The Cubs ended the first half on a winning note, beating the Reds at Great American Ball Park on Sunday afternoon. The road team got some more production out of their third baseman, who suddenly got right, to take the series.<\/p>\n
Chicago took the lead against starter Andrew Abbott<\/a> in the opening inning on a perfectly placed bloop double from Alex Bregman,<\/a> and he came home on a much harder two-base hit by Michael Busch<\/a> to bring the score to 2-0. Matthew Boyd<\/a> had all of his issues in the bottom of the 3rd when he gave up four runs.<\/p>\n Cincinnati tied the score on a run-scoring groundout by Spencer Steer<\/a> and an RBI single by JJ Bleday<\/a>. To no one\u2019s surprise, they went in front 4-2 on Eugenio Su\u00e1rez<\/a>\u2018s two-run homer, the 38th of his career against the Cubs.<\/p>\n The North Siders answered in the top of the 4th with a game-tying bases-loaded single by birthday boy Kevin Alc\u00e1ntara<\/a> that ricocheted off second base. Boyd pitched well after his one bad inning, making it into the 7th before coming out.<\/p>\n The Cubs had their own four-run outburst to decide the game in the top of the 7th, beginning with an RBI single by Pete Crow-Armstrong<\/a> against lefty Sam Moll<\/a>. Pierce Johnson<\/a> replaced him with two men on, and Bregman welcomed him rudely with a three-run dinger that made it 8-4.<\/p>\n The Reds got a couple of runners on base in the bottom of the 9th, but Jacob Webb<\/a> came on to get the final two outs to save the Chicago victory. (Box score<\/strong><\/a>)<\/p>\n Key Moment<\/strong><\/p>\n Bregman\u2019s homer gave the Cubs\u2019 bullpen much-needed breathing room in the late innings.<\/p>\n Why the Cubs\u00a0<\/strong>Won<\/b><\/p>\n A decent starting pitching performance and coming through several times with runners in scoring position did the trick Sunday.<\/p>\n Stats That Matter<\/strong><\/p>\n Bottom Line<\/strong><\/p>\n The Cubs ended the first half on a good note, with a 4-2 road trip that has them 12 games over .500. Possibly better news is the fact that their big free-agent third baseman is really starting to show significant life at the plate. They get a few days now to recharge and prepare for the final sprint to the finish line.<\/p>\n On Deck<\/strong><\/p>\n Chicago is off for the All-Star break until Friday, when they play a rare night game at Wrigley Field against the Twins starting at 7:05pm CT.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cubs ended the first half on a winning note, beating the Reds at Great American Ball Park…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":932059,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[2730,960,5386,1818,5436,5606],"class_list":["post-932058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-alex-bregman","tag-chicago","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-matthew-boyd","tag-michael-busch"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116912951532559904","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=932058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/932058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/932059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=932058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=932058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=932058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n