Michael

Busch

Busch has seven hits, including four homers, the last two days. His homer today was the first by a lefty off Matthew Liberatore this season. Busch is typically platooned with Justin Turner, and he came into the day just 6-for-43 against lefties this season, but yesterday’s massive game kept him in the lineup for this one. He’s up to sixth in the majors with a .939 OPS, and it’s going to be very difficult to keep him off the NL All-Star team,

Busch homered in each of his first two at-bats off Miles Mikolas as the Cubs set a franchise record with eight long balls. Seven of them were hit in the first three innings and Busch’s first two were absolutely crushed. They combined to travel 836 feet and each came against fastballs that were grooved right down the middle. Then, he hit a cheapie in the seventh inning off John King, but never got another plate appearance for a chance at what would’ve been a historic fourth homer. All four of his batted balls were hit at least 103 mph and he’s quietly been one of the best hitters in the National League to this point with 19 home runs, 59 RBI, and a .919 OPS. Overall, this has been an incredible breakout season for the 27-year-old first baseman.

The 109.6-mph liner to right in the second innings was Busch’s first ever homer in Busch Stadium. He later added a 106.3-mph single off Andre Pallante. Busch isn’t going to be an NL All-Star unless a couple of first basemen drop out, but he does have the numbers; he’s batting .311/.386/.608 with six homers in June, elevating his season OPS to .869.

Busch drew a walk to lead off the second inning and scored on a groundout before taking Emmerson Hancock deep for a three-run blast in the third to blow the game open. The 27-year-old slugger is up to 12 homers while hitting .272/.367/.509 with 44 RBI across 267 plate appearances.

There’s nothing wrong with the 27-year-old first baseman, he’s simply getting a breather with star southpaw Tarik Skubal toeing the slab for the Tigers. Justin Turner will start in his place at first base and will bat eighth for the Cubs on Friday evening.

Busch has five hits, including two homers, in two games this month, and his OPS is back up to .895 after a down month in May. It’s going to be really difficult for him to make the All-Star team in a league that also has Freddie Freeman, Pete Alonso, Bruce Harper and Matt Olson at first base, but he’ll deserve consideration if he maintains his current pace.

The Cubs faced lefties in five of seven games prior to today, and Busch sat in favor of Justin Turner all five times. Still, the bench time doesn’t seem to be bothering him. It’d be hard to blame him for feeling snubbed. Not only is he being platooned, but he’s also been dropped in the lineup against righties because of Pete Crow-Armstrong’s success. Meanwhile, he’s hitting .266/.366/.486, giving him about a 140 OPS+.

Shaw is not exactly setting the world on fire at Triple-A, slashing .257/.381/.443 in 19 games with two home runs and three steals. He also has 13 walks to just nine strikeouts, so his plate discipline has been tremendous. The Cubs are also giving Michael Busch pre-game work at 3B as they look to see if Moises Ballesteros can remain with the team as a regular first baseman. It seems like Shaw has a little more competition for the 3B job than we expected a few weeks ago.

Busch doubled the Cubs’ lead from 4-0 to 8-0 with a bases-loaded homer — better known as a grand slam — off Quinn Priester in the second inning. He went hitless for the rest of the game, but if you hit a grand slam, you had a good day. Busch has homered six times, driven in 22 runs and forged an OPS of .894 over the first fifth of the season.

It’s the first time this year that Kelly has hit higher than sixth. If the Cubs are suddenly buying into his red-hot start offensively, it’s fair to ask why he’s started just three of the team’s last seven games. Swanson probably deserves to be dropped to eighth with his ugly .232 OBP in 126 plate appearances. Busch, though, has been terrific in hitting .286/381/.549, even if that pales in comparison to Kelly’s ridiculous .341/.517/.854 start.