The Cincinnati Reds continued their winning ways on Saturday afternoon, taking the third game of their series against the Chicago Cubs by a final score of 4-3. TJ Friedl drove in three of the Reds’ four runs, including a deep two-run home run in the third.
Jeimer Candelario went deep for the Reds as well, jumping on Chicago starter Ben Brown. Cincinnati had a 4-1 lead early, and for the second straight game, the Cubs mounted a late comeback that fell just short. The win gives the Reds a series win and their seventh victory in a row.
Cincinnati Reds Get Ahead with Pair of HR
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The third game of the four-game series between the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds got started with some offense. Andrew Abbott went to the mound for Cincinnati and ran into some trouble in the first inning.
With two outs, Cody Bellinger singled and stole second base. Hitting in a new spot in the order, Dansby Swanson came up and launched a double into left field. Swanson’s at-bat was helped by the home plate umpire squeezing Abbott on the corners.
The lead didn’t last long as Jeimer Candelario came up in the bottom of the first and teed off on a Ben Brown breaking ball that stayed over the heart of the plate. Candelario’s home run tied the game at 1-1.
Brown found himself repeating that mistake in the third inning when TJ Friedl came to bat with Jonathan India on base. Brown left his curveball up over the plate and Friedl buried it in the right field bleachers, giving the Reds a 3-1 lead.
Brown only pitched four innings in this one, giving up the three runs on just three hits and a walk.
Friedl Adds Insurance for the Cincinnati Reds
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With Brown out of the game, Jordan Wicks made his return to the Chicago Cubs out of the bullpen. Wicks had been out with a forearm injury.
In his first inning of work, the Reds played small ball after an error from Patrick Wisdom. Will Benson bunted Jonathan India over to third and the Cincinnati second baseman came in to score on a TJ Friedl groundout.
Wicks settled in for the rest of the game, working the final four innings and limiting the Reds offense to just the one run.
For the Reds, Andrew Abbott left the game after the fifth inning, having only given up the first-inning tally. The Cincinnati bullpen took the game over from there but would face some threats down the stretch, much like in the previous games of the series.
Chicago Cubs Make It Close
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The comeback effort started in the sixth inning when Emilio Pagan entered the game for the Reds. With David Bote on first, Yan Gomes got on top of a 93 MPH fastball at the top of the zone and punched it into left field. Bote zoomed around the bags and scored to cut the Cincinnati lead to 4-2.
Bote was a part of the next Chicago threat as well. In the top of the eighth inning, Bote slapped another single through the infield to bring the tying run to the plate in the form of Michael Busch. Busch doubled off of Fernando Cruz, getting the ball just fair down the right-field line.
With runners at second and third, Pete Crow-Armstrong came up to bat. PCA grounded the ball to the right side, giving Bote the opening to go home and plate the third run of the game for the Cubs and make it a 4-3 game.
Cruz then faced Patrick Wisdom. Wisdom waited back on a 1-1 off-speed pitch and got a hold of it, just skied it too much, and it fell harmlessly into the glove of Blake Dunn in left.
The eighth wouldn’t be the Cubs’ final great scoring opportunity, though. In the ninth inning, they had runners at the corners with one out after getting a hit and a walk off of Lucas Sims.
David Bell went to the pen for Justin Wilson, the veteran left-hander, to try and nail down the save. Wilson attacked the zone from the get-go.
Ian Happ fell behind 0-2 and reached on a fastball that got popped up into foul territory where Cincinnati catcher Tyler Stephenson made a great sliding play, and Mike Tauchman fell behind 0-2, turning on a border-line fastball and grounding it to first where Spencer Steer walked over and stepped on first to end the game and give the Reds the third game of this series.
From this Series:
Cincinnati Reds Superstar Goes Yard in Win Over Chicago Cubs
Cincinnati Reds Hold Off Chicago Cubs for 6th Straight Victory
