When he’s hitting the ball well and spraying line drives around Wrigley Field, the unorthodox swing of Kosuke Fukudome is, well, unoffensive. But, when he is impatient and slumping it is downright ugly. The latter has been the case for much of the Cubs current road trip, causing Lou Piniella and Cubs Nation to strive for the return of Alfonso Soriano.

Fukudome average dropped to .290 after he went 1-for-4 with a strikeout and three left on base in Chicago’s 8-3 loss to the Giants in San Francisco Thursday. His The Cubs are now 2-5 on the road trip and 18-26 overall away from Wrigley Field, and while the struggling Fukudome is certainly not solely to blame for his team’s slide, his limping leadoff production isn’t helping.

Kosuke is hitting .240 in his last 7 games with four walks, no home runs or extra-base hits and only one RBI. Since being moved into the leadoff spot, he is batting .260 in 50 at-bats with one home run, seven walks and 16 strikeouts. Lou Piniella did little more than state the obvious when he said Fukudome is merely pulling off the ball, when often it appears that he runs to first base while forgetting to hit it. He is hitting .373 at Wrigley Field this year, where his team is an NL-best 33-10, but also has 28 strikeouts. His average on the road is .212, including a combined .136 at division rivals Cincinnati and Houston.

Despite a profilic career in Japan, Fukudome is still considered a rookie and deserves the benefit of the doubt as he learns Major League pitching, but his monthly statistics show a troubling trend. After an April in which he batted .305 and became a Wrigley folk hero, he has hit .293 in May, .264 in June, and a paltry .111 in July.

Dave DeIuliis will be a senior at Penn State’s School of Journalism. He can be reached at dmd5042@psu.edu.