Happ's homer a welcome sign in first game back from two-day reset

CHICAGO -- Ian Happ headed out of the batter’s box, his bat still in his right hand, leaning as he watched whether the baseball he just launched would stay fair or hook foul. The ball clanked off the pole down the right-field line and bounced back into the outfield as the Wrigley Field crowd roared on Thursday night.

Within the confines of a 5-4 loss to the Pirates, Happ’s second-inning home run off Jared Jones did not ultimately move the needle much for the Cubs. Zooming out, the blast was a long-awaited, much-needed moment for one of Chicago’s core players. And the North Siders’ offense would benefit greatly from having a confident, consistent Happ for the coming months.

“It just felt really good,” Happ said.

After a hitless showing on Monday night in Atlanta, giving Happ a .173 average and .526 OPS in a 30-game stretch, Cubs manager Craig Counsell decided the timing was right to offer the left fielder a two-game break. It was a chance for Happ to get work done behind the scenes without the added pressure of performing.

Counsell opened his first season at the helm with the Cubs with Happ as his leadoff man, given the outfielder’s track record of on-base ability and power potential. Entering Thursday’s game, the switch-hitter had just one homer to go along with a .219/.333/.301 slash line. That included an uncharacteristically-low on-base percentage (.289) in his past 30 games.

For Counsell, it felt like the right time to let Happ take a breath.

“It’s not a new strategy by any means,” Counsell said. “But you see players, and what’s going on. There’s differences. There’s guys that are just tired and kind of need a physical refresh day. And then there’s a struggling player or a player that’s not kind of performing the way he wants to.

“There’s different reasons that you give guys days off. I think in this case, it was just, ‘Sit back and watch and get a little perspective. And then regroup and go after it.’”

Happ admitted that the mental reset was appropriate, too.

“Yeah, I mean, just a couple days there to clear my head,” said Happ, who finished the night 1-for-4. “I think results sometimes get challenging to deal with on a daily basis.”

Last season, the Cubs took a similar approach with Seiya Suzuki, who was mired in a prolonged offensive slump through July and into August. From the day Suzuki returned to the lineup on Aug. 9, following a few days to sit, watch and work, he hit .356 with a 1.086 OPS over his final 47 games of the season.

In Happ’s case, Cubs hitting coach Dustin Kelly said the two-day break gave them a chance to focus on some ongoing adjustments to how pitchers have been attacking the outfielder. Happ had seen 21.7% sliders (all variations) in May compared to 15.8% in April, as well as an uptick in all types of breaking ball (27.3% in May vs. 21.2% in April), entering Thursday’s action.

“It was a chance for us to kind of just sit and talk,” Kelly said, “and do some work in the cage without having to go out and play and trying to implement something. It gave us like an extra 48 hours to kind of digest some thoughts and concepts and kind of get back to, like, what makes Ian Happ great.”

Kelly noted that Happ’s improvement against fastballs this season (.333 average and .500 slugging percentage) compared to 2023 (.233 BA and .405 SLG) has likely played a role in the increase in breaking pitches being sent his way.

“He's really hammering the fastball,” Kelly said. “And that was something in the offseason that we talked about. His fastball numbers last year weren't great. And he wanted to emphasize, 'Let's get back onto the fastball.' And now they start throwing more sliders. It’s that chess match back and forth with the pitchers.”

In Happ’s first at-bat, Jones started him off with a curveball, which the Cubs outfielder watched drop into the zone for strike one. The hard-throwing Pirates righty then went with a 96.4 mph fastball middle-in, and Happ did not miss. He belted the pitch with a 110.3 mph exit velocity and watched it carom off the pole for his second homer of the year.

The shot snapped a drought of 92 plate appearances between homers.

“He hit a couple balls hard tonight, which is great,” Counsell said. “And it’s just a good feeling for him, I think more than anything.”