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Levine: Better Day For Kris Bryant, Cubs

By Bruce Levine--

WRIGLEY FIELD (CBS) -- On the second day of the Kris Bryant era, life was good for the rookie third baseman and his teammates. The touted slugger showed uncanny plate savvy in garnering three walks and his first major league base hit in the Cubs' 7-6 win over the San Diego Padres in 11 innings.

Bryant drove in the Cubs' second run with a sawed-off single to right-center field off of Padres starter Tyler Ross in the fifth inning.

"Everybody is always looking for base hits all the time," Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. "How about being a good decision maker? He was that today. He got the big knock -- the broken bat (base hit). We will take it. He made the one gaffe (error) but overall he played well. He had a really good baseball game today."

Ross and all the Padres pitchers were serving up a steady diet of sliders and changeups out of the strike zone to Bryant. The restraint Bryant showed in the batter's box will set him up for easier days ahead once scouting reports get filtered through the rest of the league.

"The people who watch the game closely understand the importance of accepting your walks," Maddon said of Bryant's patience at the plate. "You don't look for your walk, you accept your walk. After what happened to him (Friday0, he said to himself he wasn't going to that again. He had some really great at-bats."

Miguel Montero was the star of the game, hitting a go-ahead solo home run in the sixth inning and a game-changing two-run homer in the seventh inning. Montero hadn't homered twice in a game since 2010.

"Kris did a really good job," Montero said after Starlin Castro's base hit scored Anthony Rizzo with the game-winning run. "We all know he has talent. We needed to take a little bit of pressure off of his shoulders. He is a young kid with all the talent in the world. He is going to be good. We needed to ask you guys (media) to leave him alone a little bit. Let him have some fun out there. He did an amazing job."

The Bryant second-game saga was hardly a national story Saturday. On Friday, the estimate of the Cubs media relations staff had close to 75 people covering the game. On Saturday, less than 15 reporters and two cameras showed up to watch Bryant play.

Bryant did make his first error on a two-hopper that he kicked in the first inning. On the day Bryant was 2-for-3 with two singles, three walks and one RBI. Maybe the most impressive number was seeing 35 pitches while making only one out in six at-bats.

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