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CHICAGO — At times this season J.J. Watt Jersey , the Chicago Cubs have struggled to produce offensively, especially when it comes to situational hitting that turned hits into runs.

But as the Cubs prepare to open a brief two-game series against the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday at Wrigley Field, any concerns about run production seems to have subsided. At least for now.

The Cubs will carry a four-game winning streak into Tuesday after producing 46 runs during their winning streak, which they extended with an 11-10 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Sunday.

Although the bullpen struggled to protect leads at times, the Cubs’ bats did more than their fair share. Now, the Cubs will attempt to remain hot against the Tigers, who have won two straight but have lost 11 of their last 13 games.

The Tigers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 3-2 on Monday.

After Sunday’s victory, the Cubs found themselves leading the majors in hitting (.266) and on-base percentage (.345). Despite the times this season when the hits weren’t coming, the Cubs haven’t experienced any change in confidence now that they’re averaging more than 10 per game in their last four games.

“We’ve been the same offense for quite some time now,” Cubs left fielder Kyle Schwarber said Sunday, according to the Chicago Tribune. “Things happen. We’re just going to keep this going.”

Cubs pitchers have enjoyed plenty of run support of late, which is something Tuesday’s starter, Kyle Hendricks, wouldn’t mind seeing continue against the Tigers. Hendricks (5-8, 4.21 ERA) has experienced inconsistency this season and has battled his mechanics all the way through.

Hendricks went 1-4 in June and is coming off an outing in which he allowed a season-worst six runs in just 2 2/3 innings on June 27 against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

He hopes to right the ship in a new month against a team that has struggled offensively during their recent skid. Hendricks will face the Tigers for the first time in his career.

“I’m just searching right now — it’s just bad,” Hendricks told reporters after his last start, according to the team’s official website. “Mechanics, I’m trying to focus mentally and going pitch to pitch and I’m doing that Larry Allen Jersey , but something’s just off. I’m searching now.”

The Tigers’ back-to-back victories come after their losing streak reached a season-high 11 games. With Miguel Cabrera out for the season and other veterans like Victor Martinez struggling at the plate, manager Ron Gardenhire has been forced to work with a lineup full of young hitters.

Before snapping the skid with a victory Sunday over the Blue Jays, the Tigers finished June hitting .222.

“We’ve had a lot of struggles offensively, for sure,” Gardenhire said Sunday, according to the Detroit Free Press. “I think our pitching has held up OK. (The) bullpen had its good and bad moments. Offensively, we’ve really scuffled, especially the past couple week here. We all know that. Offensively, we have to get a lot better. More consistently.”

On Monday, the Tigers placed closer Shane Greene on the 10-day disabled list with a right shoulder strain. Joe Jimenez, who is considered the Tigers’ closer of the future, will move into the role for the time being, Gardenhire said. Jiménez has a 2.77 ERA, 44 strikeouts and nine walks in 42 appearances covering 39 innings.

Michael Fulmer (3-7, 4.20) will start Tuesday for the Tigers. Like Hendricks, Fulmer struggled in June, losing three of his five starts with a no-decision. Fulmer will face the Cubs for the first time in his career.
The hardest part of NBA draft night for Kevin Huerter was keeping a straight face.

He knew, moments before virtually anyone else did Chidobe Awuzie Jersey , that he was about to become a professional basketball player. Dozens of friends and family flanked him, all their eyes intently on the television screens as they waited for NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to stand at his lectern in New York and give the word that they all came to hear.

But Huerter had gotten a tip through his agent moments before, after a call from New York to his draft party at a country club near his home in an Albany suburb, that his moment was near. So he sat back and waited to see – would it be San Antonio at No. 18 or Atlanta at No. 19? The answer arrived when the Spurs took Miami’s Lonnie Walker IV at No. 18, and with that, it was time to await the next sentence from the commissioner.

”The Atlanta Hawks select Kevin Huerter,” Silver said.

And there it was. The Moment.

There was yelling, there was jumping, there even were a few tears. Huerter hugged his mother, then his father, then his brother and then his sisters. The 19-year-old who left Maryland after two seasons had just become the No. 19 pick in the NBA draft, off to the Hawks as their second first-round selection of the evening after they wound up with Oklahoma’s Trae Young following a trade earlier.

Draft day for Huerter was remarkably normal, which was by design. He worked out, went back to his old school and talked to kids, took a dip in his parents’ backyard pool, then sprawled out on a couch to watch an Ace Ventura movie.

”This is who Kevin is,” said Tony Dzikas, Huerter’s coach at Shenendehowa High. ”Laid-back LeSean McCoy Jersey , special kid, wants to share moments with the people who matter most to him. But on the floor, he knows exactly what to do and exactly how to do it. He’s special there too, just in a very different way. The Atlanta Hawks got a winner tonight.”

He could have gone to New York and been with other draftees, but Huerter instead decided to invite about 200 friends and relatives to share the moment with him. They had burgers, chicken and hot dogs, plowed through some desserts, some sipped drinks and others just showed up to say that they were there to see one of their own make it big.

Plenty of his former coaches were in attendance: Dzikas, along with Maryland’s Mark Turgeon and the Albany City Rocks’ Jim Hart from his AAU years. So were a slew of his former teammates, including a carload that drove up from Maryland earlier in the day just to be there for the big moment.

The Hawks’ initial assessment of Huerter suggests that he’ll be part of the rotation as a rookie.

”He’s a 6-foot-7 wing so he has good size,” Hawks general manager Travis Schlenk said. ”He has great ball skills, really good shooter, shot over 40 percent from 3 during his college career. Has ability to put the ball on the floor and get in the lane, so we’re excited about his playmaking ability.”

For a day that carried such significance, it started about as low-key as possible.

Thomas Huerter Sr., Kevin’s father, left for a workout around 7 a.m. About an hour later, Erin Huerter Max Garcia Jersey , Kevin’s mother, was folding his laundry in the kitchen. Upstairs, the soon-to-be-draftee was sound asleep in his bed until shortly before his 10 a.m. session at a nearby gym.

At lunchtime, when the whole family – both parents and all four kids – gathered for sandwiches with the Argentina-Croatia World Cup match playing in the background, not a word was said about the draft. It wasn’t a conscious choice, and the draft wasn’t a forbidden topic or anything. There were just other things to chat about, none of it amounting to much more than small talk.

On the biggest day of Kevin Huerter’s life to date, he was unfazed.

”Deciding between four shirts,” he said.

That was his biggest decision of the day.

He has handled the draft process in about as low-key a fashion as possible. On his last night before officially becoming an NBA player, Huerter helped his parents set up the backyard of their home for their draft after-party, then went inside and sprawled out on a couch for some apple pie around midnight while watching replays of Giancarlo Stanton’s game-ending home run for the New York Yankees.

No entourages coming over. No wild parties. No talk of what to buy first.

”That’s my personality,” he said. ”I don’t get fazed by a lot of moments, even when it’s on the court.”

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