Rizzo’s slam among 5 Cubs homers as Chicago rips Pirates

CHICAGO — After a rough start, Anthony Rizzo, Willson Contreras and the Chicago Cubs rebounded with an overwhelming response at the plate.

Rizzo hit a grand slam, Contreras launched two long solo homers and the Cubs kept pace in the NL wildcard race with a 17-8 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday.

Rookie Nico Hoerner hit a two-run shot for his first major league homer and had four RBIs for the Cubs, who entered tied with Milwaukee for the second NL wild card and four games behind NL Central-leading St. Louis. The Cardinals hosted the Brewers on Friday night.

Contreras, Hoerner and Nicholas Castellanos each homered in the first with the wind blowing out as Chicago scored five times — and then kept on rolling — after Pittsburgh jumped on Jon Lester for a 4-0 lead.

“Weirdly, I was expecting that response,” manager Joe Maddon said. “I really thought that under the circumstances the energy level was great, then to answer as quickly as we did. I want to believe that’s going to continue.”

Contreras, who said he was just trying to hit pitches to right center, boosted his homer total to 23. The All-Star catcher has four home runs in six games since returning from a hamstring injury.

“I knew that we were going to have a good game,” Contreras said. “We were hungry. It was just the first inning and we never gave up and we came back.”

Hoerner elevated a low pitch to the center field batter’s eye in his first plate appearance at Wrigley Field. He drove in two more runs with a single in Chicago’s seven-run fifth.