Cubs manager Maddon still has faith in Darvish

Cubs manager Joe Maddon is maintaining his confidence in pitcher Yu Darvish, who starts Friday afternoon's game against the Milwaukee Brewers at Wrigley Field.

Darvish, whom the Cubs signed to a six-year, $126 million contract on the eve of spring training, is 0-2 with a 6.86 ERA. He also seems to have allowed one happening or another to affect him in each of his 4 starts with the Cubs.

But Maddon rejects any notion that Darvish isn't "competing."

"I think it's approach," Maddon said Thursday. "I've already talked to him about that. Just like I think our hitting goes back to approach, I think the same with his pitching, just trying to get him to slow down moments. I think this concept that he 'doesn't compete' is absolutely fabricated and false. This guy is one of the best pitchers in the world. How could you ever arrive at that point, not in the United States, in the world, if you don't compete? But there are times even good players don't process the moment well enough and then things get away from them. That's where I think he's at."

Maddon added that he talked with Darvish about it in his office this week at Cleveland.

"We've had a good conversation about processing the moment better and really trying to stay focused on this pitch, respect this pitch only," Maddon said. "Don't worry about the previous or the next one. Let's respect this pitch. I think he could understand that. I know he understands that.

"So I think the dialogue has gotten a little bit out of control. This guy's really, really good. When you sit on the sideline and watch this, it's fabulous. And he's had a tremendous amount of success. He's going through a lot of adjustments right now in Chicago. High expectations, I get all that stuff. This guy's good. This guy's going to show it. He's going to show up."

Zo gives it a go:

Infielder-outfielder Ben Zobrist ran the bases Thursday afternoon. Zobrist is eligible to come off the disabled list Saturday. He has been out with back tightness.

"I haven't had a chance to talk with him yet," Joe Maddon said. "I'd have heard bad by now. Bad news travels quickly. I have not heard anything, and that normally means he's feeling pretty good."

A rare miscue:

First baseman Anthony Rizzo went a calendar year and 150 straight games at first base without committing an error before his throwing error Wednesday night at Cleveland. That was the longest errorless streak for a Cubs first baseman since at least 1910, according to the team.

Since the start of his first full season with the Cubs (2013), Rizzo leads major-league first basemen with 683 assists while his 7,110 total chances rank second to Arizona's Paul Goldschmidt (7,189).