Chicago baseball report: Seiya Suzuki’s balancing act for Cubs — and why White Sox aren’t looking at AL Central standings

The Chicago Cubs can at least find some joy in that they won’t have any more three-city trips the rest of the year.

Their 10-day West Coast trip to San Diego, Anaheim and San Francisco — culminating with a 13-3 loss to the Giants for a 4-6 record on the swing — did not yield the momentum needed as they claw their way back into the division.

As for the White Sox, it was a tough week injury-wise. Eloy Jiménez left the second game of Thursday’s doubleheader against the New York Yankees with left lower leg discomfort. The initial prognosis was the outfielder could miss four to five games. Sunday, the Sox placed reliever Liam Hendriks on the 15-day injured list with right elbow inflammation. An update on his status is likely by Tuesday.

Every Monday throughout the season, Tribune baseball writers will provide an update on what happened — and what’s ahead for the Cubs and Sox.

Seiya Suzuki’s balancing act with plate patience and called strikes

Seiya Suzuki knows there have been moments over the last two seasons he’s been burned by would-be balls.

Since making his major-league debut, Suzuki is tied for the fourth-highest Pitch% of pitches called strikes outside the zone. He has particularly been hurt by correctly taking a pitch away that instead gets called a strike.

“When it becomes a strike, it’s a strike and nothing really changes,” Suzuki said through interpreter Toy Matsushita. “The umpires are human beings. He’s going to make mistakes here and there, and I’m going to make mistakes here and there, and he’s going to help me out sometimes. But I can’t really dwell on one strike. I’ve got to keep on moving forward, keep my head up.

“I try to make sure those things don’t get in the way.”

Suzuki has struggled to provide consistency in the No. 4 spot, especially with power production. He was locked in Thursday and Friday, going 5-for-8 with two doubles but didn’t play the last two games of the trip because of an undisclosed ailment. While the Cubs want to see Suzuki be aggressive and find his pitch to hit, sometimes those outside pitches that get called strikes can lead to weak contact and easy outs.

“There’s a time and a place that you may have to expand the zone a little bit. I don’t think Seiya has been in many of those situations,” hitting coach Dustin Kelly told the Tribune. “But there are times with runners in scoring position or that we need to move the ball forward and put the ball in play, we might have to expand our zone just a little bit. But we’re always going to applaud our guys and we’re going to praise our guys for swinging at the right pitches and taking the correct pitches.

“He’s been a guy that we’ve seen over the past few years that he’s been called a little bit more (on those pitches) than some of the other guys and he knows that, we know that, we acknowledge it. It’s not a secret. But if it plays out right and he swings at pitches he can do damage with, then he’s going to be just fine.”

The Sox are focused on themselves — and not the standings

The American League Central standings came up during the flight home from New York with someone mentioning to manager Pedro Grifol that the Sox were 3½ games out of first place.

“I certainly prefer being 3½ back than 13½ back,” Grifol said Friday.

The Sox had chances to inch even closer this weekend, but suffered heartbreaking losses Saturday and Sunday. They are now 4½ games behind the first-place Minnesota Twins after completing the series against the Marlins with a 6-5 loss Sunday at Guaranteed Rate Field.

“Just turning the page and getting ready for the (Los Angeles) Dodgers,” second baseman Romy Gonzalez said.

Even after a tough weekend where they squandered ninth-inning leads two days in a row, the Sox have made up ground in June. The Sox were 7½ games back on June 2. But Grifol isn’t getting too caught up in the standings.

“We just have to prepare to win baseball games,” he said. “We’re not going to win a division if we are seven or eight games under .500. “You can’t count on other teams to lose so you can win. You have to do your own job.”

Despite the dismal 7-21 start, the Sox find themselves within striking distance.

The Twins (33-33) are the only team in the division without a losing a record. The Cleveland Guardians, Sox and Detroit Tigers are all within 5½ games.

“There’s four teams really optimistic that they can win this division, and that’s a good thing,” Grifol said. “It creates a little bit of excitement for fans, for baseball, to have a division that somebody’s not just running away with it.”

Week ahead: Cubs

Justin Steele threw a bullpen Saturday at Oracle Park, keeping him on track to come off the injured list and start Saturday against the Baltimore Orioles.

