Rizzo homers, ties Cubs record after reaching safely in 7th straight

The legend of Anthony Rizzo the leadoff hitter lives on.

Rizzo homered off of Padres starter Jhoulys Chacin to extend his string of consecutive games of reaching safely to lead off the game to seven. The streak matches a Cubs record set by Richie Ashburn in 1960. Rizzo also extended his current hitting streak to a career-high 14 games a day after he established a new career-best with a bunt single to lead off Monday night’s 3-2 victory.

Rizzo now has three career home runs to lead off a game, all of which have been hit in the past week.

Earlier on Tuesday, Rizzo was found to be in violation of Major League Baseball’s rule on collisions when he barreled over Padres catcher Austin Hedges Monday night, but will not be disciplined.

Rizzo spoke with MLB disciplinarian Joe Torre on Tuesday and received a better clarification of Rule 7.13 that states that “a runner attempting to score may not deviate from his direct pathway to the plate in order to initiate contact with the catcher (or other player covering home plate.”

Rizzo said Tuesday he had a good conversation with Torre after the two spoke for approximately five minutes.

“No discipline coming my way,” Rizzo said. “The league looked at it and it’s over with now.”

Rizzo collided with Hedges while attempting to score from third base on a Kris Bryant fly ball. The throw beat Rizzo to the plate and Rizzo was called out after Hedges held onto the ball after the collision. On Tuesday, general manager Jed Hoyer called the rule a “really good rule” and said that on Monday, Rizzo’s path deviated a little bit, which violates the rule.

“As a baserunner, I think it’s a challenging thing,” Hoyer said. “You’re trying to make a decision of where to slide and when to slide. I don’t think it’s an easy thing, but in this situation I think he did deviate. It wasn’t malicious or dirty, but he kind of created the contact.

“Hopefully, that’s behind us.”

Like he said Monday night, Rizzo said Tuesday he “had zero intent” to injure Hedges, who was forced to leave the game with a bruised right thigh. He said Monday’s incident won’t alter the way he approaches the game moving forward.

“I think you’ve got to play this game on instinct,” Rizzo said. “I play this game on instincts all the time. (Instincts) take over and you have to live and die by your decision.”

Rizzo said while he had to make a quick decision on how to best attempt to score, he felt at the time his best option was to try and go through Hedges.

On Monday night, Padres manager Andy Green said Rizzo’s collision with Hedges was a “fairly egregious violation” of the rule after Hedges was forced to leave the game with a bruised right thigh.

“It’s a cheap shot,” Green said after Monday night’s 3-2 Cubs win. “I’m not saying [Rizzo] is a dirty player at all — nobody is saying that — but he clearly deviated from his path to hit our catcher. He took our catcher out.”

On Tuesday, Green said Hedges could return to the lineup as early as Wednesday for the final game of the three-game series against the Cubs. Green said he stands by “pretty much” everything he said Monday.

Green repeated that he does not believe Rizzo is a dirty player.

“I think it’s one of those decisions where he makes a decision in a split second and he violates a rule – a rule that is designed to protect the health of my catcher and every catcher in the game of baseball,” Green said.

Asked about Green’s comments from Monday, Rizzo said it was the case of a manager defending his player. Cubs manager Joe Maddon said Tuesday he disagreed with Green’s comments, but respected them.

On Monday, Rizzo said he disagreed with Green’s characterization the play was a cheap shot. He maintained his stance on Tuesday.

“It was just more of the intent of the slide,” Rizzo said. “If you want to say cheap shot, I could’ve gone in with my shoulder like a linebacker and really took a shot. I went in, kind of last second slide, not really sure where to go, and that’s his understanding of it, too. It’s not like I was going in trying to end Austin Hedges career. He’s trying to do the same thing I’m trying to do, and that’s try to win ballgames for his team and have a long career.”

Green said he has spoken to his team about playing Tuesday night and said he does not plan on allowing Monday’s incident to dictate how his team plays. Asked if he expects retaliation, Rizzo said he had no control over how the Padres play.

“I’m going to be ready to hit,” said Rizzo, who has reached safely to lead off the game in six straight games. “If I get hit, it’s not going to be the last time. It’s certainly not the first time.”

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