs. And despite the Cubs being above average in offensive win probability, the Cubs are one of the worst teams in the clutch at 3.27 points below the league average. And while there are issues with determining and quantifying what clutch exactly means, it does help provide context to the Cubs issues. 

The Cubs have raised their batting average with runners in scoring position to .248 on the season, but it's still not much better than their season-low of .292. Simply, the Cubs offense will get better. The group is currently been in a funk over these last 12 games, but these Cubs are battle-tested and know what it takes to compete for a division title - winning the last two NL Central crowns.

And with the Cubs offense still among the league leaders in most statistical categories, it's safe to assume this group is only a game away from breaking out of this slump. The issue is whether they can get back on track to position themselves well-enough for a deep postseason run. 

The North Siders need to take advantage of this homestand against the Nationals and Brewers, meaning the offense needs to show up, and prove it's the group that's leading the league in fWAR. 

 

Contact Us