Michael Busch stays hot in middle of Cubs’ lineup, even doing damage against left-handed pitching

Not even a left-handed pitcher on the mound could slow down Cubs first baseman Michael Busch.

He has poor numbers against lefties, coming into the game Saturday with a .462 OPS and only six hits against southpaws, compared to a terrific 1.005 OPS against right-handers.

It didn’t matter, not with the hot streak Busch is on.

“Sometimes you’ve got to change it up, do something different,” manager Craig Counsell said before the game. “I thought today was the day, with the way Michael has been swinging the bat.”

Busch followed up his three-homer day Friday — part of the record-setting eight balls the Cubs sent into the Wrigley Field bleachers — with another home run in his first trip to the plate against Cardinals lefty Matthew Liberatore. He finished with three hits, including a double in his second matchup with Liberatore, in the Cubs’ 8-6 loss.

“He’s obviously swinging it really good,” Counsell said after the game. “Michael’s locked in, swinging it good.”

That’s putting it somewhat mildly.

Busch has started sizzling as the weather has warmed up, with a .410/.455/.787 slash line to go along with seven home runs in his last 17 games. Four of those homers have come in the last two days, and he has a trio of three-hit games in July, a month that is only five days old. A seventh-inning strikeout snapped a streak of hits in seven consecutive plate appearances for Busch, two shy of the franchise record.

Counsell said earlier in the season that Busch sometimes produces quietly, though anyone with a decibel meter the last two days at Wrigley would disagree with that assessment as he had the home fans going crazy at least four times.

But Busch’s production — he ranks third on the team with 56 RBI, trailing only designated hitter Seiya Suzuki, baseball’s leader in the category, and center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong, a National League All-Star starter — has been a big reason why the Cubs’ lineup is so long and so dangerous.

“He’s turned into, really, a great offensive player,” Counsell said Friday. “Last year, it felt like there were ups and downs during the season. And this year, he’s lengthened out the ups and shortened the downs, essentially, and you end up with what you see through the first week of July. It’s a good hitter that’s continuing to get better.”

Busch’s bat

Just how much magic is in Busch’s bat right now? It apparently doesn’t even matter who’s swinging it.

Third baseman Matt Shaw drove in the winning run with a sacrifice fly in the extra-inning victory Thursday over the Guardians, and he did it using Busch’s bat.

“I was checking out some bats the last two half-innings,” Shaw said. “I hit a couple of balls with my bat, didn’t feel great, felt a little soft. So I borrowed Busch’s bat for that last at-bat. I was like, ‘Thank you so much for letting me borrow your bat. This is huge.’ ’’