Lackey pitches Chicago Cubs to 8th straight win

There's no doubt the Chicago Cubs have turned things around since the all-star break - and then some.

The good times continued rolling Tuesday night at Wrigley Field, as they won their eighth straight game, 5-1 over the Los Angeles Angels. Cubs starting pitcher John Lackey (9-7) pitched 8 innings of 3-hit ball to record the win.

The victory improved the Cubs' record to 70-41 and put them on pace to win 102 games for the season. The Cubs entered the day 11 games ahead of the second-place St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Central. A playoff berth is all but assured, but nobody seems to be taking things for granted.

"I just try to look at it in terms of how we're playing," general manager Jed Hoyer said before the game. "We've had a really good week. We've gotten to a good point of the season. I think anyone who's been with the team every day knows there's been ups and downs. We got off to a great start. We played .500 baseball for a while, had a dip before the all-star break.

"I'm just happy we've been able to win series since the all-star break. It was important, given the lull we had before the break, to come out and get back on track. We've done a really good job of winning series since then. Obviously this last week has been really nice."

When it was pointed out to manager Joe Maddon that the Cubs have a 100 percent chance of making the playoffs, he wasn't going there.

"That's nice to hear, but I'm all about today," he said. "I only worried about, and I mean this sincerely, playing the Angels today. I don't get caught up in that stuff. It doesn't really matter. What matters is today. I want all our focus to be on today. Of course they're going to read that stuff, they're going to hear that stuff, they're going to react to that stuff.

"That's fine. I want to believe that we've set up a culture here that our guys really understand that the moment is the most important thing, and that stuff will take care of itself. When we take care of the moment, that stuff takes care of itself. It's nice, but it doesn't to anything for me."

Lackey was greeted by Kole Calhoun's home run with one out in the first inning gave L.A. a 1-0 lead.

The Cubs got a leadoff homer from Willson Contreras in the third to tie the game against Angels starter Jered Weaver. They put across 2 in the fourth. Anthony Rizzo and Ben Zobrist opened with back-to-back doubles. Later in the inning, Addison Russell hit a sacrifice fly.

Kris Bryant's hit his 28th homer of the year in the fifth, when the Cubs also got an unearned run.

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