LOS ANGELES — Right fielder Jason Heyward hasn’t had the season he or the Cubs had hoped for to this point at the plate. After being one of the Cubs’ best offensive players in 2020, he has been unable to duplicate that performance.
Heyward’s left-hamstring strain that put him on the injured list for a month didn’t help his attempts to find a consistent rhythm at the plate. But in the midst of his best series of the season, his red-hot play continued on Saturday night as he put together some of the Cubs’ best at-bats in a 3-2 loss to the Dodgers.
“I’m just trying to relax,” Heyward said after the walk-off loss. “Keep it as simple as possible. “Just give 100% of what I have on every single pitch and just let that just gradually allow me to see the ball in the zone and be aggressive there, no matter what happens.”
Ross has had to adjust his lineups as he’s tried to find spots to not only try to get his struggling outfielder going offensively by finding good strong matchups, but also sitting him at times.
“Everybody wants to play every day, I’ll tell you that,” Ross said. “It’s just part of this job, right? You have conversations. Everybody wants to play, everybody wants to be the guy every single day. There’s a balance there and that’s my job. Not everybody wants to hear when they’re not playing.”
Heyward hasn’t faced tough left-handers often and despite coming into the game with a .490 OPS against left-handers, but Ross gave him the nod against Dodgers starter Julio Urias.
“It’s always kind of fluctuating who is going to give us the best at-bats,” Ross said before the game. “Heyward was able to work some walks.
“I feel like he’s gotten some hits lately, some hustle hits and a nice hit last night. He’s had some good nights and he gets back in there today. I think this is a good matchup for him.”
It wasn’t a home run or loud contact that got Heyward off to his fast start in the series. But after a walk in his first at-bat Thursday, things started to fall his way with a few broken bat singles to get himself going.
The right fielder had his strongest game of the series Saturday with a single and double in his first two at-bats against Urias. Heyward was tasked with facing tough southpaw Garrett Cleavinger in the seventh inning and came within feet of hitting a go-ahead home run before being overturned on a controversial call.
But Heyward followed his would-be homer with a solid single up the middle, giving him a three-hit day with all three coming off of lefties.
“That’s one of the more difficult things that you have to do in baseball,” Ross said. “Foul borderline home run, to stay in there left on left and then smoked that ball up the middle, really nice job, really nice game from Jason
“He seems to be in a good place and getting back to the version of him that we have a lot of confidence in.”
Saturday was Heyward’s first three-hit game of the season and he’s now 7-for-10 in the series with a double and three walks. It’s a trend he and the Cubs hopes continues well past the series in LA.
“Obviously, it’s nice to get some results, broken bat or not, to get some hits,” Heyward said. “But just to be looking for pitches to hit and feel like I got time to react. Just want to keep building. Keep pushing. Obviously, today was a good day. Faced some good pitching and faced some good pitching in this series as a group, so it’s nice to help out.”
Chicagofire officials have warned drivers citywide to avoid flooded viaducts as storm systems continue to pass through the area Saturday evening.
Crews have already made several rescues from cars stalled in the water, according to fire officials.
If the water level touches the wheel rim of the vehicle, officials have advised drivers not to enter. Even if the vehicle is able to pass through the flooded area, the brakes may be compromised by the water, fire officials said.
Fire officials also warned drivers that vehicles abandoned in the water could suffer even more damage.
Flooding shut down a portion of the Eisenhower Expressway Saturday evening with eastbound traffic was being diverted off at Des Plaines and westbound traffic diverted off at First Avenue.
A late-morning torrential downpour and a tornado warning couldn’t rain on the parade of thousands of festival goers who flooded Grant Park Saturday for Pride in the Park.
The storm delayed the kickoff to the two-day music festival by two hours. Still, throngs of people decked out in rainbow attire and ponchos, poured into the downtown park to celebrate as Pride month nears its end.
“Rain was not going to keep me away,” said Mark King, 42, who wore a multi-colored speedo and sequined jacket. “I thought there was a very good chance it was going to get canceled, but the shows gotta go on, we’ve got to celebrate as a city.”
With rain continuing steadily into the evening, some huddled together under umbrellas in an attempt to stay dry, while others embraced the weather and danced on the muddy swamp-like grounds. Most were mask-less, bringing flashbacks of pre-pandemic times.
“It’s just exciting,” Kim Belizaire said. “It’s good to see people getting out and trying to live life again. It is a sense of normalcy again, I haven’t done something like this in so long.”
Belizaire, 20, said she took a train from Skokie with friends and was drawn to the celebration for its “good vibes.”
