May 25, 2016 Chicago Tribune Cubs offense breaks out for 12-3 victory to snap 3-game losing streak By Mark Gonzales The remarkable return of Jason Heyward was just one of many revivals Tuesday night the Cubs hope to sustain. An offense that scored only six runs in its previous three losses combined broke out with six runs in the first inning and clutch hitting resurfaced as the Cubs coasted to a 12-3 victory over the Cardinals. With Jake Arrieta (8-0) taking the mound Wednesday, the Cubs stand a reasonable chance to win their third consecutive regular-season road series at Busch Stadium for the first time since 2007. But the Cubs (30-14) stress they're all about staying in the moment, and Tuesday night's performance left them with plenty to relish after snapping a season-high three-game losing streak. "They're all excited, but I didn't see them exhale by any means," manager Joe Maddon said. "Business as usual." The Cubs didn't show any outward signs of frustration during an eight-game stretch that saw them bat only .167 (9-for-54) with runners in scoring position. Any tension was alleviated quickly in the first when Kris Bryant lined a single into left field to score Dexter Fowler with the first of six runs in the first — the Cubs largest single-inning output of the season. The Cubs eruption was so convincing that the Cardinals' bullpen was busy midway through the inning but wasn't called upon as David Ross and winning pitcher Jason Hammel hit consecutive two-run doubles with two outs off the glove and past center fielder Randal Grichuk. "It's a 162-game season," said Hammel, who didn't allow a run until the eighth. "We don't hit the panic button when we don't score runs or don't pitch. It's part of the whole ebb and flow of the season. We're not robots. We can't do it all the time. "Overall, we never panic." Left fielder Jorge Soler, whose every move has been watched on this nine-game trip, ripped his second home run in five games — a two-run shot that landed on the berm behind the center field fence and knocked out Michael Wacha in the fifth. Heyward went 0-for-5 with a walk in his return after suffering a bruise near his right hip and rib. The Cubs had not won since Heyward was injured making a diving catch in Friday's victory over the Giants, and Maddon contended that Heyward had a "butterfly effect" on his teammates. "Something else occurs that's not noticeable to the naked eye," said Maddon, alluding to Heyward's ability to get on base and play high caliber defense. "There are all these different moments that occur that we don't recognize because we see only the obvious. He's not hitting .300, so obviously people think he's not playing well, which is so far from the truth. He makes a great impact by his presence."

Heyward said his right side was "just a little sore after stealing second base in the fourth and running far to catch Eric Fryer's deep drive in the eighth. The combination of timely hitting and solid pitching was reminiscent of the ingredients that helped the Cubs to a 25-6 start before their recent rut. "With our talent level, hopefully it's hard to keep us down for too long," Ross said. -- Chicago Tribune Joe Maddon believes Cubs playing well in losses but need clutch hitting By Mark Gonzales Manager Joe Maddon doesn't agree completely with John Lackey's contention late Monday night that the Cubs need to "play better." Lackey made his comments after Monday night's loss to the Cardinals, but Maddon believes the Cubs have played well during the three-game losing streak they brought into Tuesday night's game against the Cardinals. "You have to be able to get a hit in the (key) situation," he said Tuesday. "(But) I think we played well. … You don't always play badly when you lose. And there are times you play hard and you win." Maddon acknowledged the club's recent lack of clutch hitting is as a flaw while he admired the work of his pitching staff, the defense and effort of his players. Lackey, who surrendered a game-tying home run to Matt Adams on Monday, emphasized it was early in the season and that the Cubs needed only to take care of their own business. "We need to play better, 100 percent," Lackey said after Monday's loss. "Worry, I think, is a strong word. We're doing OK." Long ball blues: All four earned runs scored off reliever Adam Warren have been on home runs from Matt Joyce of the Pirates, the Padres' Alex Dickerson and the Cardinals' Randal Grichuk. Those home runs have been hit in a span of 91/3 innings and represent a stark contrast from his past two seasons with the Yankees, where Warren allowed only 14 homers in 210 innings — the fourth stingiest among American League pitchers with at least 200 innings during that span. His record was even more impressive because Warren pitched more than half his games in parks with short foul lines such as Yankee Stadium, Fenway Park and Oriole Park. "Two of the three (this season) have been bad pitches, and the other one was just the wrong pitch," Warren said. "Some of it is just learning the league, and the other part of it is executing pitches. "I don't think I've changed anything. I'm getting punished for the mistakes." Extra innings: The Cubs' six-run first was their largest single-inning output of the season. … Ben Zobrist drew a walk in the first to extend his streak of reaching base safely to 30 consecutive starts. --

Chicago Tribune Cubs put on a show in 12-3 win over Cardinals By Mark Gonzales The Chicago Cubs provided various forms of entertainment Tuesday night in snapping their three-game losing streak with a 12-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals. David Ross came through with the biggest hit of a six-run first inning with a double that eluded center fielder Randal Grichuk with two outs that scored two runs and give the Cubs a 4-0 lead. The double was the 500th career double for Ross, 39, who plans to retire after this season. “Yeah me,” said Ross, who had no inkling he reached a milestone. “That’s 500? I only had to play how many years? Some of these guys will have them in three years. It took me 14 or 15 years. “Homers are way cooler, right?” Reliever Justin Grimm provided some amusement when he fielded a grounder by Aledmys Diaz between his legs with his back to home plate for the final out of the eighth. “I always wanted to do that, whether it’s behind the back or between the legs,” Grimm said. “Actually I told an umpire that. “I’ve attempted it, because I’ve had a lot of balls hit back at me. But I was never able to pull it off. In spring, they hit these balls at guys at 100 mph, but you don’t have time to turn it around.” With an 8-1 lead in the ninth, manager Joe Maddon challenged an out call at first base. The call was overruled, thus taking an out away from the Cardinals and giving Addison Russell with an infield hit. The reversal fueled a four-run rally, capped by a two-run triple by Matt Szczur. The challenge “validates running hard to first base,” said Maddon, adding that it could make a difference if Russell finishes with a .300 batting average as well as serve as a teaching tool to the Cubs’ minor league players on the benefits of hustling. “My takeaway from the game is that,” Maddon said. -- Chicago Tribune Change of T-shirt policy: 'Try not to suck' welcome at Busch Stadium By Josh Noel Clad in matching T-shirts bearing a potentially offensive four-letter word — no, it wasn't "Cubs" — the Perez family didn't know if they would get through the Busch Stadium gates Monday. But the good news after a five-hour drive from northern Mississippi was that the Cardinals organization had softened its stance on the word "suck," which allowed the Perez family on a 75-degree evening to march toward the center-field bleachers in royal blue shirts, creases still in the sleeves, that read "Try not to suck." The phrase has become a catchphrase for this young Cubs season after manager Joe Maddon shared that sage advice with minor-league call-up Javier Baez toward the end of last season. It also became a T-shirt benefiting Maddon's Respect 90 foundation. However, the slogan originally ran afoul of a Busch Stadium rule that forbade the word "suck" to appear on clothing at the ballpark. When the Cubs visited St. Louis in April, fans wearing "Try not to suck" T-shirts were asked to turn them inside out or change their clothes.

