Same story, different day for the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday afternoon at Wrigley Field. The Cubs struggled to score, but did manage to hold the Reds to two. The Reds beat the Cubs 2-1.
Both teams struggled to score and string hits together, but the Reds were able to squeak across one more than the Cubs in this one. The Reds managed six hits in the game to the Cubs’ three. The lone Cub run came in the second inning when Nate Schierholtz belted his eighth home run on the year.
The two Red runs came in the sixth and seventh inning. In the sixth, Brandon Phillips singled to center and drove in Shin Soo-Choo. Then in the seventh Todd Frazier gave the Reds the lead for good with a solo home run into deep left field. There wasn’t a lot of action to speak of, which probably made for a boring afternoon at Wrigley Field.
Travis Wood had another quality start, but didn’t get any help. Wood went seven innings, gave up four hits, and just two earned runs. It’s got to be disappointing to have such a fantastic start and get no help from your offense. Mike Leake had a great start for the Reds and earned his sixth win. Leake went eight innings, gave up three hits, and one earned run before handing it over to Aroldis Chapman, who earned his 17th save of the year.
The Cubs have now lost their third straight game and will try to avoid being swept by the Reds tomorrow. Since beating the Arizona Diamondbacks back on May 31st, the Cubs have lost eight of their last ten games. Some good news for the Cubs is after the game against the Reds tomorrow, they take on the New York Mets for three straight days and will not have to see the young stud Matt Harvey. The bad news is they will have to take their show on the road for seven straight games before returning home to take on former division foe, the Houston Astros.
The probable starters for the series finale tomorrow are, Mat Latos (6-0) for the Reds and Jeff Samardzija (3-7) for the Cubs. Game time is set for 1:20 CT.