Arrieta and homers power Cubs over Rockies

Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon says he believes in the "power of 24 hours."

In other words, the Cubs were able to put Friday's poor performance out of their minds and come back strong Saturday.

It also helps to have the power of 49. That's 49 as in the uniform number worn by ace pitcher Jake Arrieta, whose dominance continued Saturday.

The reigning Cy Young Award winner pitched 8 shutout innings as the Cubs defeated the Colorado Rockies 6-2 at Wrigley Field.

Arrieta's work has been nothing short of amazing. He extended his franchise record of consecutive quality starts to 23 and improved to 3-0 with an ERA of 1.23. He has not allowed a run at Wrigley Field since last July 25, when the Phillies' Cole Hamels no-hit the Cubs with Arrieta going against him.

For Arrieta, the home scoreless streak spans 48⅔ innings, the longest streak in Wrigley Field history and the longest for any major-league pitcher at his home park since at least 1974.

"I didn't know that; that is pretty good," he said. "I don't put too much time and effort into that. I try and execute each time I go out. The results are hard to control."

Arrieta said he agreed with Maddon's decision to go with reliever Travis Wood in the ninth inning. Arrieta batted in the bottom of the eighth, when the Cubs went ahead 6-0.

"If the game had stayed at 5-0, I was going to let him go back out," Maddon said. "As soon as it became 6, that was my cutoff. Theoretically perfect, he gets on base right there and Woody pinch runs for him. That's what we had set up. But it didn't happen.

"Great game all the way around, and it did show the power of 24 hours."

Speaking of power, the Cubs went out to a 2-0 lead in the fourth on back-to-back homers by Anthony Rizzo and Jorge Soler. Both homers came on first pitches.

Dexter Fowler hit a 3-run homer in the seventh to add some tack-on runs.

"It was awesome," Fowler said. "Anytime you can put some runs up with Jake pitching, it's definitely a plus."

Fowler also seems to be buying into the power of 24 hours.

"After the game, it's done," he said. "When the game's over, if it's a win or a loss, we celebrate the wins. The losses, you get over them and move on. We still realize we've got games to play and games to win."

Time for Baez:

Javier Baez started at second base to give Ben Zobrist a rest. Baez, who was activated off the disabled list Friday, can move around the diamond, both in the infield and in the outfield.

"Right now, you can probably see where he can possibly get two or three starts a week, which may be the maximum way to do it," Joe Maddon said. "Hopefully everybody stays healthy and it continues to be a problem to get him in a game."

Baez went 2-for-4, a single and a double.

This and that:

The Cubs's 9-2 mark is their best through 11 games since the 1969 club went 10-1 … The back-to-back homers by Anthony Rizzo and Jorge Soler were the first by the Cubs this season. Soler has been part of the last three sets of back-to-back home runs by the Cubs … Every Cubs starting position player reached base.