BOSTON — In many ways, April was the coolest month for the Cubs.

After a season-opening road trip, they returned home to Wrigley Field for banner-raising and World Series ring ceremonies.

As nice as those events were, they put the Cubs through the emotional wringer as well.

They come home Monday night to begin May after a 10-day, nine-game road trip that ended with a Sunday night game at Fenway Park. The Red Sox broke a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the eighth inning with 4 runs to take the series with a 6-2 victory.

Things got messy in the eighth, with reliever Koji Uehara being slow to cover first base, allowing leadoff hitter Marco Hernandez to reach. Uehara loaded the bases. Pedro Strop relieved Uehara, and after getting a strikeout, he allowed a run on a wild pitch. There also was an error in the inning.

“I’ll take a 5-4 road trip,” said manager Joe Maddon, whose first-place team has a record of 13-11. “I will take a winning month.”

All in all, Maddon says he’s happy with the start.

“Pretty pleased, actually,” he said. “It’s always nice to break with a winning month. We’ve had two pretty difficult road trips. Even the first one, going to Houston (to end spring training), even though it didn’t matter it was still being on the road. The week in St. Louis. There was just a lot of time spent away from home.

“Then we went home, nice (home)stand. I think we were 4-5. But it was an emotional week. And I’m really into attempting to understand emotional expenditures. I really believe that’s something we don’t think about enough. So I thought we got through that well.”

The Cubs are in first despite not hitting on all cylinders in any aspect of their game. They also have to live with the memory of last year’s torrid 25-6 start.

“That’s fine,” Maddon said. “That’s really hard to do. You’d love to have that done, but who knows? We might have a 25-6 run in us at some point, too.

“But I’m really pleased and proud of our guys, how they’ve handled all of this. In spite of all this stuff going on, they come ready to play every night. The vibe has been great. The dugout’s been alive every game. Typically we don’t quit. Everything’s to like.

“To this point we haven’t necessarily nailed it as starting pitchers. We haven’t necessarily nailed it hitting wise or even playing defense. We’ve played good, but I still don’t think we’ve played any facet of the game up to our capabilities yet.”

Starting pitcher Kyle Hendricks went 6 innings, giving up 5 hits, including a 2-run homer to Hanley Ramirez in the first. He echoed Maddon’s sentiments about the start.

“A little weird,” he said. “Just trying to find our way a little bit. Starting a new year, it was a quick turnaround for a lot of us. Everybody is just trying to find their spot. That’s what the first month is usually for. We came out so hot out of the gates last year. That was just kind of a special phenomenon.

“Usually, this is more what you kind of expect, guys just finding their way into their roles and in the games and be able to win ballgames with it. That was obviously a really good sign because we’re not clicking on all cylinders. Once that all starts happening, weather starts warming up, getting in the middle of the year, I think everybody will start rolling.”