Miscues cost Cubs in 5-4 loss to Reds

While it would have hardly ranked in Cubs lore with ol' Gabby's "homer in the gloamin'," there it was, seemingly.

Herrera heroics. In the Wrigley Field mist. In the drizzle. In the fog. In front of a season-high 40,016 fans.

Then Reds right fielder Jay Bruce laid out his 6-foot-3, 227-pound frame in right-center field and stuck out his glove, robbing Jonathan Herrera of a walk-off hit in the bottom of the ninth.

"Been watching Billy (Hamilton, center fielder) out there for a while now," Bruce said. "Trying to be like him."

The Reds scored an unearned run in the 10th and beat the Cubs 5-4 Friday, denying the home team a chance to climb a season-best seven games over the .500 mark.

"Here's what I take walking up the tunnel," manager Joe Maddon, upbeat as always, said after his Cubs fell to 32-27 and 5-3 in extra-inning games. "If we play that game every night, I'll accept that. You talk about effort, want-to and all the other things you're looking for - the will to win. Fundamentally, overall, pretty good. We made some physical mistakes. That's going to happen. But if we play that game often enough this year, we're going to definitely get ourselves in the playoffs."

Two Cubs errors - one each by rookie infielders Kris Bryant and Addison Russell - led to 3 unearned runs in the first inning. And yet the Cubs overcame a 3-0 deficit after a half inning, only to squander a prime scoring chance in the ninth.

In a 4-4 game, Chris Coghlan led off the Cubs ninth against reliever J.J. Hoover by reaching on an infield single and sped to second on Chris Denorfia's bunt. Pinch hitter Herrera then drove a ball into the gap.

"I watched the ball the air and I thought I got it," Herrera said. "(Bruce) made a really nice play. He got a good read on that ball."

Coghlan tagged and went to third. Russell, whose flyball to left in the seventh got pushed back by the wind and was caught by Skip Schumaker on the track, walked. But Dexter Fowler flied to center.

Todd Frazier, who hit his 18th homer in the third off starter Jason Hammel, led off the Reds 10th by reaching on Bryant's throwing error. Before that, Cubs relievers had retired 11 straight batters. Zac Rosscup, James Russell, Jason Motte and Pedro Strop each threw a no-hit inning. Rosscup struck out the side.

Frazier scored the go-ahead run on Eugenio Suarez's single off Hector Rondon past a drawn-in Starlin Castro at shortstop.

In the bottom of the 10th as the fog rolled in, Aroldis Chapman struck out Anthony Rizzo and Bryant on 101- and 99-mph fastballs, respectively. Chapman walked Miguel Montero, before getting Castro to fly out.

"You'd have to ask the hitters exactly what they didn't see," Maddon said. "One thing I love about our guys is they don't complain about anything."

Castro's 2-run homer, a towering shot down the left-field line in the sixth, had taken Hammel off the hook. Hammel needed 103 pitches to get through 5 innings, matching his shortest start of the season.

"I was fighting myself with the fastball," Hammel said. "Basically, just out of sync today. I wasn't on top of the baseball like I have been. It cost me a lot of deep counts, and basically I had to battle for five innings."