Belizaire’s friend, 19-year-old Evan Numan, who recently came out as gay, emphasized the importance of embracing inclusivity and diversity at the event.
“All these people are coming to celebrate the same thing, so it’s really just meaningful and honestly [an] overwhelmingly good experience to see all these people that are either part of my community or support me,” Numan said. “It’s just a beautiful feeling knowing that you’re accepted, you’re loved by [others] and you mean something.”
A baseball season can be divided many ways, but White Sox manager Tony La Russa prefers to do it in three two-month chunks: April-May, June-July, and August-September.
The last part usually is considered the most challenging, but La Russa said the middle chunk is actually the hardest.
”Part of what makes it tough is you’re going through April and May, and you’ve got sore spots,” La Russa said.
As players get banged up, those ”sore spots” don’t always lead to trips to the injured list, but they can lead to midseason slumps and team struggles. The Sox still lead the American League Central by two games over the Indians despite a 1-6 stretch in the last week, but continued poor play might put that in jeopardy.
The Sox’ offense has been held to three runs or fewer in each of the last seven games. La Russa has seen some of his players starting to press at the plate, but that isn’t concerning him at this point.
”These are men, not machines,” La Russa said. ”And when you struggle, there’s two ways you can go . . . right? You can not care and just walk around and whatever happens, happens. Or you can try too hard. You’d rather take the trying too hard because it’s easier to back off. You walk around having to kick guys in the butt to play, then you’ve got the wrong team.”
The Sox were 33-21 in April and May but have slowed to 11-10 so far in June.
Rain, rain go away
Rain and a tornado warning delayed the start of the game Saturday by 68 minutes, and it was suspended after a nearly two-hour delay in the middle of the third inning.
The Sox and Mariners will make up the game as a part of a doubleheader Sunday. The first game will pick up where it left off at 1:10 p.m. and go for nine innings. After a 45-minute break between games, the teams will play a seven-inning series finale.
Rosters will be frozen for the first game, but the teams can make roster moves for the second. The Sox’ Dallas Keuchel and the Mariners’ Marco Gonzales were the originally scheduled starters for the game Sunday. Starters for the resumption of the makeup game are to be determined.
Also, there is rain in the forecast for the rest of this homestand.
”It’s just part of it, and you just deal with it,” La Russa said. ”The biggest thing is don’t get distracted. You don’t come to the park thinking you’re going to get rained out. You don’t start the game thinking it’s not going to get finished. You just stay in the now and play the inning you’re playing. That’s all cliches, but sometimes that’s the only thing you’ve got to fall back on.”
Roster shuffle
The Sox made a 40-man roster move, outrighting reliever Alex McRae to Triple-A Charlotte and reinstating reliever Jace Fry from the 60-day injured list (back) and optioning him to Charlotte. Fry had a 3.66 ERA in 18 appearances last season but hasn’t pitched in 2021.
LOS ANGELES – The Cubs have missed Nico Hoerner’s energy in their lineup since he suffered a left hamstring strain, but they are close to getting their spark plug back after his month-long absence.
Hoerner will begin a rehab assignment with Triple-A Iowa starting on Sunday, putting him on a pace to return to the team soon. He joins starter right-handers Trevor Williams, Dillon Maples and left-hander Justin Steele, who all left to begin their rehab assignments on Friday.
Hoerner is slashing .338/.405/.432 in 21 games this season.
“It’s been moving along nicely for him the last couple of days,” manager David Ross said before the game. “I think all these guys, Trevor, Steele, [David] Bote’s not far behind. I think he’ll be any day now. Guys are starting to kind of turn that corner right here before the All-Star break.
“So it’d be nice to see these guys get some games under their belt, get them healthy, get them back in the lineup and then still have some days off to recover with the All-Star break coming up. So yeah, it’s kind of a kind of good timing. We’ve definitely missed a lot of those guys.”
Duffy (back) hopeful setback is in the past
Infielder Matt Duffy was a big part of the Cubs’ early-season success on offense, but a balky back has kept him out for longer than the team expected. Duffy seemed to be ready to make a return several weeks ago, but after pushing himself, a setback during his rehab has kept him sidelined.
“I think I was just trying to rush,” Duffy said on Saturday. “Probably not being honest with myself about how I was feeling.”
Duffy says he’s officially been diagnosed with a bulging disc in his lower back and while the team is happy with the progress he’s made, the next step is ensuring that he can recover after going through baseball activities.
The Cubs’ infielder is hopeful that by the All-Star break he has a more definitive timeline on a rehab assignment and possible return. How his back responds to swinging a bat will be another important step as he tries to return from injury.
