Cubs get stretch of little traveling

So much was made of the Cubs finishing the pre-all-star-break portion of the schedule with 24 games in 24 days.

In that stretch was a tough three-city road trip to Miami, Cincinnati and New York.

Things are different coming out of the break. The Cubs are in either Chicago or Milwaukee from now until Aug. 5, when they fly to Oakland. After that, they come home again for nine days.

They beat the Texas Rangers 6-0 Friday and 3-1 Saturday and look totally refreshed. The current schedule provides plenty of opportunity for the Cubs to make hay.

"I did actually look at that," said Cubs manager Joe Maddon. "Coming off this (six-game homestand) and just having to drive to Milwaukee and back is kind nice right after what we just went through, if anything, to get rested. We won (Friday). I'll take it, of course. The thing that I loved is that we played baseball well. That's the thing. Everybody's always outcome based, and I keep talking about the process. For me, when we go out there and catch the ball like that, that's something you can attempt to control.

"You pitch like that, that's something you can control by execution of your pitches. Those could be the more consistent components of any team as compared to their hitting. So I will take that defensive effort any day of the week. That's going to help us win a lot of games."

What a relief:

Joe Maddon praised relievers Adam Warren and Travis Wood for holding Saturday's lead for starter Jason Hammel, setting up closer Hector Rondon to earn his 15th save.

Making things a bit dicey was that Maddon said main setup man Pedro Strop was not available and that he wanted to stay away from young right-hander Carl Edwards Jr., who struck out two of the three batters he faced Friday.

Maddon says he likes the look of Edwards.

"Confidence, just major-league confidence," the manager said. "He's learning that he belongs here right now. And command. His fastball has been a strike. So that's really important, the fact that he's throwing strikes. That's partly because he is confident. It's amazing what confidence does human beings, what it does for whatever we attempt to do. So that's where he's at. He's a confident young major-league pitcher right now that I think finally believes he belongs here."

This and that:

Anthony Rizzo extended a hitting streak to 11 games, tying his season high. He is 18-for-44 in the streak … Matt Szczur has 10 pinch hits, third most in baseball … The Cubs are 4-0 in interleague play this year, having beating the Angels twice in Anaheim to open the season and winning the first two against the Rangers at Wrigley Field. The Cubs have won their last six interleague games dating to last season.