The Chicago Cubs entered Sunday’s contest with the Reds undefeated with an 8-0-3 record through 11 games. The Cubbies didn’t leave the field with that zero on their record on Sunday after Cincinnati picked up a 7-3 win.
The Highlights
Cincinnati got things started early on with a 2-out rally in the top of the 1st inning. Jeimer Candelario worked a walk to bring Tyler Stephenson to the plate and he cashed in as he doubled just beyond the reach of left fielder Greg Allen to make it 1-0.
Carson Spiers worked around a leadoff double in the 1st inning. In the next inning he walked the leadoff hitter and gave up a bloop single into shallow center before a 1-out groundout by former Red Travis Jankowski brought in a run to tie the game up.
The Reds offense went to work in the top of the 3rd when TJ Friedl picked up a 1-out single and then scored when Santiago Espinal doubled to center to give Cincinnati the lead. They added to it when Jeimer Candelario singled to bring Espinal in.
After Carson Spiers threw a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the inning, Cincinnati’s offense picked things up again in the 4th. Jake Fraley hit his first home run of the spring to make it 4-1. Blake Dunn followed up with a homer of his own – also his first of the spring – to extend the lead by another run. The home run by Dunn was an absolute blast, traveling roughly 430 feet.
Bryan Shaw took over for the Reds to begin the 4th inning and he ran into trouble after picking up a strikeout to begin his outing. A single and a walk was followed up by a double that may have been misplayed into a hit by TJ Friedl who got turned around on the play (the ball was hit hard and landed on the warning track in dead center so it may have been a hit either way). That brought in a run to make it 5-2. Another walk followed to load the bases for the Cubs. Shaw did get a fly out for the second out of the frame, but he walked Ian Happ to bring a run in and that was his 31st pitch of the inning and led to a pitching change. Simon Miller took over and got a pop up to first base to escape the bases loaded jam.
Cincinnati added another run in the 6th inning. Tyler Stephenson led off the inning with a double and was then pinch run for by Rece Hinds. He then came around to score on a single by Jake Fraley that made it 6-3.
Scott Barlow, Albert Abreu, and Zach Maxwell all tossed a scoreless inning of work to get the game to the 8th. The Reds offense tried to get something going in the top of that frame with the help from Cubs pitching as Sal Stewart and Will Banfield drew back-to-back walks to begin the inning. They were unable to cash in on those two walks though. Drew Parrish came out and threw a shutout 8th inning. Will Benson turned around and led off the 9th inning with his first home run of the spring to put Cincinnati up 7-3.
Andrew Moore entered from the Reds bullpen in the bottom of the 9th looking to seal a victory. He didn’t do himself any favors by hitting two batters and throwing a wild pitch that put them both into scoring position, but he got himself out of the jam with what turned out to be a hitless inning.
You can see the box score for the game here.
News and Notes
Carson Spiers picked up three strikeouts on the day and now has eight of them in his 5.0 innings for the Reds this spring.
After striking out 10+ batters in each of the first five games of the spring, the Reds pitching staff has failed to do it once in the four games since.
Monday’s Game
Cincinnati is on the field again on Monday, but it will be a night game for the Reds as they play host to the Milwaukee Brewers at 8:05pm ET. The game will be on FanDuel Sports Network Ohio, MLB Network, and MLB.tv. This will be the first game that will feature the Reds announcing crew. Nick Lodolo, Brent Suter, Tony Santillan, Emilio Pagan, and Joe La Sorsa are all scheduled to pitch.
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