Reds walk-off Cubs to earn doubleheader split |
CINCINNATI - It's never easy sweeping anyone in a split doubleheader. It becomes even more challenging when the team you are trying to sweep is chasing you down in the standings and battling for playoff positioning just as much as you are. Despite the odds, the Chicago Cubs (72-63) had a chance to sweep the Cincinnati Reds (70-67) on Friday as they further attempted to improve their playoff chances.
Clinging to a 2-1 lead in the ninth, David Ross turned to his closer, Adbert Alzolay, who was fortunate not to pitch in game one. Since being named the full-time closer, Alzolay has been lights out, saving 23 of his 25 opportunities. He even had 19 consecutive saves until that ended against the Brewers on Sunday. For as good as he has been, Alzolay can get himself in trouble at times, which was the case on Friday as he blew his second consecutive save opportunity by allowing Nick Martini to tie things up with a solo shot. To make matters worse, Noelvi Marte delivered an RBI single later in the inning to push across the winning run as the Reds walked off the Cubs 3-2 to salvage the doubleheader split. To everyone's surprise, Jose Cuas got the start instead of Shane Greene, who was called up from AAA. Whatever the reasoning behind was worked in Ross's favor as Cuas only pitched 2/3 of an inning before Ross went to Drew Smyly. Despite his struggles as a starter this season, Smyly can be a valuable asset out of the pen, and after allowing one run in three innings with four strikeouts, you can see why. Smyly isn't the only arm that can give Ross length, as another struggling starter, Hayden Wesneski, has called the bullpen home for the better part of two months. Tasked with providing the Cubs some added length, Wesneski looked about as good as he could, giving the Cubs 3 1/3 scoreless frames while striking out six. That set things up for Mark Leiter Jr. to finish the eighth before Alozlay entered for the ninth. When it came to the Reds and their strategy, David Bell would do whatever he needed to avoid his bullpen as they have struggled all season. With Lyon Richardson struggling with his command all day, things didn't look promising, but he managed to give the Reds 4 2/3 innings of two-run ball. From there, the Reds bullpen deserves a ton of credit as a quartet of arms combined to toss 4 1/3 shutout innings, with Alexis Diaz locking down his seventh win in relief. Unlike the first game that saw the Cubs add on when needed, this was a game of wasted opportunities as the Cubs loaded the bases off three Lyons walks in the first only to come away empty. A walk and a Christopher Morel single in the second set the Cub's offense up again, only to have Lyons escape with a double play ball to avoid further damage. Leave it to Cody Bellinger to change all that as he connected for his second homer of the day to give the Cubs a 1-0 lead in the third. For Bellinger, he leads the team in average and now leads in homers and RBIs as his great season continues. Immediately following the game's first run, it was the Red's turn to respond as they used consecutive doubles from Jake Fraley and TJ Freidl to tie things up. That was the lone blemish against Smyly as he pitched the best he has in a while. With Lyons nearing the end of his night, the Cubs were hoping to capitalize to at least put the pen in a position to win this game. Nico Hoerner started things with his second walk of the game before stealing his 35th base to move into scoring position. That extra 90 feet made all the difference. The Reds killer Ian Happ came through with a clutch single to put the Cubs back in front 2-1. At the time, no one thought that lead would hold up, but when you look at how Wesneski was pitching, especially early, you had to like the Cub's chances. The longer the Cubs held the lead, the better their chances became, as this game was playing right into the hands of Ross, who was set up to use Leiter Jr. and Alzolay late. With Leiter Jr. scheduled to throw the eighth, the Reds offense tried to make things interesting as a one-out double from Fraley set the offense up, only to see him move up 90 feet on a sacrifice bunt. Fraley wouldn't get any closer as Leiter responded from a rough outing on Wednesday to get out of the inning and kept the Cubs in front. After scoring their run in the fifth, the Cubs offense went cold, and they didn't have many scoring chances the rest of the way. A leadoff double from Seiya Suzuki seemed to be changing that, but Diaz got the last laugh, retiring the next three hitters to keep things 2-1. With only three outs standing between the Cubs and a doubleheader sweep, it was Alzolay time as he continues to live for this moment. Despite his dominance in the ninth inning, you are going to have games where he is off, and after striking out Elly De La Cruz to begin the ninth, the wheels fell off. First, the former Cub Martini got to Alzolay as he connected for the game-tying solo shot. That was followed by a Christian Encarnacion-Strand single before the pinch runner Stuart Fairchild swiped second. Following another strikeout and down to their final out, the Reds came through as Marte delivered a massive RBI single to plate the winning run as the Cubs had to settle for the split. Next on the docket for the Cubs will be Andrew Abbott, as the Cubs will counter with Javier Assad on Saturday.
