With Cardinals on deck, Cubs lose 3-2 to Reds in extras
The Chicago Cubs knew full well the situation when they walked into Wrigley Field Wednesday.
The St. Louis Cardinals held serve by beating the Washington Nationals in St. Louis during the afternoon. The Cubs and the Cincinnati Reds went to extra innings tied at 2-2. Willson Contreras had tied the game in the bottom of the seventh inning with his 24th home run of the season to give the Cubs hope and life.
The Reds won it 3-2 on Jose Iglesias' RBI double in the 10th against Cubs reliever James Norwood.
With the loss, the Cubs (82-70) are tied for second place with Milwaukee in the National League Central, 3 games behind the Cardinals.
The Cubs will get their chance to do something about the Central beginning Thursday night when the first-place Cardinals invade Wrigley Field for a four-game series. The two teams will play three more in St. Louis next weekend to close out the regular season.
But Wednesday night's loss was a huge swing for the Cubs and Cardinals.
"No question," said manager Joe Maddon. "But we still got plenty of opportunity. We've got to take care of it ourselves."
Yes, it is definitely on in the Cubs-Cardinals rivalry.
"Obviously, I was indoctrinated in '15," said Maddon, referring to his first year as Cubs manager, when the Cubs won the wild-card game before beating the Cardinals in the division series. "I was so American League. And then you get here and you get a feel or a sense of it. Now it's even exaggerated more based on what's going on, and I think it's great.
"When you look at that schedule at the beginning of the year, you're hoping you have like an 8-game lead by the time this occurs. But then you get into the position that we're in, you're thankful that we have to play them that many times."
Needless to say, the Cubs will have to make some serious hay during both weekends against the Cardinals as well as during next week's three-game stopover at Pittsburgh.
"We all know what's in front of us," said Wednesday's starting pitcher Jon Lester, who worked 5-plus innings. "We all know where we're at. Tonight could have been a big step for us. We came up a little bit short. We obviously know who's coming in this weekend. We've got to play good baseball this weekend."
The Cubs offense had a tough time getting anything going against Reds starting pitcher Tyler Mahle, who gave up only 1 hit and 1 run in 6 innings.
Lester allowed a home run to Eugenio Suarez (his 48th homer of the season) in the fourth before some good hustle by Nicholas Castellanos tied it in the bottom of the inning.
Castellanos led off with a double to center field and went to third on a wild pitch. He scored on Kyle Schwarber's sacrifice fly as he eluded the tag attempt by catcher Curt Casali.
Maddon removed an unhappy-looking Lester in the sixth after a walk to Joey Votto and a single by Suarez. David Phelps shut the threat down before the Reds scored a run charged to Pedro Strop in the seventh.