Reds' Bauer blanks Chicago Cubs, ends Darvish streak
When Yu Darvish and Trevor Bauer matched up Aug. 29 in Cincinnati, Bauer was touched for a pair of home runs and didn't make it through the sixth inning.
Bauer was back with a vengeance Wednesday at Wrigley Field. He struck out 10 in a 3-0 Reds victory, handing the Cubs their first shutout of 2020.
Darvish had been on an impressive roll - 7 wins in his last 7 starts, while never allowing more than 1 earned run with a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 58-8.
So it was obvious something was off in the first inning when Darvish walked both Nick Castellanos and Jesse Winker. Mike Moustakas followed with a two-out, 3-run homer and that was the ballgame.
Darvish rolled through the next five innings allowing just one baserunner and finished with 9 strikeouts. But too much damage was done.
The Cubs managed just one hit in the first seven innings, a single by Victor Caratini in the fifth. Bauer left in the eighth after giving up singles to Jason Heyward and newcomer Ildemaro Vargas, but Ian Happ lined out to end the Cubs' only threat of the night.
This was a special occasion for Javy Baez and Caratini, the two Puerto Rico-born players on the Cubs. It was Roberto Clemente Day and those two players wore No. 21 in honor of Clemente, as did Heyward and Darvish.
A Clemente highlight video would have featured more action than Wednesday's game.
"Really excited, man," Baez said before the game. "Once everybody found out that some of the players were wearing No. 21, everyone wants to wear it.
"It's a pretty big number. Roberto Clemente and Jackie Robinson, they've got different stories, but people see it really close. Obviously it will be an honor to wear No. 21 out there tonight."
Baez admitted he didn't know much about Clemente, the longtime Pittsburgh Pirates right fielder who died in a plane crash at 38 in 1972. He was trying to deliver emergency supplies from Puerto Rico to Nicaragua, which had been devastated by an earthquake.
"In Pittsburgh I went to the (Clemente) museum and it's something special," Baez said. "The guy got a lot of gold gloves. It was an amazing experience walking into that museum and the stories that were in there. Obviously, this (No. 21) jersey is going to be in a special place in my house."
Heyward, the Cubs' nominee for MLB's Clemente Award, was asked if Major League Baseball should retire Clemente's No. 21 like it did with Robinson's 42.
"Why not?" Heyward said. "Forty-two is retired, why not retire 21? You can't leave out significance in that many people and that much movement in our game. I know he wasn't the first Latin-Hispanic, he wasn't the only, but he left a mark.
"For me to be a nominee for the award this year, it's all about humility, giving back and putting others before yourself. I feel like how can you not retire a number like that in the game of baseball?"
• Twitter: @McGrawDHBulls