Hayden Wesneski has filled in during Steele’s absence, starting Sunday in San Francisco. The Cubs initially recalled Wesneski May 30 to boost a struggling bullpen. They won’t need Wesneski’s spot in the rotation if Steele is ready Saturday.

It’s unclear whether the Cubs will shift Wesneski back to the bullpen or option him to Triple-A Iowa to continue to work as a starter. With another multi-inning option in Javier Assad in the bullpen, the Cubs might not be willing to keep both pitchers.

“We needed to have some sort of stabilizing the bullpen that was a little bit overtired and struggling, but obviously we think he’s a starting pitcher,” president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said of Wesneski. “Steele down for a short amount of time, you can slide him in there.”

Lefties continue to crush Wesneski, including Former Cub Joc Pederson, who hit two home runs off Wesneski. He has given up five doubles and 10 home runs to left-handed hitters in 11 games (10 starts). Lefties entered Sunday hitting .299 with a .969 OPS versus the 25-year-old right-hander.

”I don’t have a put-out pitch, that’s the biggest thing,” Wesneski said Sunday of his issues against lefties. “I’ll be fine. I’m going to figure it out. I do a really good job with righties, it just looks worse with lefties.”

• Monday: off

• Tuesday: vs. the Pirates, 7:05 p.m. Marquee

• Wednesday: vs. the Pirates, 7:05 p.m. Marquee

• Thursday: vs. the Pirates, 7:05 p.m. Marquee

• Friday: vs. Orioles, 1:20 p.m. Marquee

• Saturday: vs. Orioles, 1:20 p.m. Marquee

• Sunday: vs. Orioles, 1:05 p.m. Peacock

Week ahead: White Sox

Last year’s All-Star Game took place at Dodger Stadium. This year’s event is at T-Mobile Park. The Sox visit both this week.

Luis Robert Jr. is one Sox players under All-Star consideration. The center fielder is tied for fourth in the American League after hitting his 15th homer Sunday.

He had the big hit Friday, driving in the game-winning run with a single in the ninth as the Sox beat the Marlins 2-1.

Just as important for the Sox has been the defensive impact.

“I think we probably take for granted what he does out there and it’s not easy what he does,” Grifol said. “And he does it every single day. This guy is going gap to gap and he’s making plays. They look routine and they’re not.”

Robert is in the top 10 in the majors in defensive runs saved (8) according to FanGraphs.

“To me, every time I see the ball in the air, I try to get it,” Robert said through an interpreter. “In my mind, there is not any doubt that I can get that ball.”

• Monday: off

• Tuesday: at Dodgers, 9:10 p.m., NBCSCH

• Wednesday: at Dodgers, 9:10 p.m., ESPN

• Thursday: at Dodgers, 9:10 p.m., NBCSCH

• Friday: at Mariners, 9:10 p.m., Apple TV+

• Saturday: at Mariners, 3:10 p.m., NBCSCH

• Sunday: at Mariners, 3:10 p.m., NBCSCH

What we’re reading this morning

• ‘Heartbreaker’: White Sox can’t hold 9th-inning lead for a 2nd straight day, falling 6-5

• ‘I would truly would love to stay a Cub,’ says Marcus Stroman. But pitcher says team hasn’t engaged in extension talks.

• White Sox put reliever Liam Hendriks on 15-day IL, but GM says it’s ‘too early to put it on the flexor’

• Kyle Hendricks gets within 4 outs of a no-hitter, another vintage performance for the Cubs veteran

• White Sox give up 5 runs in the 9th to the Miami Marlins in 5-1 loss: ‘It wasn’t a good day for us’

This week in Chicago baseball

June 12, 2009: Milton Bradley has a very bad day at Wrigley Field

Cubs right fielder Milton Bradley lost Jason Kubel’s pop-up in the sun for a single, couldn’t catch Michael Cuddyer’s RBI bloop double, made a baserunning blunder and, most egregiously, flipped the ball into the stands after catching Joe Mauer’s one-out sac fly. All in one game.

“Sue me,” Bradley says defiantly of throwing the ball into the stands afterward.

The Twins won 7-4.

June 13, 1947: Red Sox beat White Sox 5-3 in the first night game at Fenway Park

The Red Sox scored all of their runs in the fifth inning on three singles, two walks and a White Sox error.

