The Cubs defeated the Reds 5-3 Saturday night on the strength of homers by Carson Kelly and Alex Bregman, the latter a two-run blast. Those helped the team come from behind in the sixth and seventh innings.
But before I get to all of that, can I say that this team needs Daniel Palencia back — bad — or to trade for a shutdown closer, because it took Ryan Rolison and Trent Thornton 18 nerve-wracking pitches in the ninth inning to lock this one down. Yes, all’s well that ends well but yikes, I think
I’d like a bit less of that, please.
All right, that said, let’s rewind to the beginning of this one.
Javier Assad and Nick Lodolo matched zeroes for three innings. In the third. Assad allowed a pair of singles to TJ Friedl and Elly De La Cruz that put runners on first and third with nobody out. One out later, Assad picked De La Cruz off first base:
That’s good work by Assad and Michael Busch. The Cubs had picked De La Cruz off in Chicago back in May on a similar play, with Busch not holding him on, then sneaking in behind him. JJ Bleday followed with an inning-ending fly ball — if he hits that without the pickoff, the Reds score a run and subsequent sequencing is different.
The Cubs didn’t score in the fourth, then Assad got touched up for back-to-back homers by Nathaniel Lowe and Eugenio Suárez. Suárez has, as you know, made a career out of homering off Cubs pitching. That was the 37th time he took a Cubs pitcher deep, the most for any active player.
The Cubs cut the two-run deficit in half in the fifth. With two out and nobody on base, Miguel Amaya singled and Pete Crow-Armstrong walked (one of two walks PCA had on the night, giving him 45 for the year in 95 games played).
Seiya Suzuki’s single scored Amaya to make it 2-1 [VIDEO].
The Cubs held the Reds scoreless in the bottom of the fifth in part thanks to yet another slick sliding catch by PCA [VIDEO].
Then the Cubs took the lead in the sixth. Carson Kelly led off the inning with his sixth homer of the year [VIDEO].
That ball went a long way [VIDEO].
More on Kelly’s homer from BCB’s JohnW53:
Carson Kelly’s game-tying solo homer in the sixth inning was the Cubs’ 14,000th since 1920, first season of the Live Ball Era. It was their 119th this year. They have averaged 130 per year.
The Cubs’ 14,000 homers are the sixth most in the era and second most among National League teams. The Giants began Saturday with 14,643, which were a distant second to the Yankees’ 17,284.
The other teams ahead of the Cubs, in order, were the Tigers, Browns/Orioles and Red Sox.
The Braves trailed the Cubs by just 32 going into the day.
After the homer, Lodolo had to leave the game due to a blister. Lefty reliever Caleb Ferguson entered, and Busch singled off him. After Nico Hoerner flied to center, Ian Happ’s double scored Busch to make it 3-2 Cubs [VIDEO].
Drew Pomeranz entered the game and Bleday hit his first pitch out of the yard to tie the game. Pomeranz was a reasonable chance to take after the Angels let him go, but so far the results haven’t been good. That’s already two homers allowed in just 4.1 innings with the Cubs for Pomeranz. He did make it out of the sixth without further incident.
The Cubs took the lead back in the seventh. Suzuki drew a one-out walk and Bregman then launched the aforementioned two-run homer [VIDEO].
For Bregman, it was his second homer in his last 10 games. He’s continued to draw walks (six in those 10 games) and even his outs have been hit harder than before. You can see signs that he might be coming out of his season-long slump. Perhaps the All-Star break will give him a chance to re-set and get going when play resumes on Friday.
More on Bregman’s blast from John:
Alex Bregman’s tie-breaking homer was the Cubs’ sixth of the season in the seventh inning or later. The first five all came between April 5 and May 27. Ian Happ hit the first and last, in the eighth and seventh innings respectively. Seiya Suzuki, in the eighth; Dansby Swanson, in the ninth; and Michael Conforto, in the ninth, hit the others. Conforto’s was a walk-off.
Now Cubs pitchers have to get nine outs without allowing two runs. Friends, with the makeshift bullpen that’s now the Cubs relief corps, you knew this wasn’t going to be easy. Caleb Thielbar, who has been hit hard recently, managed to get out of the seventh scoreless and Jacob Webb — perhaps the closest thing the Cubs have to a “closer” right now — managed a scoreless eighth, though with 23 pitches thrown you knew he wasn’t coming back out for the ninth.
Thus it was up to lefty Ryan Rolison to shut things down. Well, as soon as a lefty’s in the game, you know Terry Francona is going to send up right-handed pinch hitters. The first of those, Tyler Stephenson, singled on Rolison’s first pitch, and advanced to second on a wild pitch. A fly to right, the first out, put Stephenson on third. At this point the Cubs would have traded a run for an out, but they didn’t need to as Rolison struck out pinch-hitter Noelvi Marte.
So that left a runner on third and De La Cruz coming to the plate. Craig Counsell stuck with Rolison to turn De La Cruz to the right side, though this year the Reds shortstop has hit lefties well. Rolison walked De La Cruz and Counsell called on Trent Thornton to face a really good young hitter, Sal Stewart.
Thornton got ahead of Stewart 0-2 and then… [VIDEO].
Well. That’s not exactly an “easy” save but Thornton did nail it down, his third. The Cubs now have three pitchers with at least three saves (Thornton, Palencia and Webb, who has four).
Craig Counsell addressed the bullpen, and more, in his postgame remarks [VIDEO].
The Cubs got some good news out of Pittsburgh Saturday, where the Pirates did the Cubs a solid by sweeping a doubleheader from the Brewers, winning both games by one run. So the Cubs gained a game and a half on the Brewers in the division race and trail them by six. They remain 2.5 games ahead of the Cardinals, who defeated the Braves Saturday, and lead the Phillies (also winners Saturday) by half a game for the top wild card spot.
One more game remains in this series, and also before MLB breaks for All-Star festivities. Matthew Boyd, who was really good his last time out against the Orioles, will start for the Cubs and Andrew Abbott will go for Cincinnati. Game time Sunday is 12:40 p.m. CT and TV coverage will be via Marquee Sports Network. The BCB game preview will post at 10:30 a.m. CT.
