Cubs topple the Giants

It looks like the Chicago Cubs have got their groove back.

Kris Bryant, Jason Heyward and Ben Zobrist hit solo homers, and the Cubs beat the San Francisco Giants 5-1 on Thursday for their third straight win.

Zobrist added two singles as Chicago took three of four games from the Giants and finished a 7-2 homestand. The defending World Series champions went deep 20 times during the nine games and have 26 homers in their last 14.

“We’re starting to hit them,” manager Joe Maddon said. “We have that kind of power on our team. We’re looking like we’re getting in our groove a little bit.”

Heyward went deep for the second time in three games and has a five-game hitting streak since a sprained finger on his right hand caused him to miss 12 games.

“As a group, we did a great job of getting back to keeping it simple and not trying to do too much,” Heyward said. “Just try to take it easy and relax and have a good approach (at the plate). Be aggressive in the strike zone and kind of make them come to us.”

Bryant takes a less technical view of the power surge.

“It feels good to have guys swinging well and obviously the home run balls are nice,” he said.

Spot starter Eddie Butler (20) allowed one run and four hits in five innings, rebounding from a sloppy outing last week against Milwaukee, when he walked five over three innings. Mike Montgomery pitched one-hit ball over four innings for his first professional save.

“It was fabulous,” Maddon said of Montgomery’s outing. “To go five and four (innings) like that, we couldn’t have asked for more.”

Jeff Samardzija (1-6) gave up three runs and six hits in seven innings with eight strikeouts. He also gave up three home runs against Arizona in his first start of the season on April 6.