Cubs catcher Carson Kelly’s at-bat before his game-tying home run Monday told him his swing was in a good place.
“The fly ball to left field, I’m like, ‘There it is,’ ” he said in a conversation Tuesday with the Sun-Times.
Kelly was the hero in the Cubs’ comeback victory Monday, both hitting a two-run homer to tie the game in the eighth inning and a walk-off RBI single in the 10th. But he knew before both those at-bats that his work to recapture the swing that gave him such a hot start to the season was paying off.
In the sixth inning, Kelly worked a full count and then pulled a fastball to left field for a deep line out.
“When I’m right, I’m pulling balls in the air with authority,” Kelly said. “And when you’re not doing that, something’s off.”
Something had been off for Kelly for weeks. He didn’t record an extra-base hit in all of August — and that was after he had the best OPS (1.347) of any hitter with at least 50 plate appearances in March and April, and recorded a still-impressive .951 OPS in July.
“It sucked,” Kelly said of that August slump. “I would hit some balls hard, but it would just be right at the left fielder, or right at the center fielder, or you hit a ball to deep center and maybe the wind’s blowing in that day and the guy catches it at the warning track.
“That’s baseball, and the work still goes on.”
Kelly, who regularly journals, cued in on a concept he wrote down early in the year.
“I need to feel posted on my back leg,” Kelly said. “That’s having a taller backside, and it sequences everything up.”
Kelly and the team, while looking through his notes and comparing video of his swing in recent weeks versus early in the season, noticed that he was squatting down too much and closing his front side. Standing taller in his back leg and opening up his left shoulder a bit paid off in a big way Monday.
“It feels like it’s really, really close,” Kelly said.
Soroka throws live
Cubs right-hander Michael Soroka (strained right shoulder) threw 34 pitches in a two-inning batting-practice session Tuesday at Wrigley Field.
Manager Craig Counsell said the team wanted to see how Soroka recovers before deciding next steps. But they plan to have him throw off a mound “a couple more times,” whether that be in live batting practice or on a minor-league rehab assignment.
“The live went very well,” Counsell said before the game Tuesday. “Very encouraged by what we saw and how he felt.”
Soroka said he’s been working to open up the range of motion in his shoulder and make sure his shoulder isn’t slowing down in his delivery. Even before he was throwing at full intensity, he was working through drills targeting those goals.
During the live BP Tuesday, Soroka switched off with veteran reliever Ryan Brasier (strained left groin). Brasier is scheduled to leave for a rehab outing this weekend, Counsell said.