Maddon called the policy "foolish" but saw a spike in sales no ad campaign could have mustered; the shirt did more than $50,000 in business within days of the controversy. Cardinals spokesman Ron Watermon said the flap led the organization's stadium operations team to modify its stance on "suck" and allow shirts "that are not offensive or obscene" into the park even if bearing that word. "Our event staff will exercise a degree of discretion in interpreting the context of the use of the word," Watermon said. "The shirts that Joe Maddon had made to benefit charity that say 'Try not to suck' will be allowed under the new approach." Had the policy not changed, the Perez family, of Olive Branch, Miss., had no backup plan in place beyond a walk back to their hotel room to change. They took their chances simply because they believe the slogan resonates. "It's the logo for the year," said Pedro Perez, 35, who works in heating and air conditioning. "The only people who can beat the Cubs is themselves." "It has a good story behind it," said his wife, Araceli, 33. Their son, Victor, who recently turned 9 and asked to see a Cubs game to celebrate, also wore the shirt. The Perez family's neighbor in the sixth row of the bleachers, Phyllis Timko, who wore Cardinals red, said she didn't find "Try not to suck" an offensive slogan. "I mean, the Cubs are probably going to suck anyway, right?" she said, and patted Pedro Perez's shoulder with a laugh. -- Chicago Tribune Don't panic! Cubs and White Sox are still doing just fine By Chad Yoder Two teams in a slump. Two teams in first place. Two historically good starts. For the Cubs and Sox the shape of the season so far is the same: Torrid start, recent struggles, still in good position. Just over a quarter of the way through the 2016 baseball season, both the Cubs and White Sox remain in prime position despite recent stumbles. The Cubs are 4-8 in the last 12 games after starting 25-6, an incredible pace that would be impossible to maintain for an entire season. The Sox have gone 4-9 over the last 13 games. Both teams' excellent starts have given them some breathing room to absorb any recent struggles. Below, this season compared to each team's historical performance since 1901. 2016 Cubs: Coming back down to earth Before the Cubs recent struggles, some commentators were beginning to compare them to all-time great baseball teams. But the offense has begun to cool off, knocking this Cubs team down from "all-time great" to just "really good." After 43 games their run differential (+109) is by far the best in baseball, as they've given up the fewest runs in the league, while scoring the third most. Going into Tuesday, the Cubs are 29-14. Only three Cubs teams since 1901 have had better records through 43 games, and two of those teams went on to play in the World Series. 2016 White Sox: Weathering a rough patch

The White Sox rode an excellent stretch from their starting pitching staff to a 23-10 start through 33 games, a start to the season equaled by only seven Sox teams since 1901. But while Chris Sale has continued to be amazing, the back end of their rotation has fallen off considerably. Going into Tuesday, the 2016 Sox are 27-19, good enough for first place in the division. Thirty other White Sox teams have had an equal or better record through 46 games, which is not as exclusive a club as the pace they were setting before. Still, first place is first place, even though the Sox have fallen back towards the pack in a competitive AL Central. (Charts in link) -- Chicago Tribune Cubs, White Sox broadcasts fixed after Monday outage By Phil Thompson Chicago-area Comcast Xfinity viewers who were planning to watch the Cubs or White Sox Monday night instead saw the beginning of their games interrupted by an outage, which was caused by equipment failure, Comcast officials said on Tuesday. A spokesman said the problem has been fixed and Tuesday night's games for both teams will air as scheduled. Cubs-Cardinals is set to broadcast at 6:10 p.m. on CSN and the Sox-Indians game airs at 7:10 on CSN+. Monday night's malfunction lasted about two hours, between 5:45 and 7:45 p.m. Game 2 of a Sox-Indians doubleheader was scheduled to broadcast at 7:10 p.m. on CSN, while the Cubs game at St. Louis was supposed to air on CSN+ beginning at 7:15 p.m. The outage affected Comcast SportsNet Chicago's high-definition feeds on channels 200 (CSN) and 201 (CSN+). The standard-definition CSN feed on channel 37 also lost its signal around 6 p.m. CSN Chicago's Twitter account advised followers of the technical difficulties and directed them to the standard-definition broadcast of the Cubs game on CLTV. Company officials said they weren't certain how many subscribers were affected by Monday's outage. -- Chicago Sun-Times Hammel falls short of shutout goal, but 6-1 mark still looks good By Steve Greenberg ST. LOUIS — Jason Hammel took the mound for the eighth inning Tuesday within range of the third complete game, and the second shutout, of his career. Either achievement would’ve been a first in Hammel’s 57 starts as a Cub. Hammel didn’t get there, recording only one out in the eighth before departing. He allowed one run and four hits on 103 pitches in the Cubs’ 12-3 victory. “I really thought he was capable of pitching the entire game and getting a shutout,” manager Joe Maddon said. “He was really good.” Spotted with a six-run lead after the top of the first inning — which included a two-run Hammel double — the pitcher was able to go into attack mode and stay there all night. “It’s nice to have room for error,” he said.

Hammel categorized his performance as “not that good” and said poor two-strike execution cost him a chance at going the distance. Still, he’s 6-1 with a 2.17 ERA. The Cubs would take that sort of production all season in a heartbeat if they could. “I believe it’s sustainable,” Maddon said. “Absolutely.” Hustle, Russell With one out in the ninth inning of what was an 8-1 game, Addison Russell grounded out to Cardinals second baseman Kolten Wong. Until, that is, Maddon challenged the ruling of an out at first. After seeing Russell dig as hard for the bag as he would in Game 7 of a World Series, Maddon was pleased to see Russell rewarded with a reversal and a base hit. “That validates why you run to first base,” said Maddon. Maddon — who said minor league players need to see plays like that — called Russell’s hustle the biggest takeaway from a night when the Cubs did a great many good things. -- Chicago Sun-Times Cubs monitor an injury-thinned summer trade market for pitchers By Gordon Wittenmyer ST. LOUIS – As the Cubs’ front office prepares to shop in an already thinning July trade market, its decision to be aggressive last winter looks even bigger against the late-season horizon. “Certainly, that’s something we discussed a lot when we met last winter and talked about what we had to do,” general manager Jed Hoyer said of a plan to cram two off-seasons of acquisitions into one, in anticipation of upcoming scarcity. “We felt it was a very good free agent class last year, and we liked a lot of players involved,” Hoyer said. “And we knew looking ahead that the [next] class that it was going to be a thin market. And when it’s a thin market at that point, you know it’s only going to get thinner as it gets close to free agency.” Case in point: Stephen Strasburg’s $175 million extension with the Nationals this month took the top pitcher off next winter’s market. That dropped the top of the market significantly to a next tier that includes the likes Andrew Cashner and Clay Buchholz. But the market has thinned even relative to the midsummer trading season, especially for pitching, as the Cubs look for possible pitching fixes, insurance and upgrades for the final months of the season and what they expect to be a big October. Two big pitching targets from last summer, who might have been available this time around, are on the disabled list: San Diego’s Tyson Ross (shoulder) and Cleveland’s Carlos Carrasco (hamstring). Add Colorado’s Jorge de la Rosa (groin) and Oakland’s Sonny Gray (neck/shoulder area) to the DL rolls, and the Cubs might feel especially validated when they watch free agent additions John Lackey produce a 2.25 ERA in May, Ben Zobrist lead the league in on-base percentage eight weeks into the season and watch the return of Gold Glove right-fielder Jason Heyward Tuesday after only three days sidelined following that frightening catch-and-crash play Friday.

