Moisés

Ballesteros

Ballesteros, who is hitting .105 (4-for-38) with one RBI over his last 15 games, sits for the third consecutive contest and fourth time in Chicago’s last five games. Pedro Ramírez gets into the lineup at the hot corner with Alex Bregman taking a turn at DH after Kevin Alcánatara drew back-to-back starts at DH earlier this week.

The 22-year-old has been mired in a prolonged slump at the dish, so giving him a night off to clear his head isn’t the worst possible idea. Michael Conforto will serve as the team’s designated hitter in his place and will bat seventh against Cardinals’ right-hander Andre Pallante on Friday evening in St. Louis.

It qualifies as a notable development that the Cubs are sticking with Ballesteros at DH while he continues to scuffle at the dish, instead of giving top prospects like Pedro Ramírez or Kevin Alcántara an opportunity. The 22-year-old slugging backstop is hitting .077 (3-for-39) over his last 15 games. He was outstanding in the first month of the season, but he’s clearly struggling at the dish right now. It feels like only a matter of time before Chicago gives Ramírez or Alcántara a look.

Ballesteros has slipped into a prolonged cold spell at the dish, hitting .077 (3-for-39) with two RBI over his last 15 games. The 22-year-old’s batting average has dropped to just .240 overall this season, which is remarkable considering he was hitting .382 at the end of April.

Seiya Suzuki struck out in his place with a lefty in the game in the ninth. Ballesteros was in a 1-for-33 slump, which has cost him some playing time. Still, he has now DH’d in three games in a row after being held out of the lineup in five of the Cubs’ previous six games. He should be back in there on Tuesday after the nice showing today.

Michael Conforto will draw another start as the team’s designated hitter and bat sixth. Ballesteros had a stretch through early May where he was starting regularly against righties, often hitting second. He’s been in the lineup for just two of the past six they’ve faced, however. The decreased playing time comes as he’s hitting .034/.065/.034 over his past 31 plate appearances. Conforto, meanwhile, has posted some of the best expected stats in MLB this season.

Ballesteros, Seiya Suzuki and Ian Happ combined to 0-for-11 with nine strikeouts from the second, third and fourth spots in the Cubs lineup, so Ballesteros wasn’t the only guy who had a bad day. However, he just turned in an 0-for-16 week that lowered his OPS from .978 to .827. That’s still a perfectly fine mark on the whole, but with Michael Conforto at 1.132, Ballesteros might take a backseat at DH for a spell.

There’s nothing to suggest anything is wrong with Ballesteros, but he has cooled off a bit of late and Michael Conforto has been outstanding. As a result, it’s Conforto DHing and batting second tonight.

It appears to be nothing more than a routine night off for the 22-year-old slugger. Ballesteros has been an integral cog in the Cubs’ lineup this season, slashing .280/.343/.527 with six homers and 19 RBI across 105 plate appearances. Michael Conforto will function as the team’s designated hitter and will bat second against right-hander Kumar Rocker.

Ballesteros had gone hitless over his last four games since moving into the second spot in the lineup. He broke that with a single in the first inning, then took Merrill Kelly deep for a two-run blast in the third. He later drew a walk and scored a run in the fifth. The 22-year-old slugger is hitting .317/.380/.598 with six homers and 18 RBI across 92 plate appearances.