“I think this next week is going to be big, because we’re starting to add in baseball activity now after throwing yesterday for the first time [since the setback],” Duffy said. “I’ve been swinging inside dry swings, after doing medicine ball tosses and stuff, and that’s all gone really well. So it just depends on really this initial [addition] of activities.”
Higgins elects Tommy John surgery
The Cubs have struggled with their catching depth due to injury all season and it has taken another big blow as catcher PJ Higgins will undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery. Higgins went on the injured list June 11 with a right forearm strain.
After further testing, it was discovered that the Cubs catcher had a right flexor strain and partially torn UCL. He received a second opinion and elected to get surgery, which will be done in the coming weeks.
For manager Tony La Russa, filling out the lineup card this deep into a season often means balancing when it’s the right time to give a player a day off.
The first two and a half months of the season are starting to take their toll physically and mentally, and guys who started the season hot are starting to cool off. And some are downright slumping.
Namely, Jose Abreu has struggled in June, hitting just .173 with one home run. The 2020 American League MVP had a slow start in April, but he hit .333 in May with six home runs, five doubles, and a triple.
La Russa believes that some of what is contributing to Abreu’s slump in June is the usual wear and tear of a season. Abreu has had some scary moments on the field this year, including a collision with Hunter Dozier in May, and those bumps and bruises add up. La Russa acknowledged this after Abreu went 0-for-3 in Friday’s 9-3 loss to the Mariners, but come Saturday, he had Abreu in the lineup again.
“The conversation went like, he’s ready to play,” La Russa said, explaining his choice. “He put his hand on a ball, which is the baseball bible, and assured me that he wasn’t being overly heroic. So I said ‘Great, you’re in there.’ That’s how it went.”
Getting Abreu to rest can be easier said than done; he was taking swings on the field Saturday morning less than twelve hours after Friday night’s game had ended.
“You’ve seen what he did over the years,” shortstop Tim Anderson said of his teammate. “He’s definitely working. I just saw him in the cage so I think that says a lot about what kind of guy he is and what type of work ethic he has.”
La Russa’s sustained faith in Abreu could pay off — he did hit a bloop single to shallow left field in his first at bat Saturday, before play was suspended due to rain. That was Abreu’s first hit since his seventh inning single on Tuesday in Pittsburgh.
“He’s sore but he’s not hurt. That’s the key,” La Russa said.
And Abreu isn’t the only player whose health La Russa is trying to take into consideration when he decides on his starting nine each day. He has had to have similar conversations with Yoan Moncada. In Friday’s game, Moncada rolled his ankle slightly taking a swing and then later had to be checked after running to first base. He remained in the game, but La Russa said Moncada iced the ankle immediately after the ninth inning ended.
Despite this, Moncada was also in Saturday’s lineup. Like with Abreu, La Russa is choosing to trust Moncada when he says he’s good to play.
“If it gets to where it’s detrimental to him or the team, I think he’ll speak up,” La Russa said.
During last weekend’s series in Houston, Moncada insisted he could play, even though he was battling a sinus infection at the time. Moncada went 0-for-3 that day, and his production has also slowed in June. His OPS is down to .663 this month after it was .892 in May.
Regardless, La Russa believes he and the team medical staff can manage the right amount of rest for Moncada, but like Abreu, Moncada’s name can be a hard one not to write on his lineup card.
“As long as we keep that communication honest and trust him,” La Russa said. “But there’s been a lot of times he’s gone to the post concerned about, we’ve been concerned about something and he gets the RBI that make you happy he played, because he was the difference, defensively, offensively. Just part of relationships and trust. And we trust if it’s not in his best interest, which is not in our interest, that he’s going to let us know.”
A 41-year-old man accused of “terrorizing downtown” after he allegedly attacked three women, killing one, over the course of nine days this month was held without bail Saturday.
Tony Robinson is facing a first-degree murder charge in the fatal stabbing of a Maryland graduate student in the Loop last weekend, as well as armed robbery and aggravated battery charges in connection to two other downtown attacks.
“This defendant has, for lack of a better term, [been] terrorizing downtown in regards to the crimes he’s now facing charges,” Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy said during a bond hearing.
Judge Charles Beach later agreed that Robinson had been terrorizing the downtown area, saying, “I don’t think that’s an unfair statement in any way, shape or form.”
“These types of attacks and the randomness and violence cause a fear… The randomness of this is hard to explain and it’s hard to adapt to, and frankly, it is an act of terrorism on the community when it happens in this fashion,” Beach said.
About 4 p.m. June 19, Anat Kimchi, 31, was walking in the 400 block of South Wacker Drive when Robinson approached her from behind and stabbed her in the neck and upper back, Murphy said.
