Chicago Cubs get another win without Kris Bryant in the lineup
The Chicago Cubs can probably get by for a few days without third baseman Kris Bryant.
Manager Joe Maddon knows that can't last forever, that sooner or later the Cubs will miss Bryant in the lineup.
As the Cubs returned home to Wrigley Field on Thursday night to open a four-game series against the Milwaukee Brewers, Bryant went out before the Cubs' 1-0 victory to take some hitting.
The Cubs got all the hitting they needed from Kyle Schwarber, who homered in the sixth inning.
Bryant has been out since getting hit on the helmet with a pitch in Sunday's game at Colorado. There is no timetable for his return — he met with a team doctor Tuesday — but Maddon knows what he means to the lineup.
“If you're the manager on the other team and I send the lineup over and he's not on it, you kind of smile or snicker a little bit,” he said. “The whole thing changes. The lineup changes. The length of the lineup changes. The method that they want to employ, everything changes when you're missing a guy like that in your lineup. So we feel it. They feel it. We've done OK since then. We've won two out of three without him in the lineup, including the game he got hit.
“It's just different. It's hard to, I think, maintain a level of high success when you're missing guys like that. You can battle through it briefly, but long term you definitely don't want to lose him for a long period of time.”
Thursday night opened as a pitchers' duel between the Cubs' Kyle Hendricks and the Brewers' Chase Anderson.
The game was scoreless until the bottom of the sixth, when Schwarber lined a homer to right field. It was his seventh of the season, tying him for the team lead with Javier Baez.
“Pretty much in the off-season, it was more of trying to fine-tune some things and stop trying to lift as much,” Schwarber said. “Just be more direct to the ball. Just find the barrel more often. If I find the barrel, good things are going to happen. It could be on the ground. It could be in the air, whatever it is. I'm just up there trying to find barrel every time.”
On the mound, Hendricks became the second Cubs pitcher this season to work 7 innings, joining Jon Lester, who pitched 7 Wednesday at Cleveland. Hendricks gave up 4 hits without walking a batter. He struck out five. Hendricks looked to be in his best rhythm of the season as he improved to 2-1 with a 3.10 ERA.
“Definitely,” he said. “That was much more normal, I guess you could say, mechanically at least. Things I've been working on felt much more natural today. I wasn't forcing anything with my mechanics. Fastball command followed right there. Fastball command was really good. Man, (catcher Victor) Caratini and I were on the same page, same wavelength all game, communicating well back and forth.”
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