“We’ll keep evaluating where we are and what we need,” Hoyer said of potential tweaks to a team that on Tuesday was the first in the majors to reach 30 wins. “As far as the starting pitcher market, I think a lot of things are going to happen,” he said. “Teams are going to fall out of contention. Teams are going to get into contention. So I don’t think it’s quite time yet where that’s crystallized at all. But we’ll obviously keep monitoring it.” Internal options for viable rotation fixes extend only as far as the four-man crew of long relievers in the bullpen. Internal bullpen upgrades amount to recently signed Joe Nathan recapturing a few months of lightning in a bottle after finishing his second Tommy John rehab. And bullpen fixes for injury or underperformance go maybe as deep as Carl Edwards Jr. or Jean Machi. Meanwhile, the starting rotation with the best ERA in baseball got the strongest start yet from No. 4 man Jason Hammel (6-1), who lowered his ERA to 2.17 with 7 1/3 impressive innings in Tuesday’s 12-3 victory over the Cardinals – pitching like an All-Star candidate in the first half for the second consecutive season. “We’re aware that pitching in general is something that every team needs around the deadline,” Hoyer said. “And I’m sure we’ll be in that group. And we’ll keep working hard to see where it’s going to come from.” The sustained performances of guys like Hammel and Lackey might be especially important, given the scarcity of pitching heading toward July. “Both the deadline and over this next winter, I think that’s going to have an impact on people’s behavior,” Hoyer said. -- Chicago Sun-Times Cubs torch Cardinals 12-3 — the start of another hot streak? By Steve Greenberg ST. LOUIS — Go on, raise your hand if you saw the first inning the Cubs offense enjoyed Tuesday coming. Anybody? A leadoff double for Dexter Fowler. A run-scoring base hit by Kris Bryant. A single from Anthony Rizzo. A pair of walks for Ben Zobrist and Jorge Soler. Back-to-back two-out, two-run doubles by David Ross and pitcher Jason Hammel. In all, the Cubs — who’d scored three or fewer runs in seven of their previous eight games, six of them losses — sent 10 batters to the plate and laid into Michael Wacha and the Cardinals for six first-inning runs in a 12-3 victory. If only the Cubs could start every game with such a flurry, they’d really be on to something. Yet one gets the sense — especially with Jake Arrieta set to take the mound in Wednesday’s series finale — that the Cubs might answer a 4-8 slide with an end-of-May flourish. A flourish that could, mind you, last plenty longer than that. Many of the Cubs players feel another hot streak coming. Go on, raise your hand if you do, too. “Oh, for sure,” Fowler said. “I don’t think we’ll be in the tank too long with the type of talent we have and the way the attitudes are in this clubhouse. With the talent we have, we think we can win every game.” As Anthony Rizzo sees it, the feeling that the Cubs are the hottest team in baseball never left, not even as they dropped series to the lowly Padres and Brewers and, prior to this St. Louis trip, to the sizzling Giants.

“Last time I checked, we still had the best record in the big leagues, right?” Rizzo said. “So we’ve won a ton of games. So I don’t think that feeling needs to come back.” The return to the lineup of right fielder Jason Heyward, who missed three games with an injury to his rib cage after a circus catch in San Francisco, can only help. Heyward’s bat has been quiet all season — he was 0-for-5 with a walk in his first game back — but his overall “presence,” according to manager Joe Maddon, has been a significant asset. “He’ll get through it,” Maddon said, “and he’ll still come out on the other side with a vengeance. There isn’t a doubt in my mind. … Believe me, he’s going to put up his numbers by the end of the season.” Maddon likewise continues to promise big things ahead for left fielder Jorge Soler, who entered Tuesday hitting .192 with only three home runs and seven RBIs and exited it having added two hits — including a towering homer to dead center — a pair of walks and three runs driven in to his stat line. Of course, starting pitching continues to be the Cubs’ greatest strength. Jason Hammel went 7 1/3 innings, allowing four hits and one earned run to get to 6-1 on the season. And Hammel isn’t even one of the team’s trio of aces, as catcher Miguel Montero describes them. “If you look at it realistically,” Montero said, “you’ve got John Lackey, you’ve got Jon Lester and you’ve got Jake Arrieta. Those are three aces for any other team, and we’ve got the privilege to have them on the same team. “That’s why we’re about to win a lot of games, for sure. I don’t doubt that, and I don’t think anybody on this team doubts that.” -- Chicago Sun-Times The Curious Case of Benjamin Zobrist By Gordon Wittenmyer ST. LOUIS – When the Cubs talk about their “young” team, Ben Zobrist isn’t usually included in that conversation. But give it time. The way the elder – by far – statesman of the Cubs’ starting lineup has turned back the clock on the life and vim of his game, he might be partying at Chuck E. Cheese’s by the time he celebrates his next birthday. Zobrist, the Cubs’ most persistent offensive threat during the Cubs’ two-week slide, turns 35 on Thursday. But he has found an extra step in his game this year that inspires young shortstop Addison Russell to suggest he looks more like he’s 28 and has manager Joe Maddon swearing Zobrist plays younger than when Maddon had him in Tampa Bay several years ago. It led one media wise guy this week to suggest to Zobrist that he was like that backward-aging character in the “Benjamin Button” short story and movie – which made nearby teammate Jason Heyward perk up. “That’s your new nickname,” Heyward told Zobrist. “Benjamin Button. And it’s going to stick.” It might if this keeps up. Zobrist, who got a four-year, $56 million deal last winter despite his age, is 40-for-99 (.404) in his last 28 games, including a walk, double and two runs scored as the Cubs snapped a three-game losing streak Tuesday with a 12-3 win over the Cardinals.

He has six doubles and six homers in that stretch, but as impressive is the fact he has 21 walks and just eight strikeouts in that period, becoming the Cubs’ biggest impact bat of the month. “Watch when he takes a pitch,” Maddon said. “I really believe when an umpire calls a strike and he takes it, it probably was a ball. He’s seeing the ball that well.” It doesn’t seem to matter whether the switch-hitter is facing a lefty or a righty. And he’s doing it swinging less often than anyone in the majors, according to Fangraphs.com. That doesn’t even count the agility at second base all season now that a 2015 knee injury is fully behind him. “It’s probably the best stretch I’ve ever had,” said Zobrist, who leads the league with a .449 on-base percentage and seemed on a collision course with a third All-Star selection. “I’ve had some good stretches, where I got a lot of hits,” he said. “But as far as feeling comfortable, seeing the ball, putting good swings on the ball, this is probably the best it’s been for any three- or four-week stretch of time.” Maddon and teammates credit a pre- and postgame work regimen that rivals rotation strongman Jake Arrieta’s for an apparent age-reversing formula. “His routine is off the charts,” first baseman Anthony Rizzo said. Maddon said he also thinks that’s a reason Zobrist can sustain the better-with-age trend into his late 30s. “Chronological years might be piling up, but the way he works and how he goes about the day probably has gotten even better,” Maddon said. “Combine that with a better knowledge of what’s going on and his ability to apply it. “You would think there would be a decline in his body and how it works. But I haven’t seen any decline.” Add that to his steady, veteran influence on a youthful clubhouse, and Zobrist defies not only perceptions about his own aging but the growing industry-wise assumption that younger means more valuable. Youth became so valued in recent years that MLB capped amateur spending in 2012. “Everyone’s so focused on young, young, young,” said Rizzo, 26. “But there’s a lot of older players in this league that are still playing at the highest level.” Especially one Benjamin Button Zobrist. “I think it’s a matter of just continuing to grow and mature as a hitter,” Zobrist said. “You’ve got to keep doing that. No matter how old you are, you’ve never arrived in this game. This game humbles you quick, and you’ve got to try and stay on top of it.” -- Cubs.com Cubs' 15-hit attack polishes Hammel's gem By Jenifer Langosch and Carrie Muskat ST. LOUIS -- Any chance the Cardinals had of rolling over momentum from their series-opening walk-off win evaporated before they could send their first batter to the plate on Tuesday, as the Cubs opened the night with a six-run first and then cruised to a 12-3 victory that evened the three-game set at Busch Stadium. The Cubs sent 10 batters to the plate in the opening frame against Cardinals starter Michael Wacha, who walked home a run and allowed five hits in the 36-pitch inning. He was so shaky that manager Mike Matheny had Tyler Lyons begin warming up before Wacha had recorded his second out. Two-run doubles by David Ross and Jason

