LOS ANGELES -- Anthony Rizzo began the postseason quietly, almost invisible, or at least as invisible as a 6-foot-3, 240-pound All-Star first baseman can be. Then, as his slump deepened, the opposite happened -- in the biggest series of his life, Rizzo had become all too conspicuous for what he was not doing. Then, at last, he broke out, with a little help from a friend.
Rizzo homered, collected three hits and drove in three runs as the Chicago Cubs broke out of an offensive funk that had become the story of the NLCS. Until it wasn't, which will happen when a team hangs a 10-spot on the scoreboard. For Rizzo, he increased his hit total for the postseason from two to five, and the RBIs were his first of the playoffs.
The funny thing is, Rizzo did it all with a bat borrowed from teammate Matt Szczur.
"I hit well with his bat, so he has hits in it," Rizzo said. "Same size, just different model and different name, and it worked."
Whatever works, right? The breakthrough performances of Rizzo and teammate Addison Russell were the big stories of the Cubs' 10-2 Game 4 win that drew them even with the Dodgers in the NLCS at two games apiece. Like Rizzo, Russell had three hits and his first playoff homer. After both players earned All-Star berths during the regular season and finished first and third on the Cubs in RBIs, they had started the playoffs a combined 3-for-50. So in one standout game, they tripled their postseason hit total.
"I've been struggling this postseason a little bit, but didn't panic," Rizzo said. "My confidence was still there. I feel like I've been seeing the ball well, taking some pretty good swings. So definitely wasn't panicking. I was a little more frustrated than anything else. But got back down to my athleticism, my work ethic, and it's fine. So it's definitely a sigh of relief to have a big night."
As for the borrowed bat ...
"He's done it a few times, just to grab my bat," Szczur said. "It's the same weight and size, just a different model. He just grabs. He did it last night and got his first hit, that broken bat single. I wrapped another for him today. Just trying to help the team any way I can, you know?"
Szczur was a frequently used outfield reserve during the regular season. The vagaries of postseason matchups and the emergence of Albert Almora has kept Szczur off the roster for both of the Cubs' series thus far. But if his bats have some magical -- or more realistically, perceived magical -- effect on Rizzo's production, he could go down in Cubs' lore for an unusual reason.
Only in baseball, right? The timing of Rizzo's re-emergence could not have been better, as the Cubs were down in the series 2-1. And in Game 5, the Dodgers will send their only righty starter, Kenta Maeda, to the mound, a welcome sight given Chicago's recent struggles against left-handed pitching.
"It should help their confidence, there's no question about that," manager Joe Maddon said. "When you're going through the moment they were, it's a confidence issue. It always is. So going into tomorrow, I know when they show up at the ballpark, there's going to be a good bounce about them. Probably going to see the ball better, slow things down a little bit."
During the early innings, it looked like more of the recent same for Rizzo. He struck out twice against young Dodgers lefty Julio Urias, the first on a high, inside fastball. His third time up, Rizzo curled a long foul drive just outside of the foul pole. Then, as he took a strike with the count 3-1, Rizzo dropped the bat, thinking it was ball four. But plate umpire Angel Hernandez called a strike. Good thing, too, because Rizzo homered on the next pitch.
Still, Rizzo felt bad about his presumptuousness and he apologized to the umpire in a moment captured by the television microphones. The exchange earned Rizzo plaudits on social media.
"I don't like showing up the umpires," Rizzo said. "They're out here working their tails off 162 like we are. There is no home for them. They're on the road the entire season. So just to let him know that, hey, my fault there."
So all in all, it was a really good night for Rizzo, Russell and the Cubs' offense. A desperately needed night to avoid, well, desperation. Now the momentum is back in Chicago's favor, with No. 1 starter Jon Lester taking the hill to face Maeda on Thursday.
"I think that this is a big win, for sure," Rizzo said. "With Lester going tomorrow, what he's going to bring to the table, [what] he's going to bring to the game tomorrow. To even up the series, now we have a chance to take another one here tomorrow and go home with a 3-2 lead."