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Kris Bryant's first big-league hit is a broken bat RBI single

Kris Bryant's first big-league hit is a broken bat RBI single

After a mostly unspectacular debut on Friday afternoon, Kris Bryant's second major-league game was basically been the inverse, and perhaps one that's more in line with the Cubs expectations.

The bounce back performance on Saturday afternoon saw Bryant reach base five times in six plate appearance, including his first major-league hit.

Granted, it wasn't necessarily the dramatic moment many people envisioned, but the Cubs will absolutely take the result. With one out and runners on the corners in the fifth inning, Bryant delivered a broken bat single that dropped just in front of San Diego center fielder Wil Myers and scored Dexter Fowler with the tying run. The Cubs ultimately won the game 7-6 in 11 innings.

A thing of beauty it was not, but it still counts.

Besides that, it had to be good for the Cubs to see Bryant finally handle a slider away. Padres' right-hander Tyson Ross typically has a good slider, too, but left this one up just enough for Bryant to extend his arms and get the ball into the outfield.

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As you're probably well aware by now. Bryant was largely overwhelmed at the plate on Friday, going 0 for 4 with three strikeouts against veteran James Shields and a ground out in a key run-scoring opportunity. However, he showed surprisingly well on defense, even diving once to his left to take away extra bases.

In Saturday's game, things started going the other way right off the bat. In the first inning, he booted a routine ground ball from leadoff hitter Wil Myers for his first career error. Fortunately for Bryant, Myers was soon erased by a Chris Coghlan assist from left field. Matt Kemp followed with a two-run home run.

On the flip side, Bryant has looked much more comfortable and confident at the plate all afternoon. In addition to his run-scoring single, added another infield single, which helped set up Starlin Castro's walk-off single in the 11th. Bryant also walked three times. In the first inning, he battled from an 0-2 count to draw the walk. The second time, he was down 1-2 in the count.

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The walks, especially, are signs of a batter who's already adjusting to the game plan the Padres are using to get him out, and a batter who's willing to be patient to get pitches he can drive.

If you ask the Cubs, that's exactly the guy they want Bryant to be. Though it's obviously much too early to tell if he can be that with any consistency, it has to be very encouraging to see him put a rough debut behind him, rather than compound it with overtrying on day two. .

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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!