Hammel -- the first of which center fielder Randal Grichuk nearly caught to keep the deficit at two -- punctuated the first six-run first inning the Cubs posted against the Cardinals since 1994. The Cubs' offense had been slowed in two games against the Giants and in the first game of this series, but not on Tuesday. "It's a 162-game season," Hammel said. "We don't hit the panic button when we don't score runs or don't pitch. It's part of the whole ebb and flow of the season. We're not robots, and we can't do it all the time. You're going to run into some good teams. We never panic, and we're going game by game, and tonight we had a good one." The Cardinals never threatened to climb back into the game, either, as they were charged with nearly as many errors (two) as they tallied hits (four) against Hammel. Hammel pitched a season-high 7 1/3 innings, kept the Cardinals from advancing a runner to third until allowing a run in the eighth and improved to 6-1 on the season. He has limited the Cardinals to two runs on nine hits in 13 1/3 innings at Busch Stadium this year. Wacha, on the other hand, remains in a tailspin. Chased after allowing Jorge Soler's two-run blast, Wacha has not recorded an out beyond the fourth inning in any of his last three starts. With a career-most eight runs allowed on Tuesday, he has given up 20 runs (16 earned) over his last three outings. "It was a pretty discouraging start," said Wacha, the first Cardinals pitcher since Mike Maroth (2007) to allow six or more runs in three straight starts. "It [stinks] right now. I have to keep going with it, got to keep working hard and then figure it out." MOMENTS THAT MATTERED Start me up: Hammel got an at-bat before he even took the mound, as the Cubs sent 10 batters to the plate in the first and opened a 6-0 lead. Kris Bryant hit an RBI single, Soler drew a bases-loaded walk, and Ross and Hammel each hit a two-run double. The Cubs began the day ranked fourth in the Majors in batting average with the bases loaded and added to those numbers with Ross' hit. Hammel now has five RBIs for the season, a career high. "I think [a 6-0 lead in the first] makes every pitcher better," Hammel said. "It's nice to have room for error. That's what run support does. I took my first swing before I threw my first pitch. It was nice and a good bounceback from [Monday]." Diaz's dandy defense: Aledmys Diaz, who has shouldered criticism for his defensive play, turned in the team's defensive highlight of the season with an incredible catch in left field to start an unorthodox 6-4-3 double play. According to Statcast™, Diaz covered 91.9 feet and reached a top speed of 20.2 mph to chase Anthony Rizzo's fly ball. After making the over-the-head grab, Diaz doubled Bryant off first to end the second inning. "I think it's just part of the game," Diaz said, downplaying his gem. "I've never practiced that before, though." Soler power: Soler is still developing as a hitter, and he went 0-for-6 in his last two games. He drew walks in his first two at-bats -- a personal season high -- including one with the bases loaded in the first, then, in the fifth, he belted his fourth home run, a two-run shot, which chased Wacha. The three RBIs for Soler are a season high -- he had two in his previous 28 games. "When you're walking, you're hitting," Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. "When you're not expanding your strike zone, you have a much better chance. That's what his DNA indicates -- when you're young and get a little eager or anxious, you come out of what you normally do. Now we're trying to get him back to constructing the strike zone once again. He does really well when he does that." Off-center: Wacha might have gotten out of the first inning with only two runs allowed had Grichuk been able to snare Ross' double to center. Instead, Grichuk, one night after connecting for the first walk-off homer of his career, let the ball nick off his glove for a two-out, two-run double. Two more runs scored while Grichuk chased down Hammel's two-base hit, which could have been a single had Grichuk been more efficient with his route.

"It just carried more than I thought it would," Grichuk said. "I was [playing] in a little bit more than normal, then I just looked up, looked at the wall and tried to pick [the ball] up. I just kind of misjudged the hand, the arm." QUOTABLE "I think our starting pitchers would be the first to make [the] statement that we haven't been able to make that run that we need to [in order to] do what we need to do as a club. This starts with our starting pitching." -- Matheny, whose club now has a rotation ERA of 4.45 SOUND SMART WITH YOUR FRIENDS Ross' double was his 500th career hit, but he wasn't aware of the milestone. He entered the game with 499 career hits and 99 career homers. "I only had to play how many years to get that?" said Ross, who is retiring at the end of this season. "Some of these guys will have [500 hits] in three years. ... Homers are way cooler." REPLAY REVIEW In the Chicago ninth, Addison Russell was called out at first after hitting a ground ball to second baseman Kolten Wong. The Cubs challenged the call, and after a review, the call was overturned and Russell was safe. Maddon felt it was a key play. "That validates running hard to first base," said Maddon, whose mantra is "Respect 90." "Two things could happen there -- maybe [Russell] could hit .300 because of that play, but more than anything, if our Minor League players are watching, they see the validation of running hard to first base all the time," Maddon said. "[Bryant] had done it in his previous at-bat. My takeaway from the whole night is that." WHAT'S NEXT Cubs: Right-hander Jake Arrieta will make his 10th start of the season in the series finale on Wednesday. The Cubs have won each of his last 22 starts, a franchise record. Arrieta leads the Majors with a 1.29 ERA and a .153 opponents' batting average. First pitch is scheduled for 12:45 p.m. CT. Cardinals: Carlos Martinez will look to snap his four-game losing streak on Wednesday when he starts the rubber game of the series. The Cardinals, though, won all five of his previous starts against Chicago. -- Cubs.com Hammel helps own cause against Cardinals By Carrie Muskat ST. LOUIS -- Before Cubs right-hander Jason Hammel even took the mound on Tuesday night, he had hit a two-run double to extend his personal hitting streak to three games, brought his RBI total to a career-high five and had a six-run cushion. "I think it makes every pitcher better," Hammel said of the 6-0 lead he had en route to a 12-3 win over the Cardinals. "It's nice to have room for error. That's what run support does. I took my first swing before I threw my first pitch." The Cubs scored as many runs in the first inning on Tuesday night as they had in their three previous games, all losses. And they kept adding on, evening the series against St. Louis. Hammel picked up the win, giving up one run over 7 1/3 innings, and his ERA is now a very respectable 2.17.

