CHICAGO -- Anthony Rizzo showed Sunday that along with being a quick study, there’s still a little learning left to do.

Rizzo drove in the go-ahead run in an eventual victory for the third time, an amazing feat considering he’s only been with the Chicago Cubs since Tuesday.

That the RBI came when the Houston Astros intentionally walked Starlin Castro right in front of him had to feel sweet, but he resisted any urge he may have felt to gloat. Earlier in the series the Astros had walked Castro to get to Rizzo and it worked. There was no such success for the visitors this time.

“From what I've seen so far, I'll take my chances with Rizzo at the plate and the hole open too,” manager Dale Sveum said. “He's been here for five days and he's got three game-winning hits. We don't keep that [official] stat anymore but he's put us ahead three times and we've stayed in the lead three out of the five games.”

Most impressive of all is that the go-ahead single in the sixth inning from the left-handed hitting Rizzo came off left-hander Wandy Rodriguez. Jeff Baker then took advantage of a day in the cleanup spot to connect on a two-run double.

The Astros clearly believed they would rather take their chances with a kid that had been in the major leagues for all of five games this season, and Rizzo had no issue with the strategy of walking the batter in front of him.

“Once they did it again, I thought it makes sense, lefty-lefty,” Rizzo said. “I had grounded out twice already. But I don’t even think of that. I’m not the type that usually hits a lot of ground balls. I was trying to get a pitch over the plate and the first pitch was a curveball and I didn’t try to do too much with it.”

Rizzo simply reached out over the plate and rolled it over into right field. Just another ho-hum go-ahead RBI from a hitter who has started to look right at home very quickly.

In the eighth inning, though, Rizzo was in the center of things as the Astros tried to mount a late rally. Houston’s Brian Bixler was credited with an infield single even though the throw to first base from Darwin Barney clearly beat him to the bag.

Rizzo, though, took the throw up against his body, leaving first-base umpire Paul Schrieber with some room for doubt and he made the bad call.

Asked if Rizzo needs to stretch on a play like that, Sveum scoffed saying Rizzo’s lack of a stretch was not the problem on that play. He declined to elaborate. Rizzo, though, saw the error of his way.

“It was just one of those things,” Rizzo said. “I try to do that for the infielders to make them feel comfortable with their throws. But I think it was Bixler running down the line. It was a little too close to do that. I just have to stretch out.”

In the end it was the perfect kind of learning experience for Rizzo and the Cubs. It didn’t hurt the team and a young player gained some valuable knowledge in the process. All the way around it ended up being a very successful homestand for the Cubs.

“Not bad at all, especially five wins,” Rizzo said. “It definitely feels good.”