SAN FRANCISCO — It’s getting harder and harder to express what third baseman Patrick Wisdom is accomplishing at the plate.
When Wisdom was brought up from Triple-A Iowa on May 25, he was thought to be a stopgap until the Cubs got healthy. But as one of the hottest hitters in baseball the last two weeks, Wisdom won’t be heading anywhere anytime soon.
It’s not just that Wisdom has been on a tear, but when the team needs a big swing, he has been at the plate.
“He’s been carrying us,” manager David Ross said. “It feels like he’s been the real offensive force for us right now.”
Few things went right for the Cubs in their first three games against the Giants, but leave it to the red-hot Wisdom to make sure they left the Bay Area with something to feel good about. His two-homer game powered the Cubs to a 4-3 victory Sunday.
“I think it’s just slowing down,” Wisdom said. “Those homers, they come when I’m not trying to do too much. . . . I think when the homers come, it’s just being relaxed and looking for the pitch I can drive and looking for something in the zone.”
Wisdom got the Cubs on the board after they fell behind 2-0 with a solo shot to straightaway center field in the second inning.
In his next at-bat, he crushed a 422-foot two-run homer to center to tie the game at 3 in the fourth and send the Cubs’ dugout into a frenzy.
It was Wisdom’s sixth home run in seven games, his seventh homer in eight starts and his second multihomer game.
“That was incredible,’’ center fielder Ian Happ said. ‘‘The guy hits a homer every time. The guy’s got seven pumps already, and he hasn’t even been here that long. Some of us are looking at the scoreboard and going, ‘Shoot, we’ve been here a minute, and we don’t have that many. Oh, my God.’ ”
“He’s locked in right now,” said Kyle Hendricks, who won his fifth consecutive start. “He really couldn’t be any better, and as a pitcher, that makes it really frustrating when guys take the really good pitches. Then if you do make a mistake, it’s a home run.”
The Cubs took the lead with an unearned run in the fifth after Hendricks led off with a double. A single and walk loaded the bases for Javy Baez, who hit a grounder to short. Buster Posey dropped the throw home for an error that allowed Hendricks to score.
Wisdom isn’t 21 or 22 like your average rookie. He’s 29 and has had multiple stops along the way before ultimately getting to the Cubs, so describing his hot streak as unexpected would be an understatement.
“[He’s] definitely given us more than I think we expected,” Ross said. “That would be a true statement. He’s come in and filled in really nicely and almost carried us here for a little while and kept that lineup turning over there toward the middle.”
Others might have difficulty explaining Wisdom’s success, but he feels his comfort in the Cubs’ clubhouse has helped him feel at ease, which is clearly transferring to his play on the field.
“I’m thankful for my time in baseball,” Wisdom said. “I think more than anything, it’s just knowing that I can play this game. But fitting right in, and I think it’s not only me, but I think it’s the team that I got to give credit to because they allow you to come in and be yourself, and they make you one of the guys right away. So it’s been really cool.”