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Cubs 8 Reds 3
Lefty Justin Steele handcuffed the Reds over five innings of one run baseball as the Reds fell behind 5-0 and never were able to take full advantage of a 12 hit night. Steele bounced bad from a career worst outing in May (2 innings/7 runs) when the Reds beat him 20-5. Hunter Greene's night ended early after he was extended in a 34 pitch 4th inning. The Reds bullpen offered up their obligatory five runs over four innings of work. Brandon Drury tied a career high with his 16th homer in the 9th inning.
Hunter Greene: 4 IN, 2 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 5 K, 80 pitches/50 strikes. He was taxed by a 34 pitch 4th inning that ended his night. Ian Happ's 1st inning double put the Cubs up 1-0. Greene settled down and rolled into the 4th inning before finding trouble with back-to-back opening walks and a 2-run double by Nico Hoerner to make it 3-0.
Bullpen: 4 IN, 6 H, 5 R, 3 BB, 2 HR.
Luis Cessa 1.0, 2 H, 2 R, K, 2 BB, HR. He's allowed six homers in 28+ innings. ERA 5.97.
Ross Detwiler 0.2, 3 H, 2 R, HR....he's allowed runs in three of last four appearances and three homers in last six appearances.
Dauri Moreta: 1.1, 0 R
Jeff Hoffman: 1.0, BB, R
The reality: The expiration date has hit for a number of players on this roster. It's just Nick Krall doesn't realize it yet/or they don't have better options.
Turning point: The Reds did nothing vs Steele until loading the bases, with one out and trailing 1-0 in the 4th inning. But Donovan Solano lined out to CF and Christopher Morel threw out Tommy Pham attempting to tag and score from 3rd base for a rally ending double play.
Breakthrough, but.....Trailing 5-0 in the 6th, the first three Reds reached....Brandon Drury singled, Pham walked and Joey Votto doubled in Drury to make it 5-1. But that is all they got following a pitching change.
Spreading it around: Nine different Reds had hits in the game (11)
Career year: Brandon Drury had two hits, including his 16th homer in the 9th inning, tying his career high.
Slump snapper? Joey Votto collected two doubles, walked and drove in a run.
Keeping on: Nick Senzel had two more hits to extend his hit streak to six games (11 for 20). Aramis Garcia extended his hit streak to five games and Drury to eight games.
Happ-ening: Ian Happ, 0 for 5 last night, reached four times with 2 hits, BB, HBP and an RBI.
New guy: Catcher Michael Papierski replaced Aramis Garcia and singled for his first ML hit in the 7th inning.