The Bernstein Brief: Paging Anthony Rizzo
By Dan Bernstein--
CBSChicago.com senior columnist
(CBS) Leading the wild celebration after pitcher Jake Arrieta's dramatic home run was nice Monday night, but it would be nicer if Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo gave his teammates a reason to throw the same kind of dugout party for him.
Instead of relying on pitchers and Kris Bryant to produce runs, the other half of the celebrity couple known as "Bryzzo" needs to start hitting the way he can. Remember when there was a semi-reasonable debate over which of those two was National League MVP? I t feels like a while ago.
It's three games and only three games, with the Cubs leading 2-1 in the NLDS against the Giants. There's no cause for any alarm, but he's been bad enough for it to be noticeable. And the Cubs' margin for error in a short series just shrank considerably in the wee hours of Tuesday morning.
Rizzo is 0-of-13 and has yet to reach base in any of his plate appearances in this series. The same hitter who put up a slash-line of .292/.385/.544 n the 2016 regular season has a postseason one of .000/.000/.000.
The slugger in the middle of the lineup and purported heart of baseball's best team is needed Tuesday to help extinguish an opponent that just got new life.
Dan Bernstein is a co-host of 670 The Score's "Boers and Bernstein Show" in afternoon drive. You can follow him on Twitter @dan_bernstein and read more of his columns here.