Dexter Fowler got things started -- which is exactly what manager Joe Maddon wants -- with a leadoff double, and moved up on Jason Heyward's groundout before scoring on Kris Bryant's single. Anthony Rizzo singled and Ben Zobrist walked to load the bases, then St. Louis starter Michael Wacha walked Jorge Soler to force in a run. Rizzo went home on Addison Russell's fielder's choice, then David Ross and Hammel each hit two-run doubles to open the six-run lead. "To have Jason move [Fowler] like he did, there's the team concept right there," Maddon said. "That stuck in our heads really early. Everybody had a piece of that win tonight." This was the first time the Cubs scored six runs in the first in St. Louis since July 31, 1994, a game that ended in a 9-7 Chicago win. The Cubs last scored a half-dozen runs in one inning in the fifth on Sept. 17, 2015, against the Pirates. Hammel said he was "effectively wild" in the outing. He's 6-1 for the second time in his career, matching 2012. And he didn't get nervous when the team faltered offensively. "It's a 162-game season," he said. "We don't hit the panic button when we don't score runs or don't pitch. It's part of the whole ebb and flow of the season. We're not robots, and we can't do it all the time. You're going to run into some good teams. We never panic, and we're going game by game, and tonight we had a good one." The solid start has helped justify the commitment Hammel made this offseason to get better physically and mentally. Can he keep it going in the second half? "I do feel different," he said. "I know I can get better. I'm not thinking that far down the road. I'm going game by game, pitch by pitch. I think that will be the right mentality for me, instead of 'Don't falter.' I'm not a negative thinker any more. I'm going to stay here and now." Said Maddon: "I believe it's sustainable. If he knows where his fastball is going, he will pitch deeply into a lot of games." -- Cubs.com Grimm takes 'defensive highlight' off bucket list By Carrie Muskat ST. LOUIS -- Cubs reliever Justin Grimm is a hockey fan as long as the Chicago Blackhawks are playing, and he made a nifty Blackhawks-worthy glove save on Tuesday night and crossed another item off his bucket list when he snared Aledmys Diaz's grounder between his legs. "I've always wanted to do that, whether it's behind the back, between the legs," Grimm said after the Cubs' 12-3 win over the Cardinals. "I actually told the umpire that. It was pretty cool little play." The Cardinals had a runner at second and two outs in the eighth when Diaz hit the comebacker to Grimm, who spun and calmly gloved the ball, then threw to first. It was just one more highlight in the victory. Cubs starter Jason Hammel liked it, posting on Twitter: "If @GrimmReaper_52's play is not a #WebGem tonight ... #heshouldveseenit." "I'm sure he practices that in the offseason in his living room," manager Joe Maddon said. "He's one of those guys definitely capable of bizarre in the bizarro world that he lives in." But Grimm said he's never practiced a between-the-legs play like that. "I've attempted it, yeah, because I've had a lot of balls hit back at me," he said. "I never was able to pull it off."

In Spring Training the pitchers are prepped for such situations, Grimm said. "They do hit these balls at us at 100 miles an hour, but you don't have time to turn around," he said. Grimm was eager to see a replay. "Mark it off the bucket list," he said. -- Cubs.com Heyward deemed ready, back in Cubs' lineup By Carrie Muskat ST. LOUIS -- Jason Heyward still has some soreness on his right side, but he was good enough to play on Tuesday and was back in the Cubs' lineup for the first time since he crashed into the center-field wall in San Francisco's AT&T Park on Friday. He went 0-for-5 with a walk and a stolen base in the Cubs' 12-3 win. "I know something happened, but I'm OK," Heyward said prior to the game. "I'm plenty good enough to play." Heyward suffered a contusion on the right side of his rib cage after he caught Denard Span's fly ball and then slid into the wall. General manager Jed Hoyer said the team "dodged a bullet" because Heyward did not need to miss significant time. "He was ready to come in the game [on Monday]," manager Joe Maddon said. "He was adamant that he could have done something for us last night. There's no reason to wait any longer. The trainers felt pretty good about it also." On Monday, Heyward took batting practice for the first time since the crash. He did take advantage of the short break to work on his hitting stroke. Heyward hit his first home run on May 17 and was batting .225 overall. Maddon said the lineup is whole again with Heyward back. "He gets on base a lot and he plays great defense, and it permits [Ben Zobrist] to hit behind [Anthony Rizzo]," Maddon said. "It's the butterfly effect. They flutter their wings, and something else occurs. ... There's all these different moments that occur that we don't really recognize, because we don't see the obvious. "He's not hitting .300, so obviously, people think he's not playing well, which is so far from the truth. He makes a great impact by his presence, he's a great defender, he gets on base a lot and he permits us to reorganize the batting order." Heyward is not under orders to avoid diving for balls, though he knows he'll probably feel some discomfort if he does. "Go play -- that's what I want to be able to do, get out there and go play and do everything I can on the field and not worry about it," Heyward said. -- Cubs.com Cubs look to make it 23 straight in Arrieta starts By Nick Krueger The Cubs came out swinging on Tuesday, busting out of their offensive slump by scoring six runs in the first inning off Michael Wacha to snap a three-game losing streak with a 12-3 romp over the Cardinals, who had taken the first game of the series with a walk-off home run, 4-3, on Monday.

The two games set up an important early-season rubber match as the Cardinals strive to keep the Cubs from running away early with the National League Central, which they lead by five games over Pittsburgh and seven over St. Louis. It's no easy task ahead for the Redbirds -- the Cubs have won 22 straight games started by ace Jake Arrieta. The Cardinals counter with Carlos Martinez; they have won all five games started by the right-hander against the Cubs, including an April 20 start in which he went seven innings and gave up one run on three hits. But Martinez hasn't looked the same since he left his start on May 6 against the Pirates after 3 1/3 innings due to fatigue. He has lost his last four starts and conceded eight runs over 10 innings in his past two outings. "I think it's a matter of finding a rhythm and control," Martinez said. "But overall, I feel mentally stable, and I try to keep a positive attitude." The Cardinals have shown they're capable of getting to Arrieta. In Game 3 of the National League Division Series last season, they scored four runs on five hits against him in an 8-6 loss. That was the first time since June 16, 2015, that Arrieta allowed four runs in an outing. But that appearance was not the norm for the 2015 NL Cy Young Award winner, whose dominance has continued this season. He has an NL-best eight wins and a 1.29 ERA. "Of all the good ones I've had, he's the best," Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. "I've never seen anyone do what he's doing right now. I've never seen it. I've never seen anybody this consistent, regarding his entire game, over this period of time." Cardinals third baseman Matt Carpenter is very familiar with the Cubs' ace. Once teammates at Texas Christian University, the two don't hold back when facing each other. Carpenter is 0-for-16 with four strikeouts against his friend. Arrieta has started nine games against the Cardinals in his career, with a 4-1 record and 1.63 ERA. "He's going through one of the best stretches in the history of the game right now," Carpenter said. "I want him to do well, but you don't want him to do well against you." Three things to know about this game • First baseman Matt Adams is the only Cardinal with at least 10 at-bats against Arrieta who is batting above .300 against him, with five hits and three RBIs in 15 plate appearances. • Jason Heyward returned to the Cubs' lineup on Tuesday night after he suffered a rib contusion diving for a ball in San Francisco on Friday. He went 0-for-5 with a walk and a stolen base and is 2-for-5 lifetime against Martinez. • One matchup to watch will be Arrieta against rookie shortstop Aledmys Diaz, who was hitting .367 with a 1.041 OPS against right-handers entering Tuesday and who will face Arrieta for the first time in his young career. -- Cubs.com Maddon confident Rizzo will get through funk By Carrie Muskat ST. LOUIS -- Anthony Rizzo is among the National League leaders in RBIs and home runs, but he's been in a funk during the Cubs' current road trip. "He's probably trying to do too much, no question," manager Joe Maddon said of Rizzo, who entered Tuesday's game 2-for-27 in the last seven games. "Regardless of how much you tell him not to do it, he'll still do that. It's just the nature of guys like him.

