KANSAS CITY, Mo. — At this point, catchable fly balls to right cannot be considered a guaranteed out when Seiya Suzuki is in the field.
That this has become a significant issue is alarming for a major-leaguer, let alone one the Chicago Cubs are paying to be one of the best all-around right fielders in the game. It’s a damning and costly position for Suzuki and the Cubs to be in.
The same confounding scene has played out in multiple times in numerous ballparks. On Friday night, Kauffman Stadium served as the backdrop to another nightmarish defensive sequence as Suzuki’s misplay fueled a six-run fifth inning en route to a 6-0 gut-punch loss to the Kansas City Royals.
The Cubs (49-56) didn’t do much offensively to help themselves, either, finishing with just four hits and going 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position in the opener of a six-game trip.
Kyle Hendricks was positioned to get out of the fifth inning with no damage allowed. However, Suzuki did not make a good read on Adam Frazier’s weak fly. With two outs and runners on second and third in a scoreless game, Suzuki initially broke backward as the ball was lifted to right.
That reaction doomed Suzuki. He couldn’t make up ground after course-correcting and running in on the ball. A last-second sliding effort to make the catch came up well short. Instead of Suzuki recording the final out of the inning, two runs scored.
“I should’ve caught that fly ball,” Suzuki said through interpreter Edwin Stanberry. “I took the step back, so I had to rush going forward. That was a misjudgment on my part.”
Hendricks had an opportunity to limit the damage after Suzuki failed to make the catch. But hard-hit singles from Bobby Witt Jr. and Vinnie Pasquantino (RBI) kept the Royals rolling. Salvador Pérez delivered the crushing blow, connecting on a three-run home run to cap the big inning.
But Hendricks’ reaction to Suzuki’s mistake said it all in the moment. Hendricks, in a rare display of on-field emotion, appeared visibly frustrated when he saw the ball drop, tossing his arms in the air and putting his hands on the hips.
“I thought I did what I had to do,” Hendricks said. “Made pitches, had some outs out there. Got to that Salvy at-bat, it was a long inning after that and made one bad pitch there. That’s the one, but other than that, I thought I did everything I wanted to do.”
Pérez crushed a full-count sinker down the middle of the plate, a brutal ending to an ugly inning and an at-bat that saw Hendricks get ahead 0-2.
“He put a good swing on that, but I probably shouldn’t have been in that situation,” Hendricks said. “So, just got to keep doing what I’m doing and I feel like I’m throwing the ball well, giving us a chance.”
The Cubs have fully wasted any momentum they built with their 5-2 stretch heading into the All-Star break. They have scored only nine runs in seven games since then, going 2-5.
“I mean, you can kind of point to everything,” manager Craig Counsell said. “We haven’t slugged enough. We haven’t gotten enough hits. We haven’t hit with runners in scoring position. So there hasn’t been anything that’s been really good about it.”
