Schwarber punishes rookie Stephens, Reds
CHICAGO — Middletown’s Kyle Schwarber drove in four runs to lead the Chicago Cubs past the Cincinnati Reds 9-0 on Saturday in the penultimate game of the 2017 season.
The loss dropped the Reds to 67-94, matching their loss total of 2016. This year, though, that won’t give the Reds the second pick in the next season’s draft, a position they’ve held each of the last two seasons. Instead, they will draft anywhere from third to fifth, depending on the outcomes of Saturday’s late games and Sunday’s game.
On another windy day at Wrigley Field, Reds rookie starter Jackson Stephens (2-1) struggled with his control, walking three batters and needing 83 pitches to get through his four innings.
Stephens did strike out five in his four innings of work, including two in the first. He was tagged for four runs on four hits, including Schwarber’s homer.
“I thought he had good stuff. He made some really good pitches,” Reds manager Bryan Price said. “He had the two-run homer to Schwarber. Schwarber has hit 30 in 400 at-bats. He hits homers, he can do that. The two walks and then you give up a bloop hit to center that scores two runs, that’s kind of the back breaker.”
Wilson Contreras led off the second with a single before Schwarber gave the Cubs the lead with a 437-foot home run straight into the wind blowing in from center field.
The next inning, Schwarber came to the plate with the bases loaded following two walks and a misplayed ball between Stephens and first baseman Joey Votto (not to mention a wild pitch). After falling behind 3 and 0, Stephens got a strike and then shattered Schwarber’s bat with a 95-mph fastball, but the ball fell in front of center fielder Billy Hamilton, allowing two more runs to score to make it 4-0.
The Cubs added four runs in the sixth against Asher Wojciechowski and one in the eighth against Keury Mella.
The Reds weren’t able to put much of a scare into Cubs starter Jon Lester (13-8), who struck out seven in five scoreless innings. He allowed just four hits, two to Adam Duvall.