Rozner: Cubs' Maddon makes his pitch for remaining calm

The search for answers often begins too high up and too far away.

Still, The Book of Joe is always a good place to start, especially for those who maintain the highest faith in the beloved.

"I just want a sense of today," said Cubs manager Joe Maddon, as he ushered in Opening Day at Wrigley Field. "I don't need the word 'urgency.' You have to be careful with semantics because you don't know how everyone is going to interpret them.

"I want the (players) to process today, period. If you are in any kind of struggle … you have to reduce, reduce, reduce. Just be in the moment, ready for the next pitch.

"When today's done, have a great off-day tomorrow and let's focus on Wednesday when it arrives."

And if you believe life begins on Opening Day, you'll want to absorb Maddon's next verse.

"Don't wish your life away," Maddon preached. "Everybody's always wishing their lives away. We forget to stay in the moment. I really attempt to not wish my life away. I want to stay in this moment and attack this moment as well as I possibly can."

For those frustrated with the Cubs' atrocious start, which would be every fan still on this side of the dirt, this might not be what you want to hear, but for someone whose job it is to manage people, it's a necessary sermon.

The Cubs can't make up 5 or 6 games in a day, so Maddon keeps them grounded and secure in the belief that they're better than the way they've performed.

Ultimately, that might not be true, but on Monday it was as the bullpen picked up an injured Jon Lester and threw 7 scoreless innings on 4 hits, 2 walks and 7 strikeouts.

What you've seen thus far might be the Cubs of 2019, a certainty if they continue to pitch the way they have, Monday's result notwithstanding.

The evidence is scary and the results unpleasant, not made better by Lester's early exit with a 6-0 lead in the third, the result of his RBI single and a hamstring issue running the bases, one that will likely cost him a start.

But the manager turning over tables in the clubhouse or busting TVs with a bat isn't going to make the Cubs throw strikes or miss bats. Without the power to exchange his staff for another, Maddon has no choice but to extract more from his group.

"(The bullpen) might be trying too hard. I don't know if that's pressing or not," Maddon said. "Here's what you have to understand about moments like this: Either you have confidence and believe in your guys, or you don't.

"If you don't, that's a different story. But I happen to have a lot of faith and believe in our guys."

And once again, as Maddon has done throughout his tenure, he uses this as a teaching opportunity, the benefit of 40 years in the game and many hard lessons learned.

"Adversity is good for the soul," Maddon said. "You always look to see who looks good when things are going bad. When things are not going your way, and you're still the same person, that's the guy I want."

That's fine in theory, but in practice, relievers have to throw strikes and finish games, something they have done the last two days over 11 shutout innings.

"The whole world revolves around confidence," Maddon said. "When you're confident, you're convicted in the moment. When you're not confident, that conviction goes away and you're searching.

"Then all of a sudden, you get a little swag back, couple good outings, all of a sudden you go out there and perform without thinking."

On this, Maddon is absolutely right. You can't pitch if you don't believe in your stuff, and at the same time it only takes a solid outing to find it again.

That assumes, however, that you have good arms and healthy bodies. Whether the Cubs have enough of either under the left-field bleachers remains to be seen.

In the meantime, there are 152 games still to play and plenty of time to flip the ocean liner.

"It's not something you just turn on a dime," Maddon said. "I'm all about picking up one game a week. That's always been my method, mentally.

"When you set realistic goals, you have a much better chance of attaining them."

Sometimes all it takes is a day like Monday, when Lester began a huge inning with a 2-out, 2-strike RBI single, the offense kept the line moving and the relief corps was brilliant in a 10-0 victory over Pittsburgh on a sun-splashed afternoon before a flock of 40,602 at the North Side shrine.

Just like that, all was well again for a day. Wednesday is another one. Joe Maddon would tell you there's no rush getting there.