Youth movement provides spark in 6-1 Cubs win

The Cubs could have come out of Tuesday night's 6-1 victory over the Mets saying, "Our young guys are better than their young guys."

But they didn't, not even with rookie Kris Bryant legging out a single, hitting a triple and belting his second home run in two nights.

Even Bryant was deferring to Cubs starting pitcher Jake Arrieta, who tossed 8 innings of 3-hit ball at Wrigley Field to outlast Mets rookie Noah Syndergaard, a highly touted right-hander making his major-league debut.

"Jake pitched really well and made it easy on us," said Bryant, who capped his own big night by crushing a leadoff homer into the left-field bleachers in the eighth inning. "I think he's the guy today."

Cubs manager Joe Maddon said the tone was set by Arrieta, who improved to 4-3 with a 3.00 ERA.

"You have to pitch well to beat good pitching," said Maddon, whose Cubs are 17-15 after taking the first two of this four-game series. "And we did tonight. Jake was outstanding. He kept it all the way through 8."

Arrieta was able to throw 116 pitches. He didn't give up a hit through the first 3 innings, and he looked very much like the ace of the staff he was last year.

"I felt pretty strong throughout the entire outing," he said. "Searched for feel early on. I noticed pretty quick that I had a direct line toward the right-handed hitters and made an adjustment there. I was missing off the plate to lefties away, made the adjustment. Had a good breaking ball tonight. We knew it was going to be a tight game. We were able to get some things offensively later in the game."

It was tight because Syndergaard held the Cubs in check through 5 innings. The Cubs broke through in the sixth, with the key hit being a 2-run homer by Chris Coghlan.

The Cubs were duly impressed by Syndergaard.

"As good as advertised," Maddon said.

"He was electric," Arrieta said.

But Bryant also has put a spark into the Cubs of late. He has hit safely in seven of his last nine games. The rookie also added a walk, as his on-base percentage went to .417.

"Bryant swung the bat really well," Arrieta said. "It's just a matter of time before he gets hot as well as the rest of our lineup. It's fun to watch right now. He's extremely polished for his age. He's just a special talent."

Starlin Castro and Jorge Soler chipped in 2 hits apiece for the Cubs. The single Bryant hit came in the third, when he again hustled down the line to beat out an infield grounder, this time to third.

"It's something I can control," he said. "If you play the game the right way, it treats you the right way back. That's how I approach the game, and that's how I always will."

• Follow Bruce's Cubs and baseball reports via Twitter@BruceMiles2112.