April 25--After putting an exclamation point on his recent breakout with two home runs Sunday, Anthony Rizzo declined to say he was 100 percent comfortable during his slow start.
"This game is always going to keep me insane," Rizzo said. "You can't get too high, can't get too low."
The Cubs are back on a high after Sunday's 9-0 humbling of the Reds.
Their 14-5 start equals their best since 1969. They also improved to 10-3 on the road after winning their fourth consecutive series away from Wrigley Field, where they will play 16 of their next 19 games.
"I just know we're comfortable, we're ready," manager Joe Maddon said.
Jason Hammel, who pitched six shutout innings Sunday, said he believes the Cubs' success on the road is due to the team's concentration level.
Rizzo, who experienced dark days as recently as four years ago, said he believes there's a special bond that was evident after Jake Arrieta threw a no-hitter Thursday against the Reds.
"I think 20 out of 25 guys were hanging out at the hotel that night, so it just speaks levels about our team," Rizzo said.
So does the fact that the Cubs succeeded before Rizzo and Jason Heyward snapped out of recent slumps.
Rizzo tried to downplay the fact he opened his stance recently, but he is 8-for-20 (.400) with five home runs in his last five games. Rizzo became the first Cubs player to hit at least eight home runs in the team's first 19 games since Billy Williams in 1970. Rizzo also hit eight home runs in July of 2014.
Rizzo had only one RBI in nine games before his recent five-game surge, raising his batting average from .163 to .203. He also is 6-for-9 with five home runs when he swings at the first pitch this season.
"I did it a few years ago -- it turned out to be a very good year," said Rizzo, who hit 11 home runs and batted .393 on the first pitch in 2014.
Before his streak, Rizzo was hitless in his previous nine at-bats and 2-for-31. But Rizzo and many of his teammates have been content with a process in which the Cubs have been willing to take walks. They entered Sunday with a .352 on-base percentage that was 104 points higher than their .248 batting average.
The combination of getting on base and timely hitting has resulted in the Cubs extending their major league-best run differential to plus-68 (119-51).
Heyward snapped out of a 1-for-21 rut by getting 10 hits in his last 20 at-bats. Tommy La Stella and Heyward helped give Hammel a comfortable cushion as La Stella hit a double in each of his first two at-bats and Heyward followed with singles as the Cubs staked Hammel to an 8-0 lead after 2 1/2 innings.
"A lot of times a guy will go unlucky for a bit and want to change things, and all of a sudden gets sullen," Maddon said. "But (Heyward) did not do that. He just continued to play it. When that game begins, he's exactly the same guy."
Heyward's contributions added to the cozy win, in which hot leadoff batter Dexter Fowler and Ben Zobrist received a day off, and Rizzo was pulled after seven innings.
"All that stuff matters, in my estimation," Maddon said. "There was nothing to complain about."
mgonzales@tribpub.com
