Renteria says give credit to Rays pitching

Despite his batters striking out 44 times in the three-game weekend series against Tampa Bay, Cubs manager Rick Renteria said Monday he felt the approaches were good.

"I thought we had some ground-out at-bats," he said. "Again, when you get a pitching staff … they have good pitching. At the time it may seem like approaches aren't very good, but you've got to tip your cap to the opposition's, too."

While all that striking out was going on, Cubs batters walked only twice. Again, Renteria credited the Rays' pitchers.

"They were attacking the zone," he said. "Guys had a lot of movement. It's not an easy thing to hit a moving baseball at the big-league level. All in all, I think they'll continue to learn from it.

"I still think even with (Rays pitcher Alex) Cobb, we kind of drove his pitch count up a little bit more so than I've seen in the past with the other clubs. The good comes with the bad."

The Cubs entered Monday with their batters having the second-most strikeouts in the National League, at 1,016. The Marlins led with 1,056. In walks drawn, Cubs batters ranked 10th, with 322. The Cubs' on-base percentage of .301 was 14th in the 15-team NL.

Doubront to Des Moines:

Left-handed pitcher Felix Doubront will make his first rehab start Tuesday for Class AAA Iowa. Doubront is on the disabled list with a strained left calf. The Cubs obtained him from Boston on July 30.

Right-handed reliever Brian Schlitter is headed to Arizona to recover from the right-shoulder inflammation that landed him on the DL Sunday.

Minor matters:

Mike Olt, demoted to Iowa on July 22, hit his fifth home run of the season Sunday in a 10-2 victory at Oklahoma City. It was Olt's fifth homer for Iowa and his third in two days. He entered Monday with 12 RBI in his last six games.

Third-base prospect Kris Bryant was 1-for-3 with 2 walks, 2 runs and his 40th RBI. He entered Monday with at least 1 hit and 1 run in 13 straight games.

Northwestern product Eric Jokisch got the win, working 6⅔ innings and giving up 9 hits and 2 runs. Jokisch is 9-8 with a 3.54 ERA.

Shortstop Elliot Soto, a graduate of Dundee-Crown High School, hit his first home run of the year and the third of his minor-league career.