Anthony Rizzo said it’s time to compete after Game 162 last season and doubled down during the team’s winter caravan, predicting the Cubs would win the division this year.
Rizzo understood everyone would run wild with that quote, but the All-Star first baseman didn’t really care, finally seeing the pieces of the puzzle coming together.
Rizzo again set the tone in the first inning of Wednesday’s 5-0 victory over the Cincinnati Reds, blasting a two-run homer off ex-Cub Jason Marquis that disappeared into where the right-field bleachers of the future are rising as a skeleton of steel beams.