Cubs prospect Bryant flourishing

The owner made a beeline through the Cubs’ clubhouse looking for his rookie slugger.

“Hey, take it easy,” Tom Ricketts told Kris Bryant, trying not to laugh. “That thing costs a lot of money.”

“Gotcha,” Bryant smiled, trying not to blush.

“That thing” is a brand-new, 4,000-square-foot Jumbotron atop the bleachers and the ivy-covered outfield wall in left, an expensive piece of furniture in Wrigley Field’s $500 million makeover.

In the eighth inning Wednesday night, with Chicago trailing Washington by a run, Bryant patiently turned an 0-2 count against reliever Aaron Barrett into 3-2. Then he turned around a waist-high changeup and launched it 463 feet – or 477, depending on the estimate – into the night sky.

“We thought it was over the board,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon recalled. “Kind of got everyone stirring.”

That the home run – Bryant’s seventh this season – tied a game the Cubs went on to win was good enough for a fan base thrilled with second place in the NL Central, even if it’s only May. That it hit the upper face of the video board while Bryant’s own mug was prominently displayed made it a perfect tableau for the 23-year-old fast becoming the face of a franchise completing a makeover of its own.

Pitchers have the upper hand in baseball at the moment. That’s one reason up-and-coming sluggers like Bryant and Washington’s Bryce Harper – Little League opponents in Las Vegas a dozen years ago – arrive in the majors with more hype than ever.

If the just-ended three-game series matching the two stars were Home Run Derby, it would have ended 2-2. Instead, the surging Nationals took two of three.

Harper, nine months younger, arrived three years earlier and has already established his big league bona fides. Bryant has been there only five-plus weeks – the Cubs left him in the minors until April 17 to delay his free-agent eligibility by a season – but he’s making an outsized impression.

Bryant is hitting a solid .275 with a .393 on-base percentage, along with 31 RBIs in 38 games.

Montreal mayor wants games in ’16

The mayor of Montreal has asked the commissioner of MLB to consider playing three or four regular-season games in the city next year.

Mayor Denis Coderre met with commissioner Rob Manfred in New York. Coderre says six or seven teams have expressed an interest in playing there in 2016.

Montreal had the Expos from 1969 through 2004. The team then moved to Washington and became the Nationals.

Around the bases

The Indians placed RHP Scott Atchison on the 15-day disabled list with a left ankle sprain and 1B Carlos Santana was placed on the paternity list.