Kris Bryant searches for answers with Cubs on the brink
CHICAGO — Kris Bryant would have had every reason to hide out.
The Chicago Cubs third baseman is hitting .071 (1-for-14) over the first four games of this World Series and has yet to record an extra-base hit. Bryant’s approach at the plate has been more Heyward than “Hey, Hey!” and he made two errors in one inning during the Cubs’ 7-2 loss to the Cleveland Indians in Saturday night’s Game 4.
The Cubs are one loss away from their title drought counter rolling over to 109 years and Bryant’s name was at the top of frustrated fans’ minds as they aired their grievances at Wrigley.
Yet instead of performing a time-honored tactic like taking an extra-long shower, loitering in the trainers room or simply ghosting toward the players’ parking lot, Bryant was the first player the media saw then the doors to a disappointed Cubs clubhouse opened.
The television cameras lined up two deep around Bryant’s locker stall and reporters used any available space to thrust their microphones toward him. And then he began to field questions that he didn’t have many answers for. Over 10 patient minutes in all.
“It’s a seven-game series and we’ve played four,” Bryant said “We’re not out until we’re out.”
If you came here looking for Bryant’s self-diagnosis on how the presumptive National League MVP suddenly can’t lay off pitches in the dirt or drive balls into the gap, you’re not going to find that level of analysis.
Like everyone else, Bryant seems like he’s still trying to decide what’s most responsible for Chicago’s woes on offense: the Indians’ stellar pitching, the Cubs’ inability to control the strike zone, the nerves caused by the franchise’s first trip to the World Series in 71 years or a combination of them all.
What’s certain is that it didn’t take Bryant’s bat very long to go cold and he’s got an even shorter time to warm it up. Maybe just four or five more at-bats in Sunday night’s Game 5.
Snap out of the funk and Bryant moves back toward being the player who hit .333 with a homer, two doubles and six RBI in series wins over the Giants and Dodgers this postseason.
Stay the same and the Cubs are facing a long 2017 season answering questions about how they came up short while playing 162 long games for another chance to get back to this spot.
“I’d be lying to you if i said it’s not hard to relax in the early part of the game,” Bryant said, acknowledging the size of a stage that’s even more amplified by the circus atmosphere that’s taken over Wrigleyville this weekend. “It’s the World Series and we’re all young. Everyone feels the nerves.
“But as these games keep going on, we’re feeling more comfortable with it. Hopefully [in game 5] we can do more of that.”
If Bryant was feeling more comfortable in Game 4, perhaps he was pointing to the fact that he didn’t strike out twice like he did in Game 3 and took a few more pitches.
But being more comfortable certainly didn’t show up in his final line. Bryant popped up to short on a 2-0 count in the first inning after Dexter Fowler led off with a double. He then walked in the third before grounding out to second in the fifth. A groundout to short in the eighth one batter after Fowler homered off Andrew Miller to lead off the inning ended his night.
Bryant’s night in the field was even worse. He sailed a throw to first allowing Lonnie Chisenhall to reach base. Three batters later, Bryant fielded a slow ground ball hit down the line by Indians pitcher Corey Kluber. It being the postseason, Kluber was busting his way toward first and Bryant had no real chance. He took one anyway, the ball bounced off Anthony Rizzo’s glove and Chisenhall came around from second to score.
“Looking back and seeing the video, I probably should have held it,” Bryant admitted.
The whole thing, of course, isn’t all that fair. Bryant’s 0-fer at the plate and errors in the field are far from the only reason that Cubs fans are battling an intense case of the “here we go agains.”
Javier Baez is 2-for-17. Willson Contreras is 1-for-13 including three straight strikeouts in Game 4. Addison Russell is 2-for-15
Also, Bryant’s bad stretch of less than 20 at-bats were buried in any random regular season week, it’d be nothing more than the second or third item in a beat writer’s notes column.
But therein lies the appealing inequity of the postseason. No matter what you did or didn’t do in your 600 previous plate appearances, the only one that matters is the next one.
And the bigger your profile, the more it’s going to be noticed when you don’t produce.
Fair or not, that’s the reality.
This actually isn’t a new feeling to Bryant. He went 3-for-14 with five strikeouts in last year’s NLCS sweep at the hands of the New York Mets.
But that occurred during the team’s ahead-of-schedule, just-happy-to-be-here postseason run. This slump is something much bigger, a slog that quickly appeared over the course of 24 surprising hours as the Indians pitching staff played party crasher.
The last chance to get it all going the other way arrives on Sunday night with Trevor Bauer taking the mound for the Indians. Bryant and Co. will have three hours to prove what he kept saying on Saturday night. That this offense is too good to be quieted so much. That the Cubs’ first big explosion is just around the corner. That winning three straight games is N.B.D. to this group.
“Hopefully we win out and these first four games will be forgotten,” Bryant said.
Regardless of outcome, this World Series will never be forgotten on the North Side.
What’s always remembered is up to Bryant.
Starting with his next plate appearance.
And then the one after that.
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Kevin Kaduk is a writer for Yahoo Sports.. Have a tip? Email him at kevinkaduk@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
