CHICAGO (AP) 鈥� Chicago Cubs president Jed Hoyer isn鈥檛 panicking over his team鈥檚 protracted slump so far this season.
Chicago entered Friday鈥檚 game against San Francisco having won six of its past 24 games and at 33-30 overall for fourth in the NL Central.
That follows a 20-3 run that drove the Cubs to a 27-12 record on May 8 when they prevailed 7-1 at Texas to complete their second of two 10-game winning streaks this season.
Chicago is just the second team in major league history to have two 10-game winning streaks and a 10-game losing streak in the same season, along with the 2017 Dodgers.
鈥淭hat Friday game in Texas, I thought we looked like World Series quality at-bats in that game and we played great,鈥� Hoyer told reporters before Friday鈥檚 game at Wrigley Field. 鈥淲e haven鈥檛 really played well since then.
鈥淲e need to get back to playing like that again. We need to do it fairly soon. We got way over .500. We cashed a lot of that in, unfortunately.鈥�
Hoyer says the Cubs, with a deep starting lineup and strong defensive play, shouldn’t be wallowing at the .250 winning percentage they’ve had since May 9.
鈥淚ntuitively you know this group of players is too good to have this last forever,鈥� Hoyer said, 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 lasted longer than we all hoped.”
Hoyer said he isn鈥檛 considering deals right now or looking ahead to the Aug. 3 trade deadline.
鈥淭he trade deadline is the furthest thing from my mind right now,鈥� Hoyer said. 鈥淚 think we just have to play better. That鈥檚 the priority.鈥�
鈥淥ur position player group is deep and it鈥檚 pretty set and so the backbone of our team is our position players.”
That group showed some spark on Thursday, when the Cubs came back with four runs in the ninth inning to top the Athletics 7-6. Chicago had seven hits in the ninth after just four hits in the first eight innings, with Pete Crow-Armstrong鈥檚 single driving in the winning run.
Gold Glove outfielders Crow-Armstrong and Ian Happ have been improving at the plate after slumps.
Crow-Armstrong entered Friday on a career-high nine-game hitting streak, with a .359 average, three homers and seven RBIs in the stretch. Happ came in batting .359 with four homers and 14 RBIs in his previous nine games, boosting his average to .237.
Other Cubs need to get rolling 鈥� none more so than two-time Gold Glove shortstop Dansby Swanson. His .184 average is third lowest among regulars in the majors.
And third baseman Alex Bregman has just one homer and five RBIs over his past 21 games entering Friday.
Hoyer believes Bregman’s power will return.
鈥淵es, water finds its own level,鈥� he said.
Chicago鈥檚 rotation has been hit hard by injuries. Right-hander Edward Cabrera returned from a blister on his right middle finger and started Friday.
But Cade Horton is out for the season because of , and Justin Steele has an uncertain timeline after he had a setback in his recovery from an . Matthew Boyd is nearing a return after he for a meniscus tear in is left knee.
Shota Imanaga and Jameson Taillon have been allowing home runs recently, however.
鈥淐andidly, some of these slumps actually give me some comfort,鈥� Hoyer said. 鈥滻 know it sounds strange, but we have good, established players, and they鈥檙e going to get hot and they鈥檙e going to get to their numbers.鈥�
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