Cubs president Jed Hoyer says talented team will break out of slump, but needs to do so soon

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CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago Cubs president Jed Hoyer isn’t panicking over his team’s protracted slump so far this season.

Chicago entered Friday’s game against San Francisco having won six of its past 24 games and at 33-30 overall for fourth in the NL Central.

That follows a 20-3 run that drove the Cubs to a 27-12 record on May 8 when they prevailed 7-1 at Texas to complete their second of two 10-game winning streaks this season.

Chicago is just the second team in major league history to have two 10-game winning streaks and a 10-game losing streak in the same season, along with the 2017 Dodgers.

“That Friday game in Texas, I thought we looked like World Series quality at-bats in that game and we played great,” Hoyer told reporters before Friday’s game at Wrigley Field. “We haven’t really played well since then.

“We need to get back to playing like that again. We need to do it fairly soon. We got way over .500. We cashed a lot of that in, unfortunately.”

Hoyer says the Cubs, with a deep starting lineup and strong defensive play, shouldn't be wallowing at the .250 winning percentage they've had since May 9.

“Intuitively you know this group of players is too good to have this last forever,” Hoyer said, “But it’s lasted longer than we all hoped."

Hoyer said he isn’t considering deals right now or looking ahead to the Aug. 3 trade deadline.

“The trade deadline is the furthest thing from my mind right now,” Hoyer said. “I think we just have to play better. That’s the priority.”

“Our position player group is deep and it’s pretty set and so the backbone of our team is our position players."

That group showed some spark on Thursday, when the Cubs came back with four runs in the ninth inning to top the Athletics 7-6. Chicago had seven hits in the ninth after just four hits in the first eight innings, with Pete Crow-Armstrong’s single driving in the winning run.

Gold Glove outfielders Crow-Armstrong and Ian Happ have been improving at the plate after slumps.

Crow-Armstrong entered Friday on a career-high nine-game hitting streak, with a .359 average, three homers and seven RBIs in the stretch. Happ came in batting .359 with four homers and 14 RBIs in his previous nine games, boosting his average to .237.

Other Cubs need to get rolling — none more so than two-time Gold Glove shortstop Dansby Swanson. His .184 average is third lowest among regulars in the majors.

And third baseman Alex Bregman has just one homer and five RBIs over his past 21 games entering Friday.

Hoyer believes Bregman's power will return.

“Yes, water finds its own level,” he said.

Chicago’s rotation has been hit hard by injuries. Right-hander Edward Cabrera returned from a blister on his right middle finger and started Friday.

But Cade Horton is out for the season because of elbow surgery, and Justin Steele has an uncertain timeline after he had a setback in his recovery from an elbow injury. Matthew Boyd is nearing a return after he had surgery for a meniscus tear in is left knee.

Shota Imanaga and Jameson Taillon have been allowing home runs recently, however.

“Candidly, some of these slumps actually give me some comfort,” Hoyer said. ”I know it sounds strange, but we have good, established players, and they’re going to get hot and they’re going to get to their numbers.”

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