Cubs offense breaks out against Reds' depleted pitching staff
The Cubs survived a battle of attrition in Cincinnati.
Their bullpen was gassed and starter Jameson Taillon surrendered 3 home runs in the first two innings, but the Reds ran out of pitching first.
The Cubs scored 7 runs in the eighth inning to break a 5-5 tie, Jeimer Candelario added a home run in the ninth and the Cubs won 15-7 to salvage a four-game split at Great American Ballpark.
Cody Bellinger homered for the third time in four games, Mike Tauchman had the first 4-hit game of his MLB career and Ian Happ contributed 4 RBIs.
"I view my job as someone who needs to get on base so I can score runs," Tauchman told reporters after the game. "Touch home plate for the team, I was able to do that a couple of times today, so it felt great."
So is the Cubs' offensive slump over? Well, not so fast. Cincinnati had to put four pitchers on the COVID list this week, including Sunday's scheduled starter Brandon Williamson. So the Reds brought up right-hander Carson Spiers to make his major-league debut. His uncle, Bill Spiers, struck out as a pinch hitter in the ninth inning of Kerry Wood's 20-strikeout game in 1998.
Anyway, Spiers lasted 4 innings, struck out seven and gave up 3 runs. The Reds ended up using seven pitchers Sunday, and the Cubs finally caught up to Derek Law and Alexis Diaz in the eighth. Neither pitcher recorded an out.
Nick Madrigal broke the tie with a 2-run single up the middle and Tauchman added a 2-run single. At that point, 4 runs were in and there was still nobody out. Bellinger added a sacrifice fly and Dansby Swanson finished the inning with a 2-run double into the right-field corner.
The offensive outburst helped ease the reality of Taillon's rough start. He gave up home runs on a change-up, sweeper and four-seam fastball. The second two, by Spencer Steer and Tyler Stephenson, came on 1-2 pitches.
"There was probably too many strikes being thrown," Taillon said. "I felt like for whatever reason I was having a hard time getting out of the strike zone a little bit today. I was in good counts and stuff, I was just throwing too many strikes there for a bit. So they were aggressive and jumping on it."
In other words, Taillon thinks once he gets ahead of hitters, he needs to offer challenging pitches outside the zone. He's confident he can throw a strike later in the at-bat, if necessary.
"The whole point of getting ahead for me is so I can take more risks and more shots outside of the zone," he said.
But Taillon salvaged the start fairly well, getting through 5⅔ innings with 5 runs allowed, leaving his season ERA at 5.73. Daniel Palencia, Keegan Thompson and Shane Greene finished the game, which means the Cubs will head home with their two best bullpen arms, Adbert Alzolay and Julian Merryweather, getting two days off.
As a team, the Cubs won't get another day off until Sept. 14. Monday's game is an afternoon start at Wrigley Field against San Francisco, which played in San Diego on Sunday. The Giants will be followed into Wrigleyville by another wild-card contender, Arizona, for four games next weekend.
The Cubs are still sitting in the second wild-card slot, ahead of the Giants and Diamondbacks, and are 3 ½ games behind Milwaukee in the NL Central.
"We've got less than a month left in the season and we're in control of our own destiny," Cubs manager David Ross said. "They're all important right now. We try not to emphasize (any one game) too much, but today's win was big."
There was news involving the Cubs' pitching depth. Injured starter Marcus Stroman is planning to throw a bullpen session Monday in Arizona. Ben Brown (oblique), Brandon Hughes (knee) and Nick Burdi (appendicitis) were expected to pitch for the Iowa Cubs on Sunday.
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