After a dismal 2-7 road trip, the Chicago Cubs look to get back on track as they return home tonight to begin a three-game series with the Cincinnati Reds.
Although the road trip was one to forget, including ending with a three-game sweep over the weekend against the first-place St. Louis Cardinals, left-handed starting pitcher Wade Miley will return to the mound tonight to make his first start for Chicago since early June.
Despite posting a .500 record in the month of August (15-15), the Cubs find themselves limping home to Wrigley Field with a quieted offense that will be looking to regain their stride at the plate against the Reds.
Even with 19 hits over the weekend against St. Louis, the Chicago offense was still outscored 18-4 across the series.
Over their last three series, the Cubs have both the fourth-lowest batting average and runs scored in the National League since August 26.
Even with the lack of production, the bats have been led by Seiya Suzuki, who has hit for a .353 average in the last three series. Recent designated hitting acquisition Franmil Reyes had a solid series over the weekend, too, collecting three hits in nine at-bats.
Heading home, shortstop Nico Hoerner and outfielder Ian Happ will look to return to form after being muted this weekend against St. Louis: Happ collected two hits in 10 at-bats while Hoerner went hitless in 11 tries.
Although hitting just .167 across the last three series, Hoerner has hit for a tenacious .448 batting average against the Reds this season, collecting four extra-base hits and a 1.170 OPS.
With the left-handed Miley making his long-awaited return tonight, it’s expected with his recent call-up that Chicago’s 12th-ranked prospect Hayden Wesneski could make his Major League debut either Wednesday or Thursday.
Traded to Chicago from the New York Yankees for relief pitcher Scott Effross at the trade deadline, Wesneski has allowed 13 earned runs in 20.2 innings since joining Triple-A Iowa but has been stellar across his last three outings.
Regardless of who takes the mound for the Cubs, they will be tasked with taking pressure off of the struggling Chicago bullpen.
Since August 26, the Cubs have a National League-worse 8.67 bullpen ERA. Their .296 batting average against in the span versus their relief arms is the second-highest in the National League.
Coming into the series in fourth place in the division, the Cincinnati Reds went 11-17 in the month of August but have won two of their last three series.
Although they have lost veteran first baseman Joey Votto and catcher Tyler Stephenson for the rest of the season with injuries, their offense has been led of late by the young talents of Jonathan India and T.J. Friedl.
Leading the Cincinnati offense across the last 10 games, Friedl is hitting for a .424 average in the stretch while collecting 14 hits, including four home runs. India, who won National League rookie of the year last year, has hit a .417 average in the same span, collecting 15 hits and a 1.369 OPS.
Despite almost missing the entire first three months of the season with a right hamstring injury, India has the fifth-best batting average amongst NL second basemen (.266) and the seventh-best OPS (.750) (min. 250 PAs).
As they head into the series looking to turn their recent level of play around, at 21-21 in the second half the Cubs still have a chance to finish the season on a positive note
Starting tonight, it can begin with a solid series against Cincinnati.
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