Well, the Cubs had the game-tying run on second base in the ninth inning this afternoon, but Jason Heyward and company couldn’t quite get it done. His fly out to left ended the Cubs six-game winning streak and brought them back down to 13.0 games over .500. If the Brewers beat the Braves tonight, the Cubs could move down to 2.5 games out of first. But, more to the point … THESE STINKIN’ REDS.
This game wasn’t horribly played by the Cubs. Their starter, Mike Montgomery, allowed 3 earned runs in 5.0 innings pitched, which isn’t great but was enough to keep the Cubs in the game. The bullpen locked down four scoreless innings. And the defense came up with a few big plays.
But only Willson Contreras and Anthony Rizzo had multi-hit games (only Contreras hit one for extra bases) and the team took a combined 3 walks all day. Tyler Mahle, the Reds starter who was supposed to be crap against southpaws, kept everyone off balance and posted a one-run, 6.2 IP effort. Kyle Schwarber had a few particularly bad hacks at him, which I was not expecting.
But it wasn’t all bad news. Randy Rosario tossed 1.2 scoreless innings and Justin Wilson, whom I singled out in the Series Preview earlier today, delivered another solid performance, making Joey Votto, arguably the best hitter of his generation, look silly on a strikeout after striking out Scooter Gennett a batter earlier. He was good.
The Cubs have now lost five in a row to the Reds and are 3-7 against them this season. Yuck.