Reds get blown out by Chicago
CHICAGO — The Cincinnati Reds fell 15-5 to the Chicago Cubs on Monday at Wrigley Field.
Asher Wojciechowski’s outing blew up on him. The right-hander was enjoying a pretty solid outing until he got the second out of the fourth inning. To that point, he’d given up just two runs — both in the first inning — and had struck out five.
Wojciechowski had a runner on first and two outs when Cubs leadoff hitter Jon Jay tripled to break a 2-2 tie. Tommy La Stella singled to score another run, and then Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo clubbed back-to-back homers to make it 7-2.
Wojciechowski was replaced by reliever Kevin Shackelford, who walked his first batter but managed to end the inning with a strikeout of Alex Avila.
The seventh inning was brutal for the Reds. Right-hander Drew Storen plunked his first batter, then got a lineout. Then back-to-back infield singles and a double made it 9-2. The Reds then intentionally walked Jay — who needed a homer for the cycle — to load the bases.
Storen seemed poisted to get the second out of the inning when La Stella hit a high fly to deep right, but Patrick Kivlehan leapt for the ball when he didn’t have to and missed for a runscoring error. Storen got a flyout on the next batter, but gave up another two-run single to make it 12-4. He was replaced by Michael Lorenzen, who allowed an infield hit to score another run before getting out of the inning.
Reds second baseman Scooter Gennett pitched the eighth. Making his first-ever pitching appearance, Gennett employed a low-effort, sidearm delivery to pump nothing but 67 mph curveballs.
He walked his first batter on four pitches, then gave up a homer to Javier Baez. He rebounded for a groundout and a flyout before allowing a single and hitting a batter. Joey Votto made a nice diving play for the third out of the inning.