Watch: Addison Russell, Jason Heyward, Brett Anderson Talk About Cubs’ 14-3 Win

You never know what to expect from a new season. That holds true for every team, even if that team is the defending world champions. I mean, no one had ever heard of Eric Thames, and now the guy has 10 home runs in 19 games, which of course is totally legit and there’s no way anyone would question the validity of such a thing? And yes, that was a swipe at ESPN and their “how could anyone question the accomplishments of Thames” tirade on Baseball Tonight. I digress.

The Cubs had been swept by the Pittsburgh Pirates at Wrigley Field just a little over a week ago, which was a bit unsettling if anything. Heading into Monday’s game it was hard to predict what would happen. Well, we quickly found out once the Cubs put up nine runs in the first two innings.

Addison Russell started the scoring when he singled in Anthony Rizzo in the first inning. Russell, whose slash line is now .289/.341/.461, ending up going 4-for-6 on the night with three runs and an RBI. He’s up first talking about his night at the plate.

Jason Heyward keeps showing that his good start is for real. He’s slashing .294/.342/.456 with three home runs on the year. He’s also getting more solid contact in 2017 than we saw in 2016. His average exit velocity is 91.8 mph so far in 2017, a vast improvement over last year’s 87.2 mph average.

Here, Heyward talks about his focus on getting consistent, solid contact.

Brett Anderson is now 2-0 on the year with a 3.54 ERA. In case you missed it, Anderson made a rather awkward dive in an effort to avoid Rizzo’s throw to Kris Bryant on a force play at third base (watch it here). That came after he singled in a run in the top of the 2nd inning and then, just for good measure, he made a great bare-handed grab in the bottom of the third inning.

After the game, Anderson discussed his dive and his overall performance.