Levine: Cubs' Kris Bryant Does It All

By Bruce Levine--

CHICAGO (CBS) -- It was Cubs starter Jake Arrieta who dominated the New York Mets in a 6-1 win Tuesday evening with no-hit-type stuff for eight innings, but it was rookie third baseman Kris Bryant who stole the headlines from his more-than-worthy teammate.

Bryant did everything a position player can do to help his team win a game. He legged out a single on a two-hopper to third base in the third inning, tripled to right field in the fifth and homered to deep left in the eighth. For good measure, he drew a walk as well.

It was an all-around player displaying his finest skills.

"He is a baseball player," Cubs manager Joe Maddon said. "That is the thing right there. You want 'baseball players.' A guy who plays the whole game and understands the concepts of offense and defense. Offense includes baserunning."

Recently, Bryant made an adjustment to react to the ball and pull pitches from the middle in on the plate. He worked with the coaching staff on the pull concept over the weekend. The results have been eye-popping, as Bryant has three homers in his past four games.

He's first on the team in walks with 20 and second in RBIs with 19 (trailing Starlin Castro by one).  Those numbers are impressive on their alone, then even more so when you consider he's played eight fewer games than most teammates because he started the season at Triple-A for service time reasons

"The home runs are beautiful," Maddon said. "How about the pick at third base? This is the second time he has beaten out a routine groundball in a week. He has hit balls very far. You are looking at a baseball player. People talk about this guy being a home run hitter. He is a baseball player and a really good one."

Bryant is as humble as he is talented. That makes watching him a little bit more enjoyable for those who like the throwback players of  past decades.

"Yeah, it was cool to hit one out there," Bryant said of his eighth-inning homer. "I never played in a stadium where there are actually people in the outfield. I am still getting use to that. It was a fun day today."

Bryant has seven multi -hit games in 24 big league games. Despite striking out 34 times, he's among the league leaders in on-base percentage at .417.

Afterward, Bryant made sure to heap praise on Arrieta, who allowed one earned run on three hits while striking out 10 in eight innings.

"Jake pitched really well and made it easy on us," Bryant said. "I think he was the guy today. I believe if you play the game the right way, it treats you the right way back. That's how I approach the game, and that's how I always will."

Bruce Levine covers the Cubs and White Sox for 670 The Score and CBSChicago.com. Follow him on Twitter @MLBBruceLevine.