CHICAGO _ Joe Maddon has been looking for more offense against left-handers, dropping Anthony Rizzo's name among several of his hitters, and Rizzo didn't take long to accommodate him.
On a sweltering Friday afternoon, the Cubs first baseman hit his fourth career grand slam with a 366-foot, third-inning blast to left-center field off Padres lefty Eric Lauer to stake the Cubs to a 4-3 lead en route to a 6-5 victory.
After the Padres tied the score at 5-5 in the top of the eighth on Josh Naylor's home run off Pedro Strop, the Cubs benefited from a pair of errors in the bottom half to bring in Addison Russell with the winning run.
Craig Kimbrel struck out the side in the ninth with one walk for his fifth save.
The grand slam was Rizzo's first home run since June 15 against the Dodgers' Kenley Jansen and his first grand slam since Aug. 16, 2017, against the Reds' Homer Bailey.
Over his career, the left-handed-hitting Rizzo has shown almost as much power against lefties as righties (slugging .426 and .511, respectively, entering Friday), but there has been a much wider gap this season (.366 and .568).
Before the game, Maddon lamented the Cubs' last-place standing among NL teams with a .234 average against left-handers _ "We've been terrible" _ and noted, among other players, "even Rizz."
"Look at Rizzo's numbers, they're down a bit _ a lot actually," Maddon said.
Lauer looked to have a short third inning when Jon Lester, who had his own early struggles on the mound, grounded into a double play.
But Albert Almora lined a single, Javier Baez slapped a grounder to short for an infield single and Kris Bryant walked on six pitches, setting the table for Rizzo to pounce on Lauer's 92 mph fastball.
Maddon said if the Cubs are going to find offensive consistency, hitting against lefties has to play a large part. But some of the bats that are normally reliable against left-handers have been quiet lately.
Entering Friday, Almora was hitting .216, Russell .214 and David Bote .167 against lefties. Last season they hit .295, .273 and .275, respectively.
Baez actually has improved slightly from .306 to .317.
"The lefties in the big leagues are nasty and we don't see them as often," Almora said. "We're battling. It's really the talent up here is second to none."
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Heyward had just two words to say about how to fix the problems: "Play baseball."
While the Cubs sought to continue their second-half hot streak, players and fans alike tried to stay cool with the game-time temperature 92 degrees with a heat index of 106.
Ballpark staff and the large video board in left directed fans to cooling and misting centers and places to find complimentary water and ice packs.
