ATLANTA — A rough night for right-hander Kyle Hendricks led to three Chicago Cubs position players having to pitch to get them through a 10-0 blowout loss to the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday at Truist Park.
It was an unexpected twist with Hendricks on the mound. He again put the Cubs in an early hole, surrendering four runs in the first inning. He lasted only 3⅔, giving up seven runs on 11 hits, including three home runs.
In a lighthearted moment in an otherwise ugly game for the Cubs, first baseman Anthony Rizzo struck out Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman in the seventh, one of three batters Rizzo faced in the second pitching appearance of his career. Third baseman Matt Duffy and infielder Eric Sogard combined with Rizzo to toss two scoreless innings.
The offense couldn’t get going against Braves right-hander Huascar Ynoa, who struck out nine in 5⅓ innings. Cubs manager David Ross put Rizzo in the leadoff spot for the first time this season. Rizzo isn’t a conventional choice and he’s not particularly fond of batting first, either, despite finding success at the top of the order during his career. But Ross is trying to mix things up, i and Rizzo became the fourth Cub to fill the role this season.
Ideally, outfielder Ian Happ would be the leadoff hitter on a daily basis. Happ has scuffled to start the season, though, hitting .135 with a .297 on-base percentage, .176 slugging percentage and 42 OPS+ in 23 games. He wasn’t in the lineup Wednesday but entered midgame because of the blowout, going 0-for-2 with a strikeout. Happ has led off 18 times, while Willson Contreras (three games) and Nico Hoerner (two) have gotten looks too.
“Rizz has done a good job up there in the past, just jump-start the offense a little bit,” Ross said Wednesday. “We’ve been swinging the bats pretty good. Outside of yesterday, the kid (Hoerner) was pretty good. But, yeah, with Happer out, just trying to find the right slot up there at the top. Rizz has done a really nice job up there and feels OK giving us at-bats there tonight.
“We’ll continue to try to put everybody in a good spot to make the lineup flow well.”
Ross’ hope is Happ returns to form offensively and goes back to being the everyday leadoff hitter. He envisions Happ setting the tone and getting on base to create run-scoring opportunities.
“He hasn’t been the version of himself quite yet and still is trying to get going on this season,” Ross said. “When he does, he’s a real threat at the top and gets on base a lot for those guys behind him and has got some slug up there that, when he’s right, I really like him at the top.”
Rizzo prefers hitting in the middle of the order but told Ross he was all for batting leadoff when the manager mentioned putting him there Wednesday. Rizzo came into the game with a career .327/.420/.585 slash line in 60 starts (257 plate appearances) in the leadoff spot.
For Rizzo, it’s “psychologically weird” leading off because that’s not how he was brought up. He thinks the next generation of leadoff hitters might be different.
“It’s not really something I enjoy that much,” he said Wednesday. “It’s fun for a little bit, but my whole life, I like hitting three, four or five, driving in the runs — not to say the leadoff spot doesn’t have RBI opportunities, but it’s just a different mentality.
“On the road I actually love leading off because I don’t have to run in from the field, rush to the on-deck circle to see what the pitcher has as I get it started off right away.”
The Cubs haven’t had a reliable leadoff hitter since Dexter Fowler’s second and final season in Chicago during the 2016 championship season. Consistency from the top spot puts pressure on the pitcher and sets up the big hitters.
