It’s quiet in parts of Chicago as the Chicago Cubs lost yet another winnable game. This time, it was a 7-6 loss to the Houston Astros and they were swept on the road.
The pitching? Abysmal.
Hitting? Well, there are two bright spots, one being named Christopher Morel.
The other? Right-fielder Seiya Suzuki.
The 28-year-old Japanese star was signed back in March 2022 on a five-year, $85 million deal. To say he’s been hot in the past ten games is an understatement.
In May alone, he’s slashing .321/.413/.623 with four homers and 11 RBI. Two of those homers came in the Wednesday night loss. So far, he hit three homers in the series and four in his last four games.
To give a little insight into how he’s quickly becoming, let’s look at the two from the series end in Houston.
In his first plate appearance of the night at the top of the first, he blasts a towering fly ball that nearly, very nearly, lands on the railroad tracks. That made it a homer in back-to-back games for Suzuki but he wasn’t done for the night.
Top of the third, he blasted his second homer of the night. Dating back to Tuesday night, that made it three plate appearances and three home runs.
This makes Suzuki the first Japanese-born player to hit three homers at three consecutive at-bats. For context too, the last Cubs hitter to do so was Kris Bryant during a three-homer game against the Nationals back on May 17, 2019.
Four years to the day. Talk about fate.
He’s got power and a well-timed plate discipline at the dish that Chicago needs. There’s a reason that he was a valuable player for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp in Nippon Professional Baseball.
Prior to Wednesday’s game, Suzuki had just 17 home runs in his 570 plate appearances during his time in MLB. That’s one every 33.1 plate appearance. Yikes.
Signs that the Cubs might have someone special came when it snapped his 110 plate appearance in the seventh inning with a homer on May 14 game against the Minnesota Twins.
His swing path is well-regarded by his coaches and he’s finally finding the flow that will suit him at the plate. The recent stretch of success will likely see him return to the clean-up spot in the lineup.
Suzuki finished the evening on Wednesday 3-for-3 with two homers, a single, and a pair of walks. It made the third time in his career he reached base five times in a game for the Cubs.
If he doesn’t think he’s where he needs to be just yet, Chicago certainly thinks he’s going to have a quick time getting there for them.
