Maddon unfazed by Byrant's increasing strikeout numbers

Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant has crept up to be among the National League leaders in strikeouts.

He had 67 entering Saturday night's game against the Reds at Wrigley Field, tying him for fourth with teammate Jorge Soler, who is on the disabled list.

However, Bryant extended a hitting streak to 10 games with a first-inning single.

As far as manager Joe Maddon is concerned, strikeouts must be viewed in the context of how and where they occur.

"I've talked about strikeouts being in different buckets," Maddon said. "They're not always in the same bucket. For a long time, the strikeout had been viewed as an out only. I have always been in disagreement with that.

"Two outs, nobody on, it's no big deal. Two outs, runner on first base, no big deal. Runner on third base, nobody out, big deal. Runner on second base, nobody out, big deal. I totally disagree with the concept that all strikeouts are created equally. I don't believe that."

Speaking of hitting streaks, Bryant's was extended because of an official-scoring change in this past Wednesday's game at Detroit. A fourth-inning at-bat was changed from an error to a hit.

Bryant had a 12-game hitting streak earlier this season. According to STATS, the previous Cubs rookie to record two hitting streaks of 10 or more games in the same season was Bill Madlock in 1974, when he had streaks of 14 and 10.

Rotation roulette:

Cubs starting pitchers entered Saturday with 4 of their last 5 starts being non-quality starts.

Joe Maddon wasn't worried about one turn through the rotation.

"It happens," he said. "They get streaky. If you look at their pitch-count numbers, they're not really that high. Nobody's been pushed to 110 to 120-125 on any kind of consistent basis. I don't think that's a problem. If you go through a bad cycle like that, I expect a good cycle to come on the other side. If they were hurt or more tired, I'd be more concerned."

This and that:

Kyle Hendricks laid down the first sacrifice bunt by a Cubs pitcher this season in Saturday's second inning ... Joe Maddon said struggling lefty Tsuyoshi Wada would take his next turn in the starting rotation and that he still had plans to talk with Wada about the way things have gone and how they need to go.