Isaac Paredes knew when he made contact that even the 19-mph wind blowing in from center field would struggle to keep the ball in play.
Paredes hasn’t looked like the hitter the Chicago Cubs fully expect to be the middle-of-the-order presence they acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays last week. But with one swing in the first inning Tuesday against the Minnesota Twins, Paredes showed the type of pull power that not even Wrigley Field’s pitcher-friendly wind could contain.
Paredes’ three-run home run, his first with the team, gave the Cubs an early lead, and they held on for a 7-3 win.
“I knew it could go out,” Paredes said through an interpreter. “When I saw the outfielder start to slow down, I began to have some doubts and I began to run a bit harder. But yeah, I did feel like that swing had a chance.
“Now I know that I have the power to hit home runs here with the wind blowing in or out.”
Paredes added an RBI single in the third with both of his hits coming with two outs. It marked his second four-RBI game of the season.
“I feel really good,” Paredes said. “Honestly, I was looking for a game like that to gain confidence.”
Paredes had been struggling following a hot start to the season when he owned a .294/.387/.503 slash line through May. But during the two months leading up to his trade to the Cubs, Paredes had been hitting only .187 with a .322 on-base percentage and .355 slugging percentage in his last 47 games with the Rays. That included an abysmal .136/.340/.309 line in July.
“You hope it’s kind of a fresh start, and then you kind of get going again,” Counsell said pregame Tuesday. “He’s working on some things to try to get himself ironed out and keep working at it.”
The slump had carried over to his transition to the Cubs too. Since making his Cubs debut July 30, Paredes was 3-for-27 with one walk and six strikeouts in his first seven games entering Tuesday.
“I didn’t feel good, I wanted to do too much,” Paredes said. “I wanted to impress my teammates and honestly, day by day, I’m preparing myself mentally to give it my best and always give it my 100% and for the results to come on their own.
“I’m trying to be myself, the same player that I was before I got on this bad streak I was on, and honestly, today I feel a little bit more calm and the teammates have shown me a lot of support and are pushing me to be myself as a player.”
Even when his offensive performance has lagged, Paredes’ defense at third base has impressed.
“He’s off to a slow start offensively, but I think defensively, it’s what we thought defensively, really good hands, good feel at the position,” Counsell said. “It’s the player we thought. He’s going to swing the bat better. He’s scuffling a little bit, but we’re happy we got the player that we thought we were going to get.”
The Twins didn’t have many answers against Shota Imanaga (9-2), who held them to two runs on two hits in seven innings. The rookie left-hander generated 19 whiffs with 12 coming on his splitter. Imanaga finished with 10 strikeouts to tie his season high.
