Cubs' Maddon likes how team went for 'the jugular' against Giants

Stuff's starting to get real, isn't it?

The Chicago Cubs are doing a few things much earlier than most people anticipated.

One of those things is winning. They held on Saturday for an 8-6 victory over the San Francisco Giants at Wrigley Field.

That gave them 3 wins in three days over the defending world champions. The Cubs now lead the Giants by 2½ games for the second wild-card spot in the National League.

The victory was the 61st of the season against 48 losses. It was as recent as 2012 that the Cubs won 61 games for an entire season.

Along with the winning, something else might be developing in this young club: a killer instinct.

This game got hairy at the end for the Cubs' bullpen, which gave up 3 runs in the ninth inning. But in the bottom of the eighth, Cubs hitters had scored 3 very important insurance runs.

So often, you'll hear managers talk about getting those “add-on” runs.

“You call it 'jug runs,' when you go for the jugular,” said manager Joe Maddon. “When you have the lead in your last at-bat, bottom of the eighth or the top of the ninth, you attempt to go for jug runs. I've been doing that since 1987 when I was the minor-league hitting coach with the Angels.

“Your add-ons. The jugs. You go for the jugular. You try to take the momentum away from the other team. They don't really get it sometimes; they keep playing. Those 3 runs were huge for it. They matched it. We were able to hang on today without a full bullpen, which was great.”

So does a team that starts four rookies have a killer instinct?

“I'm seeing a much more consistent method of play,” the manager said. “I'm seeing (that) we're really starting to believe in ourselves. I'm still looking for that late-inning swagger kind of a thing. I think it's almost there, where if things get a little freaky, we're still OK. That's the next step.

“But overall you can't complain. The effort, the intensity, the tenacity, whatever you want to call it, our guys show up to play every day. I love it.”

One of those rookies, third baseman Kris Bryant, contributed with an RBI forceout in the first inning and a 2-run homer in the third. That homer gave the Cubs a 3-2 lead.

“How about him beating out the double play early on?” Maddon said. “That's the thing that really sticks with me.”

Maddon went on to call Bryant “one of the better young baseball players I've had, period.”

The home run was Bryant's 15th of the season, and he leads the team in RBI, with 64. It has been quite a ride for the rookie since he came up on April 17.

“Yeah, really fun,” he said. “The season's gone by so fast. I look at our record now, and it's pretty good. Beating guys like the San Francisco Giants, who have done it plenty of times. They're a really good team and never give up. We have a lot of confidence. Our at-bats are turning around a little bit. Our pitchers start doing what they did all year. I think it's looking pretty bright.”

Starting pitcher Kyle Hendricks got the win to improve to 6-5 with a 3.73 ERA. He lasted 5⅓ innings and got key relief from lefty Travis Wood. Hendricks said he was “OK,” but he likes the feeling on the team.

“It's just fun to go out there and play loose,” he said. “These are big games, but we know there's still a lot of baseball left. There's still two months. We want to win these games, but you want to win every game at this point if you're trying to make it to the playoffs.

“Joe knows. He puts that kind of relaxed mentality, and just go out there and have fun. Guys are really running with it.”

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