A witness, who was in a nearby park at the time of the murder, told investigators that initially it looked like Robinson was trying to rob Kimchi, though he only took a sweater, Murphy said.
The witness ran to help Kimchi and had a brief confrontation with Robinson, who told the bystander “he didn’t want any of what he had,” Murphy said. The wounded Kimchi gave her phone to the witness, who called 911 and held her until emergency personnel arrived.
Surveillance video captured Robinson running away southbound on Upper Wacker Drive before descending to Lower Wacker Drive, Murphy said.
Video also allegedly showed Robinson tossing a knife into the Chicago River, taking off the shirt he wore during the attack and leaving it near a small homeless encampment where he lived, about 200 feet away from the scene of the stabbing.
Investigators later found that shirt, which contained DNA samples matching Robinson, Murphy said.
Chicago police work the scene where a 31-year-old woman was fatally stabbed in the 400 block of South Wacker on June 19.Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times
Kimchi was the third woman Robinson allegedly attacked in nine days.
On June 13, Robinson allegedly jumped a St. Louis woman in town for a baseball game as she was on her way to get coffee. Robinson hit the 50-year-old woman with a “long black object” multiple times, making drop her belongings, near South Michigan Avenue and East Congress Parkway, Murphy said.
The woman didn’t see the weapon, but told investigators it felt like she was hit with a concrete block. She identified Robinson in a photo array.
Robinson stole her phone and some money before fleeing. The woman suffered a broken nose and needed nine stitches to the forehead and three staples to the back of her head, Murphy said.
And three days before that, Robinson allegedly hit a 25-year-old woman in the head with an unknown object as she walked on a sidewalk in the 500 block of South Franklin Street on June 10.
When he was arrested Thursday, Robinson was wearing the same cargo pants he allegedly was seen in after Kimchi’s stabbing.
During a search of his tent, officers recovered two knives and a black sock filled with rocks, according to Murphy. They also found black sneakers with a metal buckle on the shoe laces, the same shoes Kimchi’s attacker was seen wearing on surveillance footage before the fatal stabbing.
A Northwest Side apartment building owned by a landlord whose properties have been plagued by violence and building code violations — including a woman shot to death last year in another of his buildings — was raided Friday by Chicago police officers.
Karris Turner, 31, and Terrence Cole, 27, were arrested in an apartment in the building in the 4400 block of North Lawndale Avenue in Albany Park, where officers reported finding 26 grams of heroin, 13 grams of crack cocaine and $2,000 in a safe.
Both men are felons. Turner was on electronic monitoring while free on bail awaiting trial on weapon charges, including reckless discharge of a firearm, court records show.
Gary Carlson, who has dozens of rental properties in the area, also owns an apartment building in the 4400 block of North Francisco Avenue where Stephanie Brooks was fatally shot on Feb. 22, 2020.
Stephanie Brooks.Provided
A masked man entered the apartment during a home invasion, and Brooks was shot when at least one of her friends fired a handgun during the incident, according to a police report. The case was closed without any charges filed.
At the time, the police said they believed the incident could have been connected to a gang shootout that left a Chicago firefighter wounded in the leg outside another apartment building owned by Carlson. The firefighter was trying to put out a car fire outside the building in the 3300 block of West Wilson Avenue when he was caught in the crossfire.
Hollis Williams, 30, pleaded guilty to aggravated battery of a firefighter and illegal gun possession in that case and was sentenced to three years in prison.
Williams lived in Carlson’s building on Francisco where Brooks was killed, according to court records.
Hollis Williams.Illinois Department of Corrections
Ald. Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez (33rd) and Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th) and Cmdr. Ronald Pontecore Jr. of the Albany Park police district met with Carlson in February 2020 about their concerns about violence connected to his buildings. In her ward newsletter, Rodriguez Sanchez said Carlson promised to secure his buildings.
The Chicago Department of Buildings’ Strategic Task Force conducted a series of inspections at Carlson’s buildings earlier this year.In March, the task force inspected Carlson’s apartment buildings on Lawndale, Francisco and Wilson avenues and found numerous building code violations, though most of them didn’t directly involve security issues, city records show.
In a 2016 interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, Carlson said he doesn’t like to be called a slumlord and said “I don’t rent no garbage.” He said he evicts troublesome tenants.
“I don’t like the police coming to my buildings,” he said.
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22683022/Tony_Robinson__41.jpg)
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22672459/Anat_Kimchi_.png)
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22683554/WACKERSTABBING_062021_12.jpg)
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22681850/Screen_Shot_2021_06_25_at_1.59.00_PM.png)
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22681902/Hollis_Williams.jpg)