"It happens every season," Maddon added of the peaks and valleys hitters experience. "If you poked your head around all the good teams in baseball, you'll have a guy on that team who is really struggling who is very good. It just happens to be his time to struggle." Rizzo batted .218 in April but hit eight home runs and drove in 24. He has delivered when it matters, with seven game-winning RBIs so far. "He'll get through it, we'll get through it," Maddon said. "He'll come out on the other side with a vengeance. I like that he's still out there smiling, he's a kid playing this game, and I love that. He enjoys the day. Believe me, he'll put up huge numbers by the end of the season." • There are bad losses, and losses that a manager can stomach if he knows his team played well. Monday's loss was the latter. The Cardinals won, 4-3, on a walk-off home run by Randal Grichuk. Chicago had chances, going 3-for-9 with runners in scoring position and stranding 10. The Cardinals, on the other hand, went 0-for-1 with RISP. "If we go about our business like we did last night, we'll win a ton of games this year," Maddon said. -- ESPNChicago.com A wild and crazy idea: Jake Arrieta, future Hall of Famer By David Schoenfield This may sound a little preposterous, but let's consider the idea: Does Jake Arrieta have any chance at making the Hall of Fame? It sounds preposterous because Arrieta is already 30 years old, has just 64 career wins, and has had exactly one Hall of Fame-caliber season. He's too old, it would seem, to start a run at Cooperstown. Plus, many pitchers have pitched at a level Arrieta did in 2015, at least for one season: Dwight Gooden, Kevin Appier, Bret Saberhagen, Ron Guidry, Jose Rijo, Jon Matlack, Vida Blue. All had one season of at least 8.7 WAR -- which was Arrieta's figure in 2015, when he went 22-7 with a 1.77 ERA -- and while they were all excellent pitchers, none has sniffed Cooperstown. But consider what we do know about Arrieta: 1. He can pitch at a high Hall of Fame level and he's doing so again in 2016, sitting at 8-0 with a 1.29 ERA heading into Wednesday's start. 2. He's the best-conditioned pitcher in the game, with a workout regimen that includes Pilates, yoga, mobility training, meditation and a healthy diet. This doesn't guarantee he'll age well, but it has to be considered a positive attribute. 3. He's not too old. Several Hall of Fame pitchers have reached Cooperstown more on what they did in their 30s than their 20s. Obviously, Arrieta has to have a great decade. As Mark Simon of ESPN Stats & Information tells me, through Arrieta’s first five seasons -- which includes his first good season with the Cubs in 2014 -- the right-hander had a 4.48 career ERA. The only pitcher with an ERA that high through his first five seasons to make the Hall of Fame was Red Ruffing, who was 39-96 with a 4.61 ERA when the Red Sox traded him to the Yankees. Going from the worst team in the league to a perennial World Series contender helped, but Ruffing also changed his delivery with the Yankees and won 20 games four times, all in his 30s, and helped the Yankees win six World Series. The chart above illustrates some other late bloomers, with several Hall of Famers accumulating more than 80 percent of their career value from age 29 on. A quick look at a few of those:

Dazzy Vance: Vance didn't win a game in the majors until he was 31. He had reached the majors in 1915, but suffered chronic arm pain and scuffled around the minors for several years. The story goes that in 1920 he banged his arm on a table in the middle of a poker game and the pain became unbearable. He had surgery (probably to remove bone chips) and returned with a blazing fastball. In 1924, he struck out 262 batters; only one other pitcher in the league struck out even 100. Bob Gibson: With a delivery that caused him to fall violently toward first base in his follow-through, Gibson had control issues early in his career and didn't really become BOB GIBSON until he was 30, although he'd had some fine seasons before that. Randy Johnson: Even more wild than Gibson, Johnson's breakout season came in 1993 at age 29, when he finished second in the Cy Young voting. You may think that Arrieta is no Randy Johnson, but Johnson never had a 219 ERA+ as Arrieta did in 2015. Curt Schilling: Schilling first reached the majors at age 21 and had some good seasons, including a big postseason for the Phillies in 1993. But he also battled some arm injuries and was 43-42 through age 28 -- very similar to Arrieta's 34-32 record (although Schilling had a lower ERA). Schilling didn't receive his first Cy Young votes until he was 30 years old. Of course, Schilling isn't in the Hall of Fame yet, as voters have seemingly focused on his 216 career wins more than his 80.7 career WAR and postseason heroics. By the standards of pitchers already elected to the Hall of Fame, Schilling is easily qualified for Cooperstown. In time, I believe voters will start adjusting for the lower wins totals of this era, as they did in electing Pedro Martinez (219 wins) and John Smoltz (213 wins), and Schilling will deservedly get in. Schilling does present, however, a pretty good example of what Arrieta would have to do to have hopes of Cooperstown. Schilling had 11 seasons of 4.0 WAR or higher, with 10 of those coming after turning 29. His top eight seasons in WAR: 8.8, 8.7, 7.9, 6.3, 6.2, 6.0, 5.9, 5.5. Those are All-Star-type seasons, with anything above 7.0 in Cy Young consideration. Schilling never won one, but finished second three times. With 17.7 career WAR, Arrieta is barely one-quarter of the way to the 70-plus WAR it will take to get into the Hall of Fame discussion. It could be that his career goes the way of Kevin Brown, who had a very high peak and borderline Hall numbers, but not enough longevity to impress the voters. But if Arrieta has a run of five to six years as one of the elite pitchers in the game and then a solid career until he's 40 or so, he could have a chance. A World Series title or two wouldn't hurt, either. -- ESPNChicago.com Cubs remind the baseball world how good they can be By Jesse Rogers ST. LOUIS – There was no large, collective exhale coming from the Chicago Cubs dugout Tuesday night. Sure, there were plenty of high-fives in the first inning of a 12-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals, but manager Joe Maddon described the six runs his team put up in the first as “business as usual.” Starter Jason Hammel summed it up this way: “I took my first swings before I threw my first pitch.” That’s a good thing when you’re on the road, where the Cubs have been scuffling on offense for a while. The Cubs had lost eight of their previous 12 games, and every run scored in that stretch seemed like a gift from the heavens. Otherwise, it felt like we were watching a root canal. The runs just didn’t come easily -- until Tuesday. “With our talent level, it’s hard to keep us down for too long,” catcher David Ross said.

