ANAHEIM, Calif. — “The King’s back,” Pete Crow-Armstrong called out as he watched a group of reporters approach Kyle Tucker inside Angel Stadium’s visiting clubhouse.
Baseball is designed to make everyone’s sweeping statements often look foolish. Momentum, though, can become a real thing. And as the Chicago Cubs played a complete game in Saturday night’s 12-1 victory over the Los Angeles Angels, they at least teased the possibility that their offense could be stirring again.
Everything starts with Tucker, who has rediscovered his ability to hunt certain pitches and launch those balls into the seats. In front of a sellout crowd of 44,355, he blasted two no-doubt homers and a double while finishing with five RBIs, looking like the game-changing player the Cubs are banking on to get them to October.
Tucker’s outburst followed a career-worst offensive stretch, a benching/mental reset, and questions about how the player and the club handled a hairline fracture in his right hand. He played through it because he’s one of the best hitters on the planet.
“This was coming,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “This is the nature of the game. We don’t want slumps. We hate slumps. They’re mentally kind of exhausting to go through, but they happen. Kyle will be better moving forward because of this. He’s a great player. He works hard to figure it out and get back on track. We need him to do it. And he’s done so.”
Last Sunday, Counsell had a conversation with Tucker, who heard the boos at Wrigley Field and demonstrated uncharacteristically poor body language. Beginning with Tuesday’s doubleheader against the Milwaukee Brewers, Tucker did not play in three games against the first-place team the Cubs are chasing in the National League Central.
“Mentally, he needed some days,” Counsell said. “It wasn’t a physical thing. It wasn’t a mechanical thing. It’s just at that point mentally, as a player, you need some days where you’re watching the game and you don’t have to worry about performing.
“You make those decisions, and obviously we’re playing a division rival and it’s big games. That’s what kind of makes you second-guess yourself, from my perspective, but the player needed it. That’s what you got to go with.”
After going more than a month without a home run, Tucker hit one in Friday night’s 3-2 win over the Angels and shrugged off questions about how all these recent developments might allow him to exhale and play with a sense of freedom.
“I feel fine,” Tucker said. “I just move on to the next at-bat, the next game, stuff like that.”
KING TUCK IS GROOVIN’ pic.twitter.com/ZfapwyAfeO
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) August 24, 2025
Tucker’s analysis of whether this moment could be a turning point — “maybe” — created a sharp contrast to Crow-Armstrong’s eagerness to see it that way.
“There’s really something genius in how Kyle does this, but it doesn’t necessarily work for your medium,” Counsell told reporters. “That’s just going to be Kyle. And Pete’s a little more friendly toward your medium.”
After hitting a clutch homer off Angels closer Kenley Jansen in Friday’s ninth inning — his first home run since July 23 — Crow-Armstrong gave big-picture answers that criticized his own performance, expressed gratitude for his support system and defended Tucker.
It doesn’t mean that one approach is right and the other is wrong.
“That’s just how different people process different things,” Counsell said, “and how they arrange it in their head to have success the next day. Because that’s what they’re trying to do. You’re trying to process everything that happened in the day to go have a good day tomorrow. Guys are going to handle it (differently). You found the opposite ends of the spectrum there. But they both work.”
For this offense to work, Tucker will have to perform at an All-Star level, which should make him the top free agent on the board this offseason. It also can’t be a one-man show. Saturday’s highlights included a lineup that produced 10 two-out RBIs, Reese McGuire’s grand slam and six scoreless innings from rookie pitcher Cade Horton (8-4, 2.88 ERA), who showed no signs of the blister issue that shortened his last start.
After the game, Tucker sat with teammates at a table in the middle of the clubhouse, eating, laughing and holding court. The Cubs aren’t sure exactly when they will snap out of this offensive malaise, or even why it’s dragged on this long. But all they can do now is look forward.
“I don’t know how tomorrow’s going to go,” Tucker said. “You try and do your best at it. But at the same time, the guys on the other team get paid pretty well to do their job as well. You just try and take stuff pitch-by-pitch, one at-bat and game-by-game.”
(Photo: Ronald Martinez / Getty Images)