June 13, 1957: White Sox and Yankees engage in a benches-clearing brawl at Comiskey Park

The benches cleared after Yankee pitcher Art Dittmar threw close to the Sox’s Larry Doby — and some big-time punching followed.

In the center of things was veteran Yankee outfielder Enos Slaughter, who went after the biggest opponent he could find: Sox first baseman Walt “Moose” Dropo, a 6-foot-5-inch, 240-pound former college tight end.

The fight lasted 30 minutes. When peacemakers finally pried apart Slaughter and Dropo, Slaughter had his jersey ripped off his body, but Dropo had taken the more telling punches. Unofficial grandstand judges awarded Slaughter the decision. Five players were ejected and fined.

The Yankees won the game too, 4-3.

June 14, 1949: Eddie Waitkus becomes the inspiration for “The Natural” when he is shot by Ruth Ann Steinhagen, a 19-year-old fan

“Ruth has a place in Chicago crime history because of the good old-fashioned moxie she used to carry out her plan — to kill Eddie Waitkus,” Chicago author John Theodore told the Tribune. “Here’s a 19-year-old girl, living by herself in a tiny apartment on Lincoln Avenue, in 1949. She builds an Eddie Waitkus shrine in her apartment: photos, newspaper clippings, 50 ticket stubs, scorecards. She knows he’s from Boston so she develops a craving for baked beans. He’s Lithuanian, so she teaches herself the language and listens to Lithuanian radio programs.”

It all came to a head June 14, 1949, when the Phillies were in town to play the Cubs. Steinhagen attended the game, then sent the former Cubs first baseman an unsigned note summoning him to a 12th-floor room in the now-demolished Edgewater Beach Hotel, where the Phillies were staying.

When Waitkus arrived at 11:30 p.m., Steinhagen told Waitkus from behind the door, “I have a surprise for you,” and then used a .22-caliber rifle that she had purchased at a pawnshop to shoot him just below the heart.

The bullet tore through his right lung and lodged in back muscles near his spine, and he underwent two blood transfusions while in critical condition. He had six operations before doctors finally removed the bullet.

Waitkus made an impressive recovery and helped the Phillies to the National League pennant in 1950. He was a regular for two more seasons and played through 1955, though he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and retired from baseball at 35. He died in 1972.

June 15, 1964: Cubs make worst trade in team history — Lou Brock for Ernie Broglio

It was a six-player swap, three for three. The “other” four players are a mere footnote in Cub lore. Brock and pitchers Jack Spring and Paul Toth went to the Cardinals for pitchers Broglio and Bobby Shantz and outfielder Doug Clemens.

Broglio, who had been a 20-game winner, was in his sixth big-league season, two months short of his 30th birthday.

Brock was 25 and had put in 2½ undistinguished seasons with the Cubs. His principal achievement in 1,200 at-bats with the Cubs was a blockbuster home run into the right-center-field bleachers in the old Polo Grounds, then the home of the New York Mets. The conservative estimate pegged the distance at 485 feet.

Bob Kennedy, then the Cubs head coach recalled to the Tribune’s Jerome Holtzman that he and his three top assistants — Lou Klein, Verlon “Rube” Walker and Fred Martin — were against the deal.

“We just liked Lou Brock a lot more than that,” Kennedy said. “And we didn’t want Broglio. Lew Burdette (acquired two weeks earlier from the Cardinals) was on our club then and told us Broglio had been having arm problems; he’d been getting shots.”

Brock was an immediate sensation with the Cardinals and he played a key role in the successful 1964 pennant drive, hitting .348 and stealing 33 bases in 103 games. He batted .300 or better six times, led the league in stolen bases eight times and still holds the major-league record for the most career steals, 938. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1985.

A right-hander with a good curveball, Broglio was 4-7 with the Cubs in 1964 and retired with a sore arm after the 1966 season. His overall record with the Cubs was 7-13.

Quotable

“The first thing (Nick) Madrigal said to me after the game was, ‘Your heart start going a little bit in the eighth?’ Yeah, it did. When he got to two outs, it was crazy. You don’t want to think about it. You don’t want to jinx it in your own head, but it was exciting.” — Cubs first baseman Matt Mervis on playing behind Kyle Hendricks when he took a no-hitter through 7⅔ innings Saturday at Oracle Park