Ross earned his 500th career hit in the first inning, when he drove two runs in with a double before Hammel did the same in the next at-bat. “Second three-game hit streak of the year, but who’s counting?” Hammel joked. Yes, the Cubs are back to having fun, and at least for one night, they resurrected everyone’s favorite phrase of the spring: run differential. After slowly giving some back to the baseball gods, they exploded Tuesday and reminded everyone what this offense can do, especially when taking free passes. The Cubs walked six times, including four courtesy of Cardinals starter Michael Wacha. “We don’t hit the panic button when we don’t score runs or we don’t pitch,” Hammel said. “We’re not robots. We can’t do it all the time.” Maddon had been lecturing anyone who would listen that his team wasn’t playing that badly, despite losing two series in a row and being one loss from losing a third. In his estimation, the Cubs were constantly one hit from winning. He turned out to be right. “Sometimes hitting is hard,” Ross said. “Simple as that.” We sometimes don't like simple explanations; we assume there’s more under the surface. But Maddon knows his team better than anyone. He would let on if there were concern, but even after Monday’s game, in which the Cubs did everything better than St. Louis -- save two pitches -- but still lost the game, the manager never wavered. “They’re all excited, but I didn’t see this [as an] exhale by any means,” Maddon said. “It was business as usual. I didn’t sense anything differently.” Maybe we can call it the Jason Heyward effect or, as Maddon put it before the game, the "butterfly effect." The Cubs were 0-3 without Heyward in the lineup, then burst out as soon as he returned. In Maddon's mind, it isn't just the potential production they were missing; it was everything else Heyward brings to the table. He affects all parts of the Cubs' game, just as a butterfly flapping its wings can have an effect on its surroundings. After the game, Heyward said he was sore but would be fine. “It’s good to be back with these guys,” Heyward said. “We’re grinding out a road trip, but great game all-around.” Tuesday's game was the first non-grind of the trip. With six runs of cushion, Hammel sailed through the early innings with admittedly not his best stuff. It didn’t matter. For good measure, the Cubs added to their lead late, which Maddon raved about because that included an Addison Russell hustle play in the ninth inning, when he reached on an infield single. The manager thinks the example that sets for minor leaguers was worth any victory. “My takeaway from the whole night is that,” he said emphatically. Hopefully, he’ll excuse a starving fan base if its takeaway is the return of the Cubs' offense, combined with yet another great start by Hammel. This was Cubs baseball circa April 2016. “It’s contagious sometimes,” Heyward said. “I’m just glad tonight it went our way.” -- ESPNChicago.com Slump or just bad luck? Digging into Anthony Rizzo's recent struggles By Jesse Rogers ST. LOUIS -- In the past, there would have been little doubt Chicago Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo would have come through in a key spot in a baseball game. In fact, earlier on Monday night he seemed to break out of his slump with an opposite-field RBI to put the Cubs up 3-1 against the St. Louis Cardinals. And the night before he had walked in his final at-bat. Good things were starting to finally happen again for him.

But here Rizzo was in the ninth inning with the game tied 3-3 and men on first and third with one out. The team’s best two-strike hitter needed to take a two-strike approach and somehow, someway get that run home from third. Instead, he lined softly to third base, and teammate Dexter Fowler was doubled off on the play. A few minutes later the Cubs would lose 4-3, their eighth loss in their past 12 games. A 2-for-26 road trip became 2-for-27 for Rizzo. "I would like balls to fall, but what are you going to do?" Rizzo said before the game. "The law of averages will work out." He might be right, but a closer look at his season points to a very strange year for the Cubs top hitter of a year ago. There’s the 11 home runs and 35 RBIs, good for fifth and second in the National League, respectively. That’s certainly impressive. But then there’s the .239 batting average, which dips to .231 in games deemed late/close this year. And his numbers against lefties have plummeted. He’s hitting .156 with a .296 on-base percentage, though the sample size is still small. "I’d like to hit them a little better, but when you hit balls hard and they don’t fall, sometimes it spirals," Rizzo said. Let’s examine how hard Rizzo is hitting them, because this is where it gets weird. Going into Monday’s game, according to ESPN Stats and Information, Rizzo’s batting average on balls in play was just .218, tied for 172 out of 180 qualified hitters. That would indicate a lot of bad luck, however BABIP can’t be looked at in a vacuum. Maybe they’re not falling in for Rizzo because he’s not hitting enough line drives: his percentage is 16.2 percent this year, down from a career mark of 22.6 percent. Last year he hit line drives 29 percent of the time. Here’s where it gets even trickier, BABIP doesn’t include home runs, which have been where Rizzo has had his success this year, so his slugging percentage is still decent at .526 which is right around his career best. And even stranger is his "well-hit" percentage which is 23 percent, the highest of his career. What’s this all mean? It basically means when Rizzo isn’t hitting home runs he’s not hitting the ball with as much authority as in the past, though when he gets a hold of one he really gets it good. But even that conclusion isn’t exactly on the money as he’s tied with Ben Zobrist for most hard hit ground balls on the team, yet Zobrist is hitting .556 off them and Rizzo is hitting .333. Of course the more dramatic shift on Rizzo could come into play with this stat as well. We could go around and around with the numbers, but there is some definitive good news. Rizzo’s strikeout to walk percentage is at its lowest of his career, just 0.86. And as of the weekend he was on pace for more than 100 walks and less than 100 strikeouts, which no Cub has done since Gary Matthews in 1984. That's a great foundation to work from. "Rizz is going to hit," manager Joe Maddon said on Monday. "Season in progress it’s going to heat up ... It’s just the grind of the season. It comes and it goes." In discussions with Rizzo, the Cubs' manager doesn’t believe he needs a day off nor does Rizzo think he has to make any drastic changes. He already opened his stance up earlier in the season, which produced good results. He’s just anxious for those to return, especially against left-handers. "I’m doing the same thing I always do," Rizzo stated. "There’s nothing more to do, and there’s nothing less to do. Just stay with the program." --

ESPNChicago.com Jason Heyward returns to starting lineup for Cubs By Jesse Rogers ST. LOUIS -- Chicago Cubs right fielder Jason Heyward is in the starting lineup for the first time since leaving Friday's game against the San Francisco Giants after making a diving catch and then sliding into the wall at AT&T Park. Heyward, who will bat second against the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday, made a quick recovery from a contusion on his right side, which could have been a lot worse. Heyward had an MRI over the weekend, revealing no more than a bruise. "We dodged a bullet," general manager Jed Hoyer said Monday. Heyward indicated he was feeling better Monday and took batting practice both indoors and outside before manager Joe Maddon declared him ready to go. The Cubs went 1-3 in his absence, including Friday's game which he left in the first inning. He admitted the catch off the bat of Denard Span was one of the best he has ever made. -- CSNChicago.com They're Back: Cubs Lineup Bludgeons Cardinals By Patrick Mooney ST. LOUIS — The Cubs didn’t need any mimes, magicians or mariachi bands in the clubhouse. Joe Maddon didn’t have to reach into his bag of tricks to deflect attention away from his team’s offensive struggles or deflate whatever pressure his young hitters might have been feeling. The Cubs showed why they have the best record in baseball and status as World Series favorites, jumping Michael Wacha for six runs in the first inning of a 12-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday night at Busch Stadium. The Cubs (30-14) finished with 15 hits, and if Maddon didn’t call this shot, the manager certainly alluded to it during his pregame media session when asked which hitter he thinks opponents focus on or worry about the most. “It’s hard to name one guy,” Maddon said. “I’m sure they’re concerned about (Jorge) Soler hitting .190-something, just knowing that at any moment he could just break out. If I were to look at our lineup, I’d be uncomfortable all the way down (with) the way David Ross is hitting right now. There’s no comfortable break in our lineup. “It’s a definite American League East lineup from back in the day.” That’s the entire point for this franchise, how Theo Epstein’s front office kept betting on hitters in the draft, trades and free agency, trying to build a bigger, better version of those Boston Red Sox teams that bludgeoned opponents. Within that first-inning ambush, Soler drew a bases-loaded walk that forced in a run and Ross drove a ball that soared over Randal Grichuk’s head and deflected off the center fielder’s outstretched glove for a two-out, two-run double. Even good-hitting pitcher Jason Hammel chipped in with another two-run double from the No. 9 spot. “We don’t hit the panic button when we don’t score runs — or (when) we don’t pitch,” Hammel said. “It’s part of the whole ebb and flow of the season. We’re not robots. We can’t do it all the time. “You’re going to run into some good teams, too. Overall, we never panic.” Soler knocked out Wacha — a pitcher the Cubs beat in the playoffs last year — in the fifth inning with a two-run homer that had 100-mph exit velocity and sailed 406 feet over the center-field fence. The Cubs ended a three-

game losing streak — the first one this season — and changed the subject with fans on Twitter and for the media wondering what happened to this team. “It’s hard to keep us down for too long,” said Ross, who notched his 500th career hit in his 15th big-league season. “These guys are very talented, and they’ve continued to grind at-bats. Sometimes it’s just (that) hitting’s hard. Plain and simple, it’s not easy to hit.” The Cardinals (24-22) will get that reminder on Wednesday afternoon facing Jake Arrieta, a reigning Cy Young Award winner who’s 24-1 with a 0.99 ERA in his last 29 regular-season starts. No one needs to tell the Cubs to R-E-L-A-X. “We’ve gone through a tough time recently,” Maddon said. “Believe me, man, it happens to everybody. It doesn’t concern me. I’m not distraught over it. It’s just a part of our game. But I like our names. I like our lineup a lot. Our boys will put up some huge numbers by the end of the season.” -- CSNChicago.com Cubs: Can Jason Hammel Sustain All-Star-Level Performance This Time? By Patrick Mooney ST. LOUIS — Jason Hammel is pitching like an All-Star again — the way he did as a sign-and-flip guy in 2014 and a rotation anchor for last year’s playoff team — so the question for the Cubs now becomes: Is this sustainable? Hammel doesn’t look at it that way, not after clearing his head during the offseason, altering his training program and refocusing for a World Series contender. He wants more. Hammel 2.0 handled the St. Louis Cardinals during Tuesday night’s 12-3 victory at Busch Stadium, working into the eighth inning for the first time this year, allowing only one run and tying his season-high pitch count (103). “I do feel different,” said Hammel (6-1, 2.17 ERA). “I’m definitely not happy with the walks. I know I can do better, as long as I clean that up. I still think the timing’s off with the delivery that I’ve adapted to now. “But I’m not thinking that far down the road right now. I’m just going game by game, pitch by pitch. I think that’s going to be the right mentality for me. Instead of: ‘Don’t falter.’ “I’m not a negative thinker anymore. I’m just going to stay positive. We’re going to stay here and now and be present.” Hammel described his outing as “effectively wild” and joked about his second three-game hitting streak: “Who’s counting?” It also helped that the Cubs built a six-run lead before he threw his first pitch, so manager Joe Maddon wouldn’t be so quick to turn the game over to the bullpen. Hammel excelled for the Cubs in 2014, going 8-5 with a 2.98 ERA in his first 17 starts before getting packaged with Jeff Samardzija in the Addison Russell blockbuster trade with the Oakland A’s. But Hammel found it difficult to uproot his family midseason and struggled to make a quick adjustment to Oakland, finishing at 2-6 with a 4.26 ERA in the American League. Hammel got off to another hot start last season (2.86 ERA in 103-plus innings) before a leg injury messed with his mechanics and led to a breakdown after the All-Star break (5.10 ERA in 67 innings). “I believe it’s sustainable, absolutely,” Maddon said. “The biggest thing, again, is if he knows where his fastball is going, he will pitch deeply into a lot of games, because his ball’s got great movement on it. So there’s a lot of mishits, and also his breaking ball is really good.”

Hammel understands his importance to this team, how carrying this momentum all the way through to the finish line would be huge for the 2016 Cubs. “I don’t see why not,” catcher David Ross said. “He was our best starter last year in the first half. That says a lot with the group that’s in this room. “He does a good job of keeping those guys off-balance and making the pitches when he needs to. He just looks a lot more sound mechanically. Even when he gets out of whack, he finds his way back into the count.” -- CSNChicago.com 'The Butterfly Effect' From Jason Heyward's Return To Cubs Lineup By Patrick Mooney ST. LOUIS — Jason Heyward owns three Gold Gloves, gets on base 35 percent of the time and allows Cubs manager Joe Maddon to hit Ben Zobrist behind Anthony Rizzo. Even if the offensive numbers never match the external expectations for a $184 million player, Heyward’s presence matters. "That’s the butterfly effect," Maddon said before Heyward’s return to the lineup in Tuesday’s 12-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium. "When they flutter their wings, something else occurs that’s not noticeable to the naked eye. "It happens in Russia. It happens in '11/22/63.' So there are all these different moments that occur that we don’t really recognize because we only see the obvious." Heyward’s absence didn’t fully explain the offensive regression or a three-game losing streak, and it might not have changed a 1-0 loss to San Francisco Giants ace Madison Bumgarner on "Sunday Night Baseball." But after watching Friday’s jaw-dropping catch and headfirst crash into the AT&T Park wall, general manager Jed Hoyer admitted it felt like the Cubs dodged a bullet. Heyward somehow walked away with only a bruised right side at a time when the Cubs couldn’t afford to lose another corner outfielder. "He’s not hitting .300, so obviously people think that he’s not playing well, which is so far from the truth," Maddon said. "He makes a great impact just by his presence as a great defender. He gets on base a lot. And then he permits us to reorganize the batting order." Heyward went 0-for-5 with a walk and two strikeouts and moved a runner over to third base with a groundball to the right side of the infield during that six-run first inning. He’s now hitting .218 with one home run through 171 plate appearances and a sub-.600 OPS. Heyward had been feeling like he was getting his timing down again — and working through a nagging wrist issue — so we’ll see what the extra rest meant for the butterfly effect. "Sometimes the game’s going to get you," Heyward said. "You say 'turn it around,' but we’re doing OK. Right now, we’re not by any means complacent, but it’s a part of the season. You’re going to go through ups and downs. You’re going to go through stretches where the other team just has a better night than you do." --