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Rozner: Chicago Cubs' confidence on the uptick at Wrigley

Off the field, the Chicago Cubs were completely prepared for what was to occur Tuesday night at Wrigley Field.

Manager Joe Maddon calmly answered the same pregame questions he's been asked for the last couple weeks.

Team president Theo Epstein appeared on the field and waited for the media to surround him.

And GM Jed Hoyer was leaning on the dugout fence watching a spirited group of players dance to the music and prepare for batting practice, Hoyer unable to hold back a smile as he peered into the distance - and maybe the future - when talking about what he believed was about to happen.

"Given how talented our roster is, and given that some guys have struggled, you know their numbers will be great by the end of the year, so I think it's actually a reason to be optimistic," Hoyer said. "If this was a stock, I think it's a good time to buy. We're due to get hot, due to play better baseball.

"There's no excuses. Everyone plays the same schedule. But it's been a difficult schedule and there have been some challenges.

"Now, we're starting a homestand with some warm weather and I think we'll get things going."

After scoring 6 runs in three games over the weekend in St. Louis, the Cubs had it all in front of them Tuesday night at home, with temps near 90 degrees and a strong wind blowing straight out of the southwest, not to mention 40-year-old Reds starter Bronson Arroyo and his 5.94 ERA.

Not that there wasn't trepidation. No, when you've played as much ugly baseball as the Cubs have this season, there is still that concern that the defense or pitching could let them down.

But on a night made for hitting, they needed a game in which the Cubs' bats started looking like Cubs' bats again.

Nevertheless, the Cubs' front office expected the panic that is palpable in the streets.

"Remember, right around this time last year, we were 25-6 and I was getting asked non-sarcastic questions about how were we going to manage the push for the greatest record of all time versus resting our guys for the playoffs," Epstein said. "I called B.S. on that, and now I'm getting asked if we're going to send everyday guys down to Triple-A."

Oh, but it's much worse than that.

"Not by you guys, but I was asked by someone else if we're going to consider selling," Epstein said. "I call B.S. on that, too."

Selling? Really?

"Ultimately, you are how you play over the course of a season, but you also have to look at the amount of talent on a club and whether you trust their makeup and whether they care," Epstein said. "We haven't played anywhere near up to our capabilities, so we're presented with some adversity, and we get the chance now to make some adjustments and overcome that.

"In the long run, it's going to be good for us."

There's little doubt that the last two months of 2015, combined with a little more than five months of absurd play a year ago, has warped all sense of reality.

Baseball is simply not that easy, though Cubs fans have come to expect it.

"I've never had a season like that, a double-digit lead an entire season," Hoyer said. "Normally, there's anxiety, there's bad spells, there's several tough stretches.

"We had three bad weeks before the break last year. That was it. That season is an anomaly.

"I think there would be more concern if we were performing to expectations and struggling, but I have zero concern. If anything, there's excitement because I know we're about to get hot."

The Cubs' bats did start to warm with the weather Tuesday night, Willson Contreras hitting one to dead center and into the vines to drive in a pair in the first and Kyle Schwarber blasting a monster shot out to right-center in the second.

It was 4-3 Cubs in the fifth when Ian Happ popped a lazy fly to left that went out for his second big-league homer, and his sixth time on the bases in his first 11 major-league at-bats.

John Lackey made it into the sixth, having allowed 3 runs on 7 hits with 2 walks, a decent performance given the conditions but nothing like his outing in Colorado last week.

With the Reds climbing back to within 7-5 in the seventh, Addison Russell hit his first home run in a month in the bottom of the inning, and Anthony Rizzo added one in the eighth, giving the Cubs 4 longballs on the night.

It marked only fifth time in 38 games the Cubs have scored at least 9 runs, and the first time in 19 games.

So while it wasn't perfect night for the home team, you don't have to be perfect when you start scoring runs.

The Cubs did that. Might be time to buy.

brozner@dailyherald.com

• Listen to Barry Rozner from 9 a.m. to noon Sundays on the Score's "Hit and Run" show at WSCR 670-AM.

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