Cubs' Contreras gives assessment of Davies' struggles on the mound
After another rough outing by pitcher Zach Davies, catcher Willson Contreras offered an assessment of what's been going on.
"From what I'm seeing is he's been missing location a lot," Contreras said before Tuesday's game. "We've been falling behind in the count a lot, especially yesterday. That's what I see. He's just flat at the moment right now. He has a really rare angle on his fastball, something that caught my attention yesterday and we talked about it. He moved from one side to the other on the rubber and he got much better in the last two innings."
Davies did reach a three-ball count eight times while throwing less than 4 innings on Monday, as his season record reached 1-2 with a 9.47 ERA.
The veteran right-hander joined the Cubs from San Diego in the Yu Darvish trade last winter and had a great spring. He also had a solid season with the Padres last year, posting a career-best 2.73 ERA. Velocity-wise, Davies is definitely on the low end of major league starters. He topped out at 89 miles per hour Monday.
"I think for me, just missed executing pitches a lot," Contreras said. "The fastball needs to be right on the corners because as we know, he's not a power pitcher, he's a command pitcher and right now I feel like his command is not there."
Twitter: @